Question: What happens when your $192 million highway project gets a green light from lawmakers and heads for a floor vote in the Oregon Legislature?

Answer: It becomes a target.

That's what happened Tuesday on the steps of the state Capitol, when 1000 Friends of Oregon's Bob Stacey was joined by Oregon Democratic activist Steve Novick at a press conference to denounce HB 2001, which was approved 39-21 in a floor vote this morning.

Stacey, the group's executive director, was among more than half a dozen who testified against the transportation package last week. On Tuesday, he singled out the bypass project as a particular symbol of excess.

HB 2001 authorizes nearly $1 billion in taxes, fees and bonding authority for dozens of road projects around the state. It earmarks $192 million for completion of the first phase of the bypass, up at the northern end.

Novick, who lost a Democratic primary race in 2008 that would have enabled him to challenge former Sen. Gordon Smith, questioned why Portland's Sunrise Corridor - a project transportation officials have also identified as one of statewide significance - got only 10 percent of the money it needs, while the bypass got roughly a third.

Noting that Yamhill County Commissioner Leslie Lewis had praised the package as going "beyond our wildest dreams," Novick deadpanned, "There aren't too many people in this Legislature who are getting more than their wildest dreams." He said it appeared conservative Republicans were being dealt in to mute their opposition to the tax component.

Meanwhile, environmental groups are upset about the supposedly Godzilla-sized carbon footprint the projects, taken together, would stamp across Oregon.

Testifying last week, Lisa Adatto of the environmental group Climate Solutions said lawmakers need to align transportation policy with the "new reality" of a post-carbon, post-peak oil world.

"Transportation lasts forever, so once you've laid those roads, you are creating a lifestyle and consumer choice that's going to be there for the next 50 or 60 years, or hundreds of years," she said. "These are very significant decisions."

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon also weighed in, with the retired Rev. Vernon Groves charging that HB 2001 would put Oregon "in the back seat" in terms of advancing livable communities. He said it would undermine the state's goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Oregon needs a transportation package that benefits all of its citizens by investing in public transportation, pedestrian and bike friendly projects, planning and road maintenance rather than just building new roads," Groves said.

Stacey argued along similar lines at Friday's hearing, after which the Joint Transportation Committee unanimously forwarded the package to the House for a floor vote.

"Providing transportation choices for the residents of our communities gives them the opportunity to be a little more resilient, to have more choices in how to get around at a time when automobile based transportation costs are going to increase, especially if we adopt a significant increase in road user fees as proposed in this package," he said. He suggested this one was tilted too far toward automobile travel.

Stacey also questioned the process that led to the bypass and other projects being included on a list that normally would get more vetting from the Oregon Transportation Commission. The commission reviewed the list last week, and then signed off on it far too hastily in Stacey's view.

"The OTC was given an opportunity of about 24 hours to look at the list, and spent 45 minutes receiving testimony about it," Stacey said. He said the commissioners hadn't "conducted the kind of analysis that would indicate or support a conclusion that this is the best that Oregon can do for the next 20 years."

Novick took special aim at the bypass, saying its inclusion smacked of insider politics. If Oregon lawmakers are going to single it out for the largest single earmark in a $960 million transportation package, they've got some explaining to do, he said.

"My point is, the Legislature is in effect saying that this is the most important project in the state," he said. "But they're not saying why they think this is the most important project in the state."

Novick suggested that might be a sop to Yamhill County's all-Republican delegation, aimed at heading off a campaign by conservative Republican Russ Walker to refer the gas tax hike to voters.

Walker, contacted for a response, termed that ridiculous.

"Look, I'm not happy with that package at all, I want to be clear," he said. "I have not said that I'm not referring this. We'll just have to wait until after the session is over and see.

"I just think there are going to be bigger fish to fry. I mean, I can't refer everything."