If you crossed the Abernethy Bridge this month and didn't pay anything for it, did West Linn win its decade-long fight against tolling, or did the fight just change shape?
That's the question buyers comparing West Linn to Lake Oswego, Oregon City, or Wilsonville right now should be asking, because the honest answer is neither. The toll plan for that bridge was shelved. The bill that would have paid for the bridge instead is sitting on a ballot that hasn't been counted yet. Anyone pricing West Linn's commute costs into a home purchase decision this fall is making that calculation with one variable still unresolved.
What the State Actually Changed
For years, the plan for I-205 included a toll at the Abernethy Bridge, the span connecting West Linn and Oregon City that carries the bridge's earthquake-readiness upgrades and, before this year, was expected to generate revenue through variable-rate pricing during commute hours. Governor Tina Kotek paused that plan repeatedly starting in 2023 while a legislative subcommittee sorted out how the toll would work and who it would hit hardest.
In September 2025, the legislature passed House Bill 3991 in a special session, and Kotek signed it into law that November. Buried in the bill was a provision that eliminated the statutory language requiring tolling on certain highway projects, the exact language that had obligated ODOT to toll the Abernethy Bridge in the first place. West Linn's city government describes the practical effect plainly on its own website, noting there are "no immediate tolls planned for the I-205 corridor" even as bridge construction continues.
That's a real policy shift, not a rumor. It also means something concrete for daily life in the Willamette, Bolton, and Robinwood business districts, which depend on predictable traffic for customers and deliveries. Without a toll on the horizon, there's less incentive for drivers to cut through residential streets to dodge a charge, which keeps traffic patterns steadier for the storefronts along those corridors. That's a genuine, lived benefit of the pause, and it's already showing up in daily commute patterns rather than waiting on a future vote.
Where the Money Was Supposed to Come From
Eliminating the toll requirement didn't eliminate the bridge's price tag. The Abernethy Bridge project was originally budgeted around $250 million and has since grown to roughly $815 million, according to reporting on the transportation package's local impacts. Tolling was one of the tools meant to close that gap. Once the legislature took tolling off the table for this project, it had to find the difference somewhere else, and HB 3991 answered that with a statewide package of tax and fee increases rather than a bridge-specific toll:
| Revenue source | Prior rate | Rate under HB 3991 |
|---|---|---|
| State gas tax | 40 cents/gallon | 46 cents/gallon |
| Passenger vehicle registration fee | $43/year | $85/year |
| Statewide transit payroll tax | 0.1% | 0.2% through 2028 |
Here's the part that changes the story for a West Linn buyer weighing commute costs: none of these increases have actually taken effect. A referendum petition against them gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November 3, 2026 ballot, and under Oregon's referendum process that automatically suspends the challenged provisions until voters decide. As of today, drivers are still paying the old gas tax rate and the old registration fee. The increases exist in law, but not yet in your wallet, and won't unless voters approve them in about ten weeks.
Not everything in the bill is on hold. A handful of accountability measures and a smaller $30 supplemental fee on high-mileage vehicles took effect immediately because they weren't part of the referendum challenge. But the broad-based revenue that was supposed to replace the toll money is genuinely undecided.
The Vote Nobody Budgets For
This isn't an abstract policy footnote. The funding gap created by the pause already has a visible price. During the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers had to pass two additional bills just to keep ODOT from laying off staff and cutting maintenance services, addressing a $297 million shortfall that opened up because the revenue envisioned in HB 3991 hasn't materialized on schedule. The agency has left more than 130 positions unfilled as a result. That's the practical cost of an unresolved funding mechanism, and it's happening in the same budget cycle a West Linn buyer is shopping in.
The city of West Linn itself is on the other side of this ledger. As part of HB 3991's local street funding provisions, the city projected receiving roughly $350,000 in fiscal year 2026, growing to more than $800,000 annually by 2034, money earmarked for local road maintenance rather than the bridge itself. Because that funding rides on the same revenue provisions currently suspended pending the referendum, whether West Linn actually sees that money on the timeline it projected depends on how voters decide in about ten weeks.
So the honest framing isn't "West Linn beat the toll." It's that the state removed one funding mechanism and replaced it with a different one that voters haven't approved yet. If the referendum fails in November, the state either has to find another few hundred million dollars for the bridge or the tolling conversation comes back around, something West Linn's own city page acknowledges when it notes the door remains open for future funding discussions under different models.
What This Means Next to Lake Oswego and Oregon City
West Linn's median sale price sat at $800,000 over the three months ending in May 2026, making it one of the pricier close-in suburbs south of Portland, generally positioned above Oregon City and below Lake Oswego. Recent third-party comparisons of Portland-metro suburbs put Oregon City's median roughly $240,000 lower, with a shorter commute distance across the same bridge and a different neighborhood character.
Part of what buyers are paying for in that gap is proximity and setting. But part of it has always included an assumption about commute cost and predictability, and that assumption is more fluid right now than it's been in years. A buyer choosing West Linn over Oregon City because "at least there's no toll" is making a bet on the outcome of an election, not a locked-in fact. A buyer choosing Oregon City because it's cheaper and closer to the bridge should know the same funding uncertainty applies to them too, since Abernethy serves both sides of the river equally.
Three Things Worth Doing Before You Write an Offer
- Ask what "commute time" actually means for a specific address right now, not what it meant during the years of active toll planning, since traffic patterns on local streets have already shifted with the pause.
- If your purchase or move timeline stretches past November 2026, build in a scenario where the ballot referendum fails and the tolling conversation reopens, rather than assuming the current no-toll status is permanent.
- When comparing West Linn's premium to Oregon City's lower median or Wilsonville's newer construction, separate what you're paying for setting and character from what you're paying for an assumption about future commute costs that isn't settled yet.
Common Questions
Is the Abernethy Bridge toll completely canceled? The specific statutory requirement to toll it was eliminated by the legislature, and the city of West Linn says no tolls are currently planned. But the underlying funding gap the toll was meant to cover hasn't gone away, and city officials have said future funding discussions remain possible.
Does the November ballot measure bring the toll back? No. The referendum on the ballot targets the gas tax, registration fee, and payroll tax increases from HB 3991, not the toll elimination itself. Those are two separate questions moving on two separate tracks, and voters aren't being asked to reinstate tolling.
Should this change how I think about home values in West Linn right now? It's too early to say values have moved because of it, but it's a real variable in the commute-cost math that hasn't existed in this form before, and it's worth factoring in alongside the more familiar comparisons between West Linn, Lake Oswego, and Oregon City.
If you're weighing West Linn against its neighbors and want a read on how this kind of local detail plays into pricing and timing for a specific property, At Home With Kayla can walk through it with you directly. Request a home valuation to start the conversation with real numbers for your address, not just the metro averages.
