2026 Oregon Legislative Session Preview: Transportation revenue, permitting, and more

On Feb. 2, the Oregon legislature will begin its 2026 short session. Lasting only five weeks, legislators will have limited time to conduct business, though several major issues have emerged that will require considerable attention.

Following an extremely fractious process in the spring and summer to pass a funding package for transportation, anti-tax groups successfully gathered enough signatures to refer some provisions of the 2025 revenue bill to the voters. This had the impact of delaying implementation of these taxes for at least a year, which puts state transportation funding back in much the same place as it was in when this discussion began in the winter of 2025. 

Governor Kotek is now advocating for the legislature to repeal its own bill and to make a second attempt to shore up transportation revenues. PROTEC17 will be tracking progress on this effort and what it will mean for local jurisdictions, as much of the attention in recent weeks has been around the Oregon Department of Transportation, ignoring the impacts to cities and counties.

Additionally, the legislature is planning to consider bills related to addressing Federal tax cuts and changes and how these impact Oregon revenue. The Labor and Workforce committee will be discussing several subjects including child labor protections, construction labor contractors, and educator collective bargaining rights around class size and safety protocols. 

Finally, there is continued interest in the legislature for addressing construction permitting times – this is an issue that we are concerned may have inadvertent negative impacts on PROTEC17 members involved with permitting, and we will closely follow these conversations.

We will continue tracking developments in the Oregon legislature throughout session and will send relevant information and opportunities to engage to our membership as the year unfolds. 

If you have any questions or comments, or to find out about such opportunities, please contact PROTEC17’s Research Director and Oregon Legislative Advocate Elliot Levin at .