Powell Blvd

Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick say they have no choice but to impose a street fee on Portlanders to pay for needed repairs and safety improvements.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

UPDATED: This post has been updated to clarify small-business charges and options for collecting fees.

Saying that Portland has "no alternative" to fix crumbling and dangerous roads, Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick unveiled their plans Thursday, for a new street fee that would cost the typical Portland household almost $140 a year.

The "transportation user fee" would cost the typical household $11.56 a month; poorer households would pay $8.09 a month and owners of apartment complexes would be charged $6.79 per unit, with a discount for multifamily complexes that cater to lower-income residents. Businesses and other government institutions, including city agencies and school districts, also would be charged.

Family-run sole proprietorships employing fewer than 10 employees would have to pay the fee, but not the household fee.

According to the draft proposal presented Thursday, at least 80 percent of revenue from the new fee would go for maintenance and safety improvements. Up to 20 percent could be spent on "other transportation services," including paving unimproved streets, mass transit and covering administrative costs.

How much would I pay?

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has put a

on its website to help residents and businesses figure out how much they might pay under a new street fee.

City leaders estimate the new charge will generate about $40 million a year, though Novick said he hoped that actual figure would hit $50 million. Hales and Novick want to spend 53 percent of that on maintenance, 44 percent on safety and three percent on other expenses.

The goal of the fee, which could appear on city water and sewer bills starting in July 2015, is to establish a permanent way to pay for rising maintenance costs on Portland roads and make them safer. City auditors said last year that Portland needs to spend $70 million annually on maintenance work just to bring its roads up to "a reasonable level."

"We've been talking about this problem for 14 years," Hales said at the Thursday press conference. "... This is one of those times we need to step up and do a difficult thing."

The amount charged will depend on how many trips any particular properties generate, and an oversight committee of 15 people would be created to monitor spending. Hales said the fee would increase annually based on a local construction cost index, but no more than 5 percent.

Hales and Novick, who oversees the Bureau of Transportation, want the City Council to create the new fee without first seeking voter approval. They would ask Portlanders to weigh in on the fee with a November vote to place language in the city charter limiting how street fee revenues could be used. But voters would not get to say yes or no to the fee itself.

"If the voters are really mad at us, we're both up for reelection in 2016," Novick said. "They can throw us out."

City Council members will begin discussing the fee next week and Hales hopes they'll vote June 4. He said he believes he has three votes to impose the fee without asking Portlanders for approval -- his own, Novick's and that of Commissioner Amanda Fritz. Despite his confidence, the debate should be spirited; business leaders have already asked Hales and Novick to slow down.

A phone poll of 800 Portlanders conducted as Hales and Novick first began conceiving of the street fee earlier this year showed tepid support, with support under 50 percent. Nearly twice as many respondents said they were strongly opposed to the fee than those that strongly supported it.

In the first year, the city explicitly promises the street fee would pay for the following projects, among other broad spending categories:

- Add flash beacons at Northeast Sandy Boulevard pedestrian crossings.

- Add rumble strips to Marine Drive in North Portland.

- Build two new pedestrian-friendly crossings on Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway

- Complete the missing sidewalk network around David Douglas High School in outer east Portland.

- Add safety improvements around Lents Elementary School in outer east Portland.

- Improve pedestrian access to Bridlemile Elementary in Southwest Portland.

-- Brad Schmidt and Andrew Theen