Ore. Gas Tax Opponents Take Aim

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Unlikely allies are joining forces to overturn the state's new gasoline and diesel taxes - just days after legislators approved the tax in the final hours of the 1999 session.

Their plan: Put the tax to the voters as a referendum in the November 2000 election.

The Oregon/Idaho American Automobile Association said it will start collecting the 44,524 signatures needed to ask voters whether they want to dismantle the tax increase. But also pitching in could be Oregon Taxpayers United, an anti-tax organization, and 1000 Friends of Oregon, an environmental advocacy group opposed to road construction.

Lobbyists for AAA spent much of the past couple of months imploring legislators to vote against the 5-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase, but it squeaked through the House on Friday anyway.

The bill, expected to be signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber, would phase in the increase starting in November, boost vehicle-registration fees and end Oregon's weight-mile truck tax in favor of a diesel tax.

If the ballot referral succeeds, supporters of the gas-tax bill - including truckers and legislators, as well as cities and counties benefiting from the road construction - would be thrust into a campaign to win over voters.

"We definitely need investment in roads, and it would be a shame for AAA to block that," said Robert Russell, lobbyist for the Oregon Trucking Association. "We will be on it with both feet."

Truckers say they're frustrated by the logistical nightmare of the weight-mile system, which taxes drivers based on their load and the distance they're traveling.

But AAA leaders say the new 29-cents-a-gallon diesel tax and elevenfold increase in truck registration fees would make it easy on truckers with the biggest loads, while penalizing regular drivers.

"The interstate's heavy haulers will not be paying their fair share," AAA spokeswoman Anne O'Ryan said. "It throws cost responsibility out the window, and somebody will have to pick up the tab for that."

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