Mayor's Budget Includes Monthly Trip Tax

PORTLAND-A monthly street maintenance fee that reared its ugly head back in February has slipped into the Mayor’s budget for 2002. The fee, which for commercial properties is based on vehicle trip generation, would range from $398 a month for 3,890-sf fast-food restaurant to $1,500 per month for the owner of a 500,000-sf office building.

Office of Transportation director Vic Rhodes introduced the idea to the city council the fee back in February in hope of filling a $4.9 million hole in his budget created by stagnant gasoline taxes and eternally degrading roads. The fee, which also would be charged to homeowners, would generate about $65 million over five years and would pay for maintaining heavily-used streets like the transit mall, paving gravel roads in residential communities and improving school crossings, among other things.

The back up his request, Rhodes presented at the February work session the results of a city-sponsored survey taken shortly before voters crushed a proposed increase in gasoline taxes last May. The survey showed 70% approving of “a fair alternative revenue source” if the gas tax failed. However, it also showed 46% support for a five cent a gallon hike in the gasoline tax, which garnered only 18% at the polls here in Multnomah County. Moreover, the 300-person survey likely didn’t include too many commercial property owners.