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THERE'S SO MUCH ANGER and mistrust around transportation cash in this city, but the fact is, nothing substantial has been done to help fix Portland's deteriorating roads in decades. The mercurial street fee Mayor Hales and Commissioner Novick tabled in early 2015 got a lot of people upset, but the needs it sought to address are real.

You can grouse all you want about misplaced priorities during prior administrations—you're right to do so, in fact. But those needs will still exist.

That's why we support the gas tax that Novick and a coalition of active transportation activists, business types, and developers are now pushing.

Ballot Measure 26-173 would institute a 10-cent-per-gallon tax on gas bought in Portland. It would last four years and it's expected to bring in about $16 million annually. Of that yearly money, 56 percent—or $9 million—would go toward repairing Portland streets. The remaining chunk would go to safety projects like creating sidewalks in East Portland, crosswalk improvements, bike lanes, and so on.

There's a catch, to some: Portland's road repair backlog requires somewhere between $100 million and $200 million a year for a decade to fix. Given that, you'll hear criticisms that the gas tax doesn't devote enough—or all—of its potential revenue to roads. It's an easy argument, but it's also flawed: Portland lacks adequate money to complete safety projects, too, and the never-ending string of road injuries and deaths in East Portland speaks more to outstanding needs than the deepest pothole.

Another argument, from Paul Romain, the head lobbyist for the state's fuel industry (and a professional foe of local gas taxes), is that the tax would put Portland gas stations out of business—specifically, those on the outskirts of the city. We asked how many stations he thought would close. He couldn't say. Could he offer data from other cities where a local gas tax has had that effect? Romain could not.

Romain's other big argument—that the city needs to look at all of its finances, and make absolutely sure there's not a dime out of place before enacting new revenue measures—comes off as something of a ruse. The City Club of Portland recently took that look, and found any meaningful reshuffling of funds toward roads would cause drastic cuts elsewhere.

Romain says he doesn't trust that, and he wants to see a lengthy audit done in public. It'd be an easier argument to listen to if it weren't coming from an industry that has opposed—and had a hand in killing—every effort to find road funding locally over the last decade.

No, this gas tax is not a magic bullet for perfect Portland roads, and it will take more revenue sources to completely fix everything. But overall, it's worth it. We can't afford to remain stagnant on this issue and let our streets continue to crumble.

The longer we wait to act, the costlier it'll be to fix. Do the right thing and vote yes on Measure 26-173.

READ THE REST OF OUR ENDORSEMENTS HERE!