The Addendum "I tried to write shorter ~Mark Twain
route99west.com/addendum
is an occasional journal of Oregon, from arts and books to public policy & transportation.
All content © 2006- by Alexander B. Craghead, except where otherwise noted.
Powered by Blogger
OrBlogs Listed
Feeds & Etc
Atom Feed
RSS Feed
Add to Technorati Favorites
Quick Subject Jump
Book Reviews
Books & Powells -- An Update
Week in Review, Vol. V
Review: The Lure of Japan's Railways
Review: Highway: America's Endless Dream
Week in Review, Vol. IV
2007: Ten Best Images
Week in Review, Vol. III
Week in Review, Vol. II
Pearl Harbor
Feed Addition
Other Notable Blogs
Cafe Unknown
Travel, History and Portland Oregon by Dan Haneckow
Jack Bog's Blog
By Jack Bogdanski of Portland, Oregon. (Like he needs any other introduction by now? -- A.B.C.)
For Portlanders Only
"Why buy a mattress anywhere else?"
Good Stuff NW
Featuring stuff that is good in the NW
LOST Magazine
LOST Magazine is an online monthly magazine that combines elements of many other literary, online, and national magazines with a singular mission--to reclaim in writing lost people, places, and things.
Mapes on Politics
Way West of the Beltway
Outside Is America
A journal about photography, roadtrips, trains and life, with occasional detours into movies, baseball, music, family and more.
The Photographers' Railroad Page
Good photos usually have good stories to go with them.... The goal of The Photographers' Railroad Page is to provide an outlet for top quality photographs and their story.
Portland Food & Drink
Throwing Ourselves on the Grenade of Bad Food to Save You
Portland Transport Blog
A Conversation About Access & Mobility in the Portland/Vancouver Region
PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media -- and booksellers
Rambling West
The musings of a farmer with a typewriter and camera
Stumptown Confidential
Documenting Portland, Oregon architecture, history, and culture through photos, postcards, and words.
The Unauthorized Observer
Observations on faith, photography, trains, baseball, the city where I live (Fullerton, Calif.), anything that I find funny (a lot of things) or irritating (some things) and various incidents involving friends and family.
Under the Weather
...the open road, fatherhood, family life, music, railroads, photography, popular and unpopular culture, sex, violence, religion, the oppression of consumerism and capitalism and the general bullshit that makes up modern life.
Urban Planning Overlord
A blog to counter the myths, lies, and demagoguery others use against sound city planning to further their own ends, fair and foul - but also to urge the profession itself to pull back from the occasional wretched PC exces.
VanPortlander
Living in Vancouver; working in Portland. I have some thoughts.
Whiskey, Texas
...life and experiences in Texas and the Southwest. Recurring themes: Photography, railroads, fading ads / ghost signs, fallen-flag railroad logos, boxcars, bicycling, Texas music, pop culture, sports, road trips, literature, kids and family.
World Scott
The Travel Writing and Photography of Scott Lothes
Blegs & Bargains
Amazon Book Wishlist
B&H Wishlist
My eBay Listings
Powell's Books Wishlist
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Questions for Sam
Recently, Portland City Commissioner (and Mayoral candidate) Sam Adams and County Commissioner Ted Wheeler have been promoting a new revenue plan to fund street maintenance. The fee would be a City of Portland fee, and the city has put up a website for the proposal: Labels: Civics, Portland, Public Policy, Transportation"The Safe, Sound and Green Streets Proposal was conceived to address longstanding transportation maintenance issues in the City of Portland and deficiencies in Multnomah County's Willamette River bridges. The Oregon state gas tax was last increased in 1993, which has meant that funding for transportation safety and maintenance has not kept pace with inflation or the increasing demands of a growing population. As a result, the City of Portland has $422 million in unmet maintenance needs. Likewise, Multnomah County faces a $485 million shortfall for bridge maintenance. Because of this underinvestment, our community faces needless deaths and injuries on Portland's streets that create an estimated annual economic impact of $412 million.
Many have come out of the woodwork to oppose the plan. Certainly questions remain about how equitable it is, and whether the city has had its budget priorities straight in the past, or if the populace is now being asked to bailout a shortfall that is the consequence of bad investments. Even the Willamette Week has criticized the proposal.
To address these unmet needs, the Safe, Sound and Green Streets Stakeholder Committee was formed to develop a proposal that would begin to address the worst of the city's unmet maintenance needs. Specifically, these include city arterial streets in poor and very poor condition, City and County bridges, signals in poor condition, and key safety needs. The proposal envisions new funding sources for both the City and County as well as a specific list of street maintenance, bridge and safety projects that would be completed with new revenue."
Sensitive as I am to the need to fund public infrastructure, my initial reaction to all such plans is skepticism. I must give Sam & Co kudos, however, for providing a budget for the proposal. I also must credit Sam with guts to push for this at a time when he's seeking a higher office.
The heart of the matter is the argument that gas tax revenues no longer supply enough revenue to cover transportation projects. The state gas tax is a fixed rate of $0.24 per gallon. While gas prices have been rising, gas taxes have remained at a flat rate, denying the public any direct benefit of higher gas prices. In short, less percentage of your money spent at the pump is returning to the streets, and more is going to the gas company.
The Portland Department of Transportation also argues that "[t]he Portland region receives only 46 cents back for every dollar we send to Salem in gas tax and vehicle registration fees". Even if true, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of the roles that a large city plays is to be the engine -- in public revenue generation as well as economically -- for a state or region. (If true, though -- and it likely is -- it certainly counters arguments that the rest of the state is subsidizing Portland's transportation choices).
One of the best arguments for the need for new revenue is that "[s]ince 1993, the cost for materials to repair our streets and bridges has increased by 70%..." As the P-DOT website says, "one dollar in 1993 equals 58 cents in today's market." Rising costs of concrete and steel have driven up construction costs for both the public and private sectors. Many projects -- including the new Westside Express Service -- have made major project design cuts and still are having problems staying within the originally budget numbers.
Even if the shortfall is conceded as real, is this proposal to fill it the correct choice? As the Willy Week puts it:"The tax does far more than fix potholes: Adams' office has emphasized the city's deteriorating streets, often stressing $422 million in unmet maintenance needs. Nobody would deny the city's streets are in lousy shape, with a growing 627-mile backlog of streets in crummy condition. Yet a healthy $24.2 million -- or about 5 percent of the total tax -- won't go for maintenance but for building 112 miles of new 'bike boulevards'"
It's certain that there's going to be some major questions about the "bike boulevard" proposal. Beyond just explaining what exactly they are, where they go, or what they look like, there's going to be some vocal opposition. As it stands, bikes do not pay into the transportation system in any user-based way, unlike cars & trucks. This may end up becoming more fuel for proposals to require bike registration or bike licensing.
This FAQ helps to answer many questions about transportation in Portland in general, as well as how the city got to where it is today. For example, it points out (correctly) that the P-DOT does not pay for the construction of streetcars or light rail with state gas tax dollars. What it leaves out? It doesn't say anything about non-gas tax revenues, the impact of LIDs on overall city property tax revenues, nor on whether gas taxes help subsidize improvements near such developments. Also, how does P-DOT pay for the streetcar's operations?
One question that nags me. How much of the funds raised will go towards actual shovels in the ground? I grant, some costs will have to go to overhead like engineering and some planning. But still -- how much of this is funding the projects, and how much of it is going to pay for, say, more personnel at P-DOT?
P-DOT also claims that the department has had to cut their budget for the last 7 years in a row. It would be interesting to know in what areas these cuts were made, and why.
In the FAQ, there is the following question & answer:"Question: Due to a strong economy, Portland had higher than anticipated revenue over the last 2 fiscal years. Why didn't City Council spend some of these funds on transportation?
I think this gets to the heart of questions like those raised at VanPortlander. Can the situation that P-DOT finds itself in now be partially the result of the council placing their budget priorities in other areas?
Answer: These one-time-only general funds were allocated for other council priorities like police and affordable housing. Transportation received one-fifth of these funds for specific safety projects. This amount is not sufficient to cover P-DOT's ongoing maintenance funding shortfall. Had more money been given to transportation, other essential public services such as parks and public safety would have received less."
P-DOT states that other cities are seeking similar proposals to pay for their own projects, and this is quite true. This is true, but how well is it working? In some cases, not so well.
I think Adams and P-DOT makes a strong case for the budget shortfall and for their proposed solution. It remains to be seen if it will fly with voters, however. A number of gas station owners are attempting to band together and put the issue on the May ballot. If they succeed, we will see a public debate about the city's budget priorities emerge. Let's hope it's not as ugly as the Interstate debacle was.
If it is, though, I'd better stock up on popcorn.
Back to Top | Back to Contents
Post a Comment
<< Home