City Hall spent so much time last year trying to find away to pay for Portland’s long overdue road repairs without the formal say so of city residents. It went poorly, so get ready for a vote.
Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick announced this morning he’ll try to put a four year, 10-cent local gas tax on the May ballot, a move Novick says would pay for $58 million in paving projects, new sidewalks, bike and pedestrian friendly residential streets, and protected bike lanes.
“We need to act as soon as possible,” Novick said in a statement, “and that means we should send a four-year 10 cent gas tax for street repair and traffic safety to the ballot in May 2016.”
The announcement’s not a big surprise—Novick’s telegraphed his interest in a gas tax option ever since a statewide transportation package went down in flames in this year’s legislative session. He’s been reaching out to groups all over the city, and pushed for unscientific polling of neighborhood groups.
Novick’s also quietly paid for his own polling—reportedly from campaign funds (he’ll also be running for re-election on the May ballot). He released results this morning of a survey conducted by Lake Research Partners in late September. The poll suggests 55 percent of Portlanders likely Portland voters would support a gas tax, 37 percent oppose it, and 8 percent are undecided.
The wording of the poll wasn’t available, but Novick’s office did share this: “There were no significant differences between voters who heard a version including the words ‘traffic safety investments including safer pedestrian crosswalks and sidewalks,’ and those who only heard ‘traffic safety investments.'”
The numbers, in one way, are heartening. Though support might not be as strong as an earlier poll suggested, it still appears voters are more enthused about paying at the pump than they were for the majority of proposals tossed out last year. That said, 55 percent support is relatively tepid for a measure that’s likely to face opposition from the petroleum lobby.
“I usually look for 60 percent support or higher,” local pollster John Horvick, told the Mercury in September.
Even with that caveat, a gas tax vote has attracted a level of support that might be unprecedented in this conversation (which is just the latest iteration of a conversation that’s been going on for decades). The Portland Business Alliance helped stymie last year’s street fee proposals, but appears to be on board this time around. The City Club of Portland recently voted to support a gas tax, after releasing a lengthy report on the matter. Mayor Charlie Hales, after weeks of conspicuous silence, announced he’s in support late last month. That was weeks after his challenger in next year’s election, State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, voiced tentative support.
Commissioners Nick Fish and Dan Saltzman, who protested last year’s street fee proposals because they wanted a public vote, may well support this latest proposal. That would pave the way for city council to refer the matter to the may ballot.
Even if a gas tax passes, though, Portland will have an enormous shortfall in the money officials estimate the city needs to bring roads up to snuff—more than $1 billion over a decade, and growing worse every day. Here’s an abbreviated sales pitch Novick’s saying the $58 million could pay for (better version here).
This is another idea that doesn’t properly hit people who drive into portland daily from outside portland. I’d like to see a push for market rate parking prices especially downtown to put a bit more of the hit on suburban commuters.
I imagine most suburban commuters park in a lot or garage. Most of those are operated privately and the public lots / street spaces seem to be priced just about the same rate, so wouldn’t the market rate for parking already exists?
The street fee proposal was a cluster and only connected to “roads” tangentially. If there is going to be a dedicated funding source for transportation for the city, this proposal seems targeted and the most “fair” even if it won’t directly hit everyone who benefits from road and safety projects.
Of course, some cost savings in connection with this proposal would be great. Any word on the Hales campaign promise to revise management ratios in the city bureaus / agencies?
I.wish this proposal hit both Hummer and SUV drivers harder, as well as autos such as the Prius , eh Pious.
And took less from your average driver.
I often have a hard time finding a place to park downtown, that tells me that we are underpricing parking. Another thing that would help would be heavily taxing the surface parking lots downtown where land is being banked at far below the property tax it should generate by not improving it. In general actually it would be a very good idea to separate the tax on land from the tax on improved value and to increase the tax on land to encourage the highest and best use of all property.
They can take all the money from the Portland Development Commission which is flush with millions and use those millions to fix the streets. They don’t need a gas tax. They can also take the 80 million the PDC is planning on wasting to buy the Post office property and use that 80 million to fix the streets.
Since the city of Portland has enacted the $15 minimum wage (base pay) law for it’s workers, everyone who’s in higher up positions and with more responsibilities than those who do the bare minimum amount of work, etc. have to get significant pay increases as well in comparison to be “fair” for them (and their union) so if you take that into consideration you must realize that it can only be funded by an increase in taxes. Taxes fund the city’s jobs even when most of the people living in the city do not gain any of the benefits since they’re not employed by the city or local government. Now how is “that” fair?