Portland Street Tax Amendments: “Sunset” Clause After 2020, Promise to Maintain Current Spending

• ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCOIS VIGNEAULT

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has confirmed news first reported by the Oregonian on Monday that a vote on the “Portland Street Fund” pitched by Commissioner Steve Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales will wait until December 10.

That vote had been tentatively set for December 3. That hearing, instead, will serve as a discussion for two amendments pitched by Hales and Novick, also announced by PBOT this afternoon:

• The street fund would add a “sunset” clause and stop after the 2020 tax year, absent “action by the city council or a vote of the public to extend it.” (I’ve asked a PBOT spokesman whether that means an extension won’t actually need public approval if the council in 2020 doesn’t feel like it.)

• And the city’s spending on paving from non-street-fund sources would be locked in at no less than what Portland spent in 2014-2015.

UPDATE 2:20 PM: Dylan Rivera, PBOT’s communications boss, says my reading of the first amendment is correct. After six tax years, starting with 2015 and finishing with 2020, the council can extend the street fund without a public vote. The language about referral is just a nod to the unknown mindset of a future council and the current clamor for a direct vote.

In six years, the council could vote to extend the Street Fund, as with many ordinances that have sunset clauses.

Second, referring it to the voters in six years is an option, as with many council actions. The mayor and Commissioner Novick have stated they feel referring it to voters is not necessary, but many people have asked about that possibility so we thought it was worth mentioning.

Both are attempts to soothe critics’ concerns—and also, with regards to the sunset provision, help win support from potential third-vote Commissioner Amanda Fritz. But as the Mercury, the Oregonian and the Willamette Week have all reported in recent days, the Portland Business Alliance and oil lobbyist Paul Romain remain opposed to the package at hand. Even with the concession of a sunset.

The $46 million proposal, revived November 10 after an earlier plan was dashed in May, combines a residential income tax (to the consternation of business groups) with a sliding fee for businesses (not to the consternation of business groups). The council will take up each mechanism separately.

At a nearly five-hour hearing last week, a lot of people begged and pleaded for a public vote. So far, Hales and Novick aren’t budging. But that may not matter. Because Romain is still pledging to plunge ahead with plans to put it up at the polls.

Delaying the vote until December 10 gives opponents until January 9 to collect nearly 21,000 signatures for each of the funding mechanisms—maybe making their lift easier with more time after the holidays to do the work.