SALEM (AP) - The Oregon House on Wednesday endorsed a 6-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase to help pay for a transportation package that's expected to create thousands of jobs in the midst of Oregon's deep recession.

The $300 million-a-year package, which cleared the House on a 38-22 vote, also contains increases in registration, title and license plate fees to pay for new road and road-widening projects around Oregon. Backers said the package will sustain 4,600 jobs each year, or about 40,000 total over the next decade.

Under the House plan, registration fees will increase $16 per year while title fees will increase $22 and drivers will pay a $10 surcharge for each license plate they buy.

Those increases will bring in $300 million worth of new revenue each year, which will be split among the state, counties and cities.

Counties will get just under $82 million and cities about $55 million. The state will get the remaining money, which will go for road maintenance and preservation, and bonding to help pay for 37 large, longer-term projects.

Although Democrats hold 36 seats in the 60-member House - the "supermajority" needed to pass tax hikes in the chamber - the bill drew support from seven Republican members while five Democrats voted against it.

One of the Democratic 'no' votes came from House Majority Leader Mary Nolan of Portland.

Her spokesman, Michael Cox, said Nolan knew the package had enough support to pass and cast a symbolic Ôno' vote to show her concerns that the package is heavily weighted toward big highway projects and could been tilted a little more toward "green" transportation programs.