But rather than going straight to the Senate floor, SB 1059 will be taking an unexpected detour.

Eric Stachon of 1000 Friends of Oregon says the bill was forwarded to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. Stachon says that’s because the bill requires some federal funds to be moved from one account to another, something that Ways and Means has to approve.

It’s not clear if this helps or hurts the bill’s prospects. But if Ways and Means goes along, the bill can move to the floor of both houses without any more hearings.

Here’s what’s in SB 1059 in its current form.

• Requires ODOT and the Department of Land Conservation to set overall state strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
• Requires emissions targets that the state’s largest metro areas have to reach by 2035. This includes Salem-Keizer, Eugene-Springfield, Bend, Medford and Corvallis. It doesn’t include Portland because that metro area is covered by separate legislation.
• Provides the metro areas with ideas, strategies and plans to help them achieve the new goals.

Supporters hope this will lead to more mass transit in the regions covered by the bill, and help prevent sprawl.

TriMet and Lane County Transit will get some additional money from an increase in payroll taxes in the areas they serve. The tax will increase from .7% to .8%. The Senate has already approved the bill, so it now goes to Governor Kulongoski for his signature.

Raising the tax was one of the priorities for several environmental groups in Oregon, who want to increase spending on mass transit. On the Oregon League of Conservation Voters blog, the group’s Evan Manvel writes, “Oregonians desperately need transportation choices, especially those one million Oregonians who are too young, old, poor or infirm to drive. This bill helps provide those choices.”