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15-34 Showdown: HB2025 Special Session, ODOT Tax Increase

15-34 Showdown: HB2025 Special Session, ODOT Tax Increase

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Show 15-34 Summary: Oregon Democrats are at it again. This week, it’s about prepping for the big special session coming up Friday, August 29th, to stop the Democrats from trying to ram through a massive tax increase disguised as ODOT funding in HB 2025. But is the ODOT tax increase really necessary? We talk with representative Alek Skarlatos about what’s happening and things he has seen as a freshman representative. Including some mismanagement at ODOT he personally knows about.

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Air Dates: August 23 & 24, 2025 | Guest: Alek Skarlatos

This Week – ODOT Tax Increase Special Session

Okay. Let’s start off with the most important thing about this week’s show: take action. Don’t be silent.

Submit your testimony to the legislative committing hearing HB 2025. And don’t forget to contact your legislators personally. Contact info for representatives is here and for senators is here.
Not sure who your legislators are? We’ve got you covered: use this map (search by address is in the top left).
And it wouldn’t hurt to let squishy Republican representatives Cyrus Javadi and Kevin Mannix know you want them to vote no.

Massive Oregon Tax Increase: ODOT Will Penalize Everyone

Some taxes you can avoid. Like sales taxes (and, yes, Oregon has sales taxes, just not on everything). But the ODOT tax increase will impact everyone. If you buy anything, it arrives on a truck. And often, it involves multiple trucks. At each stage, each of those trucks will be paying more. So you will be paying more. If you go to the store in a car, you get personally hit.

And it’s unnecessary. Oregon Republicans came up with a plan to make sure ODOT was fully funded — without raising taxes. Just force ODOT to prioritize its current spending. And stop ODOT”s wasteful spending.

Shouldn’t all wasteful spending in government come to a screeching halt?

ODOT Mismanagement

We welcome back Alek Skarlatos, a freshman representative from Oregon’s HD-4 in Oregon’s southwest. Alek is seeing the session through fresh eyes and it’s not always pretty. We talk about the upcoming special session. And we talk about reforming ODOT. There’s no question it wastes money. And there is even evidence of fraud. (See “fraud” in the show notes below.)

But perhaps the answer to Oregon’s Department of Transportation isn’t in Oregon. It’s across the ocean.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

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Show Notes: Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Don’t be silent. And don’t wait! Get your comments in before Friday’s special session!
  • As of our interview with Alek Thursday afternoon, the latest version of HB 2025 hadn’t even been released yet. But it is now. Read the latest draft of HB2025 (PDF).
  • Looks like fraud: ODOT retroactively changes bids to hide its overspending. “Unaccountable: ODOT covers up cost overruns” (City Observatory, May 22, 2025)
    • “ODOT also has a practice of “re-baselining” a project—retroactively altering the initial cost estimate to conceal cost increases. …ODOT permits itself to change the baseline construction budget—”re-baselining”— after a project has started construction. This practice allows ODOT staff to retroactively change the base budget for the project, allowing it to claim that the cost of the project hasn’t increased, and hiding cost overruns.”
    • How is that even legal? If a private business cooked their books like that, it’s hard to imagine how everyone involved not ending up in jail. Pretty sure an accountant would lose their license if they changed budgets after the fact to hide overruns.

More Reasons ODOT Needs a Full Audit

 

 
Oregon Democrats’ Path to Destruction

Oregon Democrats’ Path to Destruction

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Show Summary: Oregon Democrats aren’t exactly shy about overspending taxpayer dollars. Indeed, they seem quite proud of the devastating 29% tax increase they are in the middle of passing in 2019. So why do they want to take away voters’ ability to fight back?

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I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of Nov 2018. Click for full-size map.

Five Different Times, on Seven Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) | Direct Link to KLBM Live Stream
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) | Direct Link to SuperTalk Live Stream
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
7p – 8p: KAJO 1270AM or 99.7FM (Grants Pass/Medford) | Direct Link: KAJO Live Stream

Air Dates: May 25 & 26, 2019 | Jeff Kropf

This Week:  There are taxes and then there are extinction-level taxes. Because Oregon Democrats seems to be lurching down the path of destruction — unless they can be pulled back from the brink.

Oregon Democrats: You have too much of your money

The Far-Left Oregon Democrats seems to revel in their super-majority ability to create taxes on a whim. With no chance from the Republicans to be able to stop them. Worse, they seem to take great joy in thumbing their noses at the everyday Oregonians by mislabeling taxes and working hard to take away Oregonians’ ability to stand up in protest.

There is a lot under discussion this week on I Spy Radio. While we know it’s Memorial Day, this is exactly why all those sacrifices were made. So we can fight the battle on the Home Front.

Oregon Democrats: New and Artful Taxes

Democrats are finding new and creative ways to layer taxes on top of other taxes—all while saying but this is just a little percentage and won’t add up to much. Except, when you add all the layers together they add up to a lot.

For example, take the “tiny” .57% tax the Democrat supermajority just passed—the Corporate Activities Tax (more accurately, the Gross Sales Tax). However, this tiny unnoticeable tax (HB3427) will raise $2 billion in new taxes. Most importantly, this bill taxes the gross sales, not net profits. (Yes, this is a sales tax.) In other words, if your low-margin business spends $95 to make a product and you sell it for $100, you will be taxed on the full $100, not your $5 in profit.

Most importantly, that “tiny tax” is on top of any other taxes you’re already paying?

Remember: this gross receipts tax / shadow sales tax is a repeat of a ballot initiative Oregon voters rejected just two years ago. Pesky voters! You don’t get to decide. Oregon Democrats know better.

A Whopping 29% Increase in Taxes

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But that’s just the beginning. In addition to the Gross Receipts Tax, here are a few of the tax hikes the Far-Left are supporting and are likely to pass:

  • Family Leave $1.5 billion
  • Carbon Tax $1.1 billion (at a minimum!)
  • Employee Assessment Tax $500 million
  • Medicaid Tax $335 million
  • Small Business Tax $130 million
  • Kicker Cut $108 million

All told, that is $5.673 billion in new taxes. Counted against the General Fund, that is a tax increase of almost 29%. Twenty-nine percent.

What’s even a more difficult to stomach is not a moment’s pause to even consider cutting spending. When is enough, enough?

Oregon Democrats Want to Silence Ballot Initiatives

And while the Far Left wants to cut the Kicker Tax and keep $108 million of it for government, here’s another kicker: they want make it harder for Oregonians to bring ballot initiatives to the voters. Enough is enough.

It’s time for action. We talk with Jeff Kropf, former Oregon legislator and current head of Oregon Capital Watch Foundation (OCWF.org.) about these staggering new taxes and a potential challenge to the Gross Receipts Tax.

Again. Because Oregon voters defeated this same tax just two years ago. But we can’t stop fighting. If we do, and if the Democrats in Salem get their way, this may truly be the last chance we have.

Tune in this week to hear what’s coming and what to do about it.

Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—the podcast version will be right here after the show airs.

Links Mentioned

  • Jeff’s group is Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation, which can be found at ocwf.org.
  • No word as of our show airing on the ballot initiative. If you want to be involved or to get updates, you can email Jeff at jkropf@wvi.com
  • While you’re at it, join our email list to be alerted to upcoming shows and more. Never miss an I Spy Radio Show!
  • As Critics of the New Corporate Tax Increase Ponder Referring It to Voters, Democrats Seek to Hinder Signature Gathering (Willamette Week, May 20, 2019)

Additional Links & Info