New gas tax proposals

The Oregonian‘s Ryan Frank reports today that Commissioner Sam Adams is considering a variety of funding mechanisms to pay for transportation infrastructure improvements and maintenance in Portland. The options include doubling the gas tax locally (raising it by 12 cents per gallon), assessing a monthly “fee” on property owners, and seven other possible revenue sources.

I didn’t attend Sam’s meeting last Wednesday evening, for which he apparently personally called every one of Portland’s 95 Neighborhood Association Presidents with invitations. I’m interested to hear and see more of how this develops, and I’ll try to attend the meeting in SW tomorrow and report back. I applaud Sam for both initiating the conversation and setting about it with multiple opportunities for comment in person or in writing – although more notice before the community meetings would have been helpful. His Press Release is attached below. The Town Hall schedule is:

Southwest Portland
Tuesday, June 19, 7-9pm
Multnomah Center
7688 SW Capitol Highway

Southeast Portland
Wednesday, June 20, 7-9pm
St. Philip Neri Church – Carvlin Hall
2408 SE 16th Avenue

North & Northeast Portland
Tuesday, June 26, 7-9pm
King Neighborhood Facility
4815 NE 7th Avenue

Northwest Portland
Wednesday, June 27, 7-9pm
Friendly House Conference Room
1737 NW 26th Avenue

Central Northeast & East Portland
Monday, July 2, 7-9pm
Firehouse #12
4415 NE 87th Avenue

All open houses run from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

In light of feedback and discussions both on and off my blog, I’m rethinking some of my comments of just a few weeks ago here, in which I floated the notion of raising the statewide gas tax by 10 cents. It seems to me there’s a difference between raising new funding to pay for big ticket regional items such as building new bridges and making existing ones safe, compared with finding mechanisms to pay for local improvements like stop lights, sidewalks, and crosswalks – which many would say should be paid for using existing General Fund revenue. Perhaps the debate should result in two lists of projects, to be funded differently. I would like to see an allocation for transportation maintenance and improvements in every City of Portland budget.

Further, a local tax has different pros and cons compared with a statewide increase. It would be less likely to capture revenue from outsiders. Travelers through the region would likely fill up on the other side of the state border, or further south. I don’t believe Portlanders alone should pick up the tab for regional facilities – perhaps not even for urgently-needed repairs such as those for the Sellwood Bridge. And then the total amounts of funds raised, and the purposes to which they would be dedicated, needs review. I remain willing to pay for community improvements. The core questions are who should pay for what, and how. I look forward to Sam’s public conversation where citizens add information and each participant learns more – leading to greater consensus on what tranportation improvements need to be done and how to fund them.