A Portland minister is warning City Hall that passing a residential street fee and delaying a vote on charging businesses threatens to offload the tax burden onto the poor.



The letter from the Rev. Chuck Currie to the City Council hints at how today's 2 pm hearing on Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick's street fee plan could turn into a donnybrook.



Opposition to the proposal—which would charge Portlanders $138 a year to fund transportation projects, and charge businesses and nonprofits much more—has grown deafening in the week since Hales and Novick announced they would try to pass the fee without a public vote.



The backlash caused Hales and Novick to split the proposal in two, delaying the business side of the fee for at least a few weeks but perhaps as long as November.



Currie, a United Church of Christ minister, warns the City Council not to rush ahead with a fee that would charge low-income families up to $97 a year.



"Residents, particularly those who are low-income and on fixed incomes, need to know that they are not going to shoulder the burden alone on this," Currie writes. "The council should only adopt a full package that is well thought out, debated, and that has community buy-in."