Senate panel reviews 2025–27 Highway Cost Allocation Study; finds light vehicles underpay, heavy vehicles overpay

Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue Chair Meek on Monday convened an informational hearing on the 2025–27 Highway Cost Allocation Study, a constitutionally required biennial analysis of how motor‑vehicle user fees and taxes match the cost of building and maintaining Oregon’s roads.

The study, presented Feb. 17, found that for the 2025–27 biennium light passenger vehicles are estimated to underpay roughly 14% of their proportional share of highway costs while heavy commercial vehicles are estimated to overpay by about 36–37%, according to the study report and testimony from the study team and their consultants.

The HCaS is performed under Oregon’s constitutional cost‑responsibility requirement and related state law. It uses forecasts of revenues, vehicle use and planned expenditures to calculate “equity ratios” — the share of user fees paid by a vehicle class divided by the share of costs allocated to that class. A ratio of 1.0 indicates parity; greater than 1.0 means a class pays more than its share.

Kevin Campbell, representing AAA Oregon Idaho, summarized the study’s purpose: “The highway cost allocation study is designed to assess whether the various classes of road users … are paying their fair share for the construction, maintenance, and preservation of the state's highway system.” Campbell and other payer representatives urged continued refinement of the model and the new “look‑back” analyses that compare past projections to…