Governor Kate Brown is touring the state this week to celebrate the passage of Oregon’s new transportation funding package. She visited Alton Baker Park in Eugene this Tuesday morning for a ceremonial signing of House Bill 2017.
The over $5 billion package will improve infrastructure like roads and bridges over ten years. The construction is expected to create about 16,000 family-wage jobs and help brace Oregon for a Cascadia earthquake. Governor Brown says it is Oregon’s first state-wide investment to improve public transportation systems, like those at work in Lane County.
“We see public transit as a way to literally lift families out of poverty and to provide better and more enhanced access to public transit is a really good thing,” says Brown.
Local electric vehicle manufacturers and dealers also came to the signing. House Bill 2017 will create an EV Rebate program to help reduce transportation related greenhouse gasses, which currently make up 40 percent of Oregon’s emissions. It will provide financial assistance to low and middle income Oregonians to replace their older, less efficient vehicles with new or used EVs.