Well, we’ve confirmed, through an earlier misunderstanding, that Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick won’t be proposing a $12 monthly “street fee” on households tomorrow. But now it looks like it’ll be close enough.
Information from a document obtained by the Mercury suggests the proposal unveiled at a Thursday press conference will involve a $11.56 per month fee on single-family households, and $8.09 a month on low income households. Units in multi-family buildings, the document said, would be charged $6.79 per month ($4.75 for low income households). Not much more is clear about the proposal—including how much the fee structure would raise for Portland transportation funding.
To date, officials have only discussed fees of $8 or $12 per month for single family households, saying they would raise between $34 million and $53 million a year.
Chris Warner, chief of staff to transportation commissioner Novick, would neither confirm nor deny the newly obtained figures, saying an announcement will wait until tomorrow.
Update, 4:25 pm: Looks like the “street fee” proposal, as it will be proposed, would raise about $40 million a year for the first five years, well under PBOT’s $53 million a year estimate for a $12 fee. It’s possible that indicates a modified fee structure for businesses and local governments, but that’s not clear right now.
Mercury News Editor Denis C. Theriault contributed to this report.
A condo dweller in the Pearl will pay less than a low-income family in East Portland. Seems about right.
And I’m sure the potholed, unpaved and sidewalk-free streets in N, NE and SE will be at the top of the list for road maintenance.
I’ve never before seen liberals who were so ready to tax poor people. “Don’t have a car? Low income? Doesn’t matter. ROAD FEE!”
This fee is a subsidy for people who live outside Portland and drive to work everyday. It makes absolutely no sense to continue to subsidize these people. The Selwood bridge debacle where we are all paying and Clackamas County which generates 80% of the trips across the bridge pays nothing should have been the deathknell for SOV subsidies by Multnomah County and the City of Portland. Just say no to the street fee, we can raise this revenue through taxes on surface parking lots, charging market rate for our parking meters, and adding meters to areas where parking is scarce.
AGHHHH FUCK. Where do I get angry and force this to a fucking referendum
$40 mil? That’ll still pay my soon to be incorporated consulting/ design proposal firm to do some studies, write reports, and draw pictures of shit that doesn’t exist yet. I’m going to streamline the processes of wasting taxpayer money into one-stop government shopping. Might even spin off a website design wing that creates non-functioning computer interfaces.
It’s called innovation, folks. Welcome to the 21st century.
They can use whatever’s left over to go paint some stripes on the ground somewhere.
This is ridiculous. So a non-driving, transit-taking Portlander will pay $140 per year. But a Vancouverite or a Beavertonian or a Tigarder who drives 30-40 miles per day in a commute across Portland will pay $0. Fail! This tax is not correctly attached to the people who use and benefit from the road maintenance.