The bad news for arts tax scofflaws is that the city sees a path forward for tracking down more of them to pay the reviled $35-a-person arts tax. The worse news, however, is for the rest of us. To increase revenues, the city may gut one of the primary accountability metrics used to sell Portland voters on adopting the tax in the first place.

On Thursday, city commissioners will hear testimony about a proposal to nix a requirement built into the 2012 arts-tax ballot measure that capped the cost to administer the program at 5 percent of revenue collected. The cap, highlighted as a way to hold the program accountable, has been an inconvenient reminder of just how poorly conceived, designed and executed this tax has been. The city has blown past the cap each year, spending 7.7 percent on collections efforts and other expenses.

And city officials want the freedom to spend even more. While the tax has brought in enough money to fund arts teachers in Portland elementary schools as designed, it has fallen short of delivering the millions for area arts organizations that backers also hoped for. Because more collections would yield greater funds for arts groups, the city revenue department is recommending that City Council ditch the cap and decide for itself how much is reasonable to spend on administering and collecting the tax.

That's a bad call. Commissioners should recognize that swapping out the voter-approved 5 percent cap with a "trust us" metric only erodes Portlanders' faith in city government. Getting rid of the cap only sends the message that promises of accountability last only as long as they're convenient.

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City Commissioner Nick Fish, who is sponsoring the proposal with Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, admits the "imperfect" nature of the arts tax. But he argues that nixing the cap is a fair deal for Portlanders. By spending a little more money to go after scofflaws, the city will fulfill voters' intent that "everyone pays their fair share," and that the proceeds benefit the arts, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board.

There are a few problems with that view, however. The council has already carved out exemptions for certain groups of people, including retirees who receive public pension payments but don't earn other income of $1,000 or more. Are they among the "everyone" paying their fair share?

In addition, the plain language of the ballot measure suggests a different interpretation of "voters' intent." The measure states that revenue will be used for arts and music teachers at K-5 schools where Portland students attend. It then directs "remaining funds" to be used for grants to nonprofit arts organizations, other nonprofits and schools. And finally, the ballot notes accountability measures including the clear statement that "administrative costs are capped."

In other words, the ballot measure doesn't promise a single penny to arts organizations but only includes a vague commitment that "remaining funds" will go to arts groups. At the same time, there's nothing vague about the accountability measures. The ballot measure unequivocally promises that administrative costs are capped.

Yet, city leaders believe that they should ignore the explicit accountability pledge in favor of the aspirational goal of delivering more money to arts groups?

There's an easy way to get confirmation of that theory. They could put it on the ballot, although that's unfortunately unlikely. The one commissioner who has raised the idea, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, is not running for re-election and told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board he doesn't envision pushing for a referral in his remaining months in office.

Regardless of what happens with the arts tax, Portland leaders and voters alike should take a few lessons from how this tax evolved and note the many ways our current policy diverges from promises the city made.

City leaders should publicly commit to review the discussion and internal communications from 2011 and 2012 to see where the city went wrong in fashioning the ballot measure, both with regards to who should pay it and how much it would cost. As Revenue Director Thomas Lannom noted last year, the 5 percent cap "polled very well in 2012 as a number to shoot for. But it was never realistic." His comments raise the question of who pushed the 5 percent cap forward and whether that was based on data or marketing. Voters deserve to know if city leaders intentionally sold them a bill of goods on what they could deliver.

It's also a reminder to Portlanders to look past campaign rhetoric and consider critically whether the city is equipped to administer whatever new tax, program or responsibility it asks voters to approve. In this case, city officials weren't. They had no existing system for collecting an income tax, expenses have far exceeded what leaders said they would, revenue has been less than expected and taxpayer compliance, in its best year, has been under 75 percent.

Despite its best intentions, the arts tax was never a good idea. City commissioners should leave bad enough alone and refrain from making it worse.