Experts on Gov. Tina Kotek’s housing production council have suggested that massive tax increases could be necessary to achieve the governor’s housing production goal of 36,000 new homes a year.

The Housing Production Advisory Council, composed of housing experts from across the state, detailed 59 potential solutions to meet Kotek’s ambitious goal in a draft proposal completed in December. The council will submit its final proposal to Kotek on Wednesday. One council member told The Oregonian he didn’t expect any recommendations in the draft proposal to change.

The suggestions include five recommendations for potential tax increases that the council says would collectively raise more than $3 billion. The draft document characterizes the proposed tax increases as potential solutions to fund local infrastructure and indicates that they would sunset by 2032.

Their recommendations include:

• Increasing all personal income tax brackets by 0.5 percentage points to raise $699 million.

• Establishing a $1 per $1,000 real property tax assessment above Measure 5′s voter-enacted limits to raise $504 million.

• Creating a 0.5% retail sales tax to raise $501 million.

• Establishing a 0.5% payroll tax to raise $620 million.

• Doubling the state’s fuel tax to raise $686 million.

Elisabeth Shepard, a spokesperson for Kotek, said the governor will not propose any tax increases during this year’s legislative session. But she didn’t say whether Kotek, a Democrat, would support new taxes to fund housing production in the future.

“The governor’s housing production proposal for the 2024 session is separate from the Housing Production Advisory Council recommendations,” Shepard said in an email. “She looks forward to hearing the council’s final recommendations on Jan. 17.”

Daniel Bunn, CEO of Rubicon Investments and a council member, said the tax increases are suggestions and are not meant to be implemented immediately or all at once. He also acknowledged that some of the proposals had little chance of being approved, including the request for a retail sales tax.

“No. 1, that’s just not politically feasible,” Bunn said. “No. 2, I don’t think it’d be the right policy, even if it was politically feasible.”

However, Bunn said the proposals are meant to give lawmakers a sense of just how much it will cost to meet the governor’s goal of building 36,000 housing units per year.

“Let’s say one of the recommendations we need is to subsidize system development charges and you need $400 million for that,” Bunn said. “You can look at this list and say well, ‘We have to adopt one of these things.’”

System development charges are fees housing developers must pay to local governments to cover the costs of streets, parks, sewer lines and other infrastructure that jurisdictions must add to support new housing.

State Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, a Republican from Prineville, is a member of the housing advisory council.

“First and foremost, I do not support new taxes and did not vote in favor of them,” Breese-Iverson said in an email. “The majority of (the advisory council’s) recommended suggestions would need to go through the legislative process, which unless already included in language of a 2024 session bill, will be difficult to move forward at this time.”