Lawmakers consider sharing cost of Portland traffic bottlenecks

The proposal is one a legislative committee is considering for a transportation package this session.

SALEM — A legislative committee charged with crafting a transportation package is considering a new funding model in which local governments would "go Dutch" with the state on projects of regional interest.

"The concept of the state and regions developing a whole new partnership, a whole new style of working together, to build transportation infrastructure is transformative," said Andy Shaw, regional affairs manager at Metro.

The approach would help address declines in federal support of transportation infrastructure and state funding that has not kept pace with robust population and employment growth in the Portland metro area, Shaw said.

The proposal came out of a work group tasked with finding projects to relieve traffic congestion largely in the Portland metro area.

The group, a subset of the larger Joint Committee on Transportation Preservation and Modernization, on Monday, March 27, recommended nearly $1.1 billion in congestion-relieving projects in the next 10 years.

The projects are largely concentrated in Portland metro areas that bottleneck such as North Portland's Rose Quarter on Interstate 5 and the Abernethy Bridge between Oregon City and West Linn on Interstate 205.

The projects would be financed with a new vehicle excise tax of 1 percent and a 9-cent increase in the fuels tax and $15 hike in registration fees over a 10-year period, only in the Portland metro area.

The state would contribute about $598.7 million to the projects, while local jurisdictions would pitch in $525 million.

"In the work group we talked about this local match being akin to skin in the game, and then we talked about going Dutch," Shaw said. "I think this idea of doing this together means that we also have to govern this together. If we really are going to go Dutch, then we have to agree on the restaurant. We have to agree on the projects we're funding."

The congestion projects are only one component of a transportation package. Earlier this month, another work group recommended an increase of $255.6 million to $312.4 million in annual spending to maintain roads and bridges.

That would require raising revenues equivalent to a 9- to 11-cent increase in the state's 30-cent gas tax. The money would likely come from a combination of sources, which could include a hike in the fuels tax, registration fees, tolling or other options.

Another recommendation would levy a $0.0001 statewide payroll tax to pay for transit projects and a $1 per ton aggregate tax on concrete to pay for multi-modal transportation, such air and water.

Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, who led the congestion work group, said the recommendations are only a starting point for negotiations that will continue over the next several weeks.



Paris Achen

Portland Tribune Capital Bureau

503-385-4899

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