Annessa Hartman receives a token of appreciation for her service as a Gladstone city councilor. She was elected to city council in November 2020 and resigned to become a state representative in January 2023.
Annessa Hartman receives a token of appreciation for her service as a Gladstone city councilor. She was elected to city council in November 2020 and resigned to become a state representative in January 2023.
Newly elected state representative Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, received a round of applause from city officials after she pledged that stopping highway tolls will be her No. 1 priority in the upcoming legislative session.
Hartman returned to city hall on Jan. 24 to give her first presentation since her Jan. 10 resignation as a city councilor, and her homecoming found a warm welcome even among elected officials with whom she had previously clashed politically.
Hartman said that her bill would force ODOT to stop tolling in its tracks because the legislation would “hold them accountable for their equity assessment.” Under her proposal, “ODOT will need to get consent from each of the counties where they want tolling,” Hartman said.
If it came to the Clackamas County commissioners, tolling would likely be quashed by a unanimous vote. County commissioners have individually already signaled their opposition to tolling based on the unfairness of taxing Clackamas first, although the official county statements on tolling have thus far pledged to work with ODOT through concerns about Interstate 205 construction.
“As ODOT plans to toll drivers to fund this project, the Board is imploring that the state implement tolling in a transparent manner that mitigates diversion onto local roads, ensures equity for the most burdened users and is turned on at the same time as the regional toll program,” the county commissioners wrote on Jan. 12.
Hartman was elected in November to take over the seat previously held by Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, whom voters promoted to the Oregon Senate during the past election. Meek told Pamplin Media Group that the moment has come for leveraging the unfairness of targeting Clackamas County against ODOT’s tolling plans. Meek said he will support various potential bills related to tolling, including Hartman’s, and use his new position as chair of the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee in an effort to prevent ODOT’s financial plans from proceeding as proposed.
Hartman as a state representative found common ground for the previously divided city council in taking on ODOT’s plan to impose Oregon’s first freeway tolls in Clackamas County.
“I’m happy to pay my share, but I’m not happy to be paying everyone’s share,” City Councilor Mindy Garlington said.
Gladstone Mayor Michael Milch called Hartman the city’s “guest of honor” who clearly understood how small cities can bear the brunt of new legislation out of Salem. Milch told Hartman that he appreciated her sensitivity to the state’s “unfunded mandates” as well, and said her speech validated why “we elected you.”
Hartman acknowledged that her bill might face opposition from the full legislature that has authorized tolling twice since 2017. But new legislators now make up about half of the Oregon Legislature’s membership, and Hartman promised to “whip the votes” against tolling. For the older legislators, she said the unintended consequences of previous tolling votes are only now becoming clear.
Hartman will be able to use her positions on the human services committee and as vice-chair of the Oregon House’s BIPOC Caucus to amplify concerns about how proposed freeway tolls would cause the greatest harm to low-income and historically marginalized populations. She assured Gladstone councilors that she would get the support to have an anti-tolling bill come to a vote.
“The discussion has not come to the floor yet, but it is coming,” Hartman said.
Hartman said that her legislative priorities centered around infrastructure and working families were informed by what she heard on the campaign trail and her own experience as a single mom in a low-income household. Another priority bill for Hartman involves what she calls a “creative solution to the housing supply shortage” by allowing up to $12,000 in annual tax breaks for homeowners who agree to charge a renter less than $1,000 a month for a bedroom in their house.
