Oregon Public Broadcasting

Business groups aren't the only ones trying to quash recently passed tax hikes in Oregon. Opponents of a gas tax increase are pressing ahead with their own signature-collecting for a possible referendum vote.

But with just one month left until the deadline, they admit the odds are against their actually making it to the ballot. Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

The gas tax will go up by six cents a gallon in 2011, or sooner if the state experiences six months of economic growth.

The money is targeted at more than three-dozen road projects around the state. Former GOP lawmaker Marylin Shannon doesn't buy that.

Marylin Shannon: “They already have the billions they have and if they would spend it right, most projects would be finished.”

Shannon and another former Republican lawmaker have joined forces with an anti-tax group to try to overturn the gas tax.

That's separate from a business-funded effort to overturn increases in taxes on corporations and upper income earners.

With just a handful of donations, Shannon admits her group has a challenge ahead to gather the required 55,000 signatures.

History is on Shannon's side, though. Voters rejected the last gas tax hike that made it to the Oregon ballot by a nearly 9-to-1 margin.