Jefferson is known to be pretty wonky, so the attack "Do your homework!" amused me more than anything. On a serious note, I'd rather associate myself with someone who inadvertently muddles his words than someone who intentionally fudges her facts.

Pretty backhanded ... he said the gas tax revenue was decreasing, and (if you look at from 2008 to now), Jefferson was wrong. If the question(s) had been "what is the long term outlook for how to fund our transportation infrastructure," it would have been a different question. The question was about what these candidates would do to prioritize and/or raise money to budget for transportation policies, presumably during their term.

I don't think it's fair to simply say "Jefferson was wrong." The revenue went up because of a tax increase, but that's not tied to behavior or trends endemic to our use of gasoline. Unless Brady is saying we're going to begin traveling more miles, and more miles per capita--revenue from gas taxes WILL decrease. The question was where will we find the money, and the answer is NOT "from the gas tax rate increase," which is what Brady seemed to suggest. I think Smith's response was more appropriate and showed a broader understanding of the dynamic at hand. It's surely not as if he doesn't recall raising the gas tax!

Just as a bit of context, the BikePortland.org interview with Smith also says that he voted against the gas tax increase. I would posit that this conversation over up-or-down numbers is missing the point.

Didn't mean to imply Smith voted FOR it, only that it happened while he was a voting member.

And upon further reflection of jradmacher's conception of what the question was, is Mirk right that "let PBOT swing" was the essence of Brady's answer? That's how we'll solve the PBOT budget issue: cut 20% or whatever from PBOT? That would be an answer that would have long term ramifications even beyond the time it will take for gas revenues to actually start decreasing again...!