“Put that on the ballot, that’s really the best way… People need to be able to determine what should be done with their pocketbooks.”
— Sarah Seale, Director of Americans for Prosperity, Clackamas County
A proposal in Clackamas County for a $5 motor vehicle registration fee to raise $20 million to help pay for the replacement of the Sellwood Bridge will be voted on by the County Board of Commissioners this week — but not before they hear from the public one more time.
When the proposal got its first hearing in front of the Commission on November 25th, anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity turned out 150 protestors and their opposition made headlines across the region.
Lynn Peterson, Chair of the Board of Commissioners, says they’ll vote on the proposal on December 9th, one day after the public gets another chance to weigh in. She says passing the fee is crucial because there is no Plan B. “We don’t have another funding source. The only other thing we could do is bond against our gas tax; but then there would be nothing left for maintenance coming from the county.”
To make sure Peterson hears support for the fee, advocates — like the Bicycle Transportation Alliance — are trying to turn out their members to counter the “no new taxes” mantra that dominated the first hearing.
Sarah Seale, Chair of the Clackamas County chapter of Americans for Prosperity, says voters should decide the matter. I interviewed Seale last week to learn more about her group’s opposition to the funding proposal.
Seale says much of her opposition has to do with the fact that she simply doesn’t trust Clackamas County Commission Chair Lynn Peterson.
“I can’t trust Lynn Peterson because in the past what she has said will happen has not happened, so the veracity of her words are not very high currency. She says $5, but i don’t think it really matters when she’s the person who’s handling this.”
“We don’t have another funding source.”
— Lynn Peterson, Chair of Clackamas County Board of Commissioners
Instead of the the five-member Board of Commissioners deciding the issue, Seale says her group would rather put it to a vote. “Put that on the ballot, that’s really the best way,” she said. AFP is “all about human freedom” and Seale feels that “people need to be able to determine what should be done with their pocketbooks.”
This morning I asked Chair Peterson if it’s possible that this decision could be put in front of voters. “The state enabled us to go for a vehicle registration fee without a vote; but they did leave the opportunity open for it to be referred to the voters if someone could gather enough signatures.”
According to the County Elections Office, to defer the issue to the May 18th ballot, someone would need to gather about 6,200 signatures by February 17th.
Peterson feels that, compared to the $127 million and $100 million Multnomah County and the City of Portland (respectively) are putting in for the project, the $20 million Clackamas County is being asked to raise should be palatable, especially since an analysis showed that 70 percent of bridge traffic originates in Clackamas County (Seale questions the validity of that study, saying that it’s “goofy” and doesn’t prove anything.)
What if the fee proposal did end up going to a public vote?
Both Seale and Peterson said they think it’d have a good chance to pass. “I think there’s a possibility it could pass,” said Peterson, “Because there are a significant number of people in the county that use the bridge and there are enough people worried about the bridge, that I think it would pass — especially if they understood they were paying for only 7% of the entire project.”
If it passed, Seale maintains, “We wouldn’t squawk about that.” She says that for her group, it’s not about the fee itself, it’s how the decision is being made: “Our quarrel is that these are top down, heavy-handed decisions… there’s a lack of transparency.”
During our conversation Seale kept coming back to her dislike and distrust Chair Peterson. “Lynn Peterson is convinced that we owe something to Multnomah County; that we benefit so much from them and we’re supported by them. That’s her whole mindset… All that lady cares about is Portland if you listen to her talk.” (One of AFP Clackamas’ major points of opposition is that the bridge is in Multnomah County so they should not have to pay to replace it.)
Asked whether her anger is about the fee itself or about Peterson, Seale replied, “You can’t separate the projects from these personalities can you?”
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Learn more about this project at SellwoodBridge.org.
The next public hearing on this proposed fee is December 8th at 5:30 pm at the Clackamas County Public Services Building (2051 Kaen Road, Oregon City). The Board of County Commissioners is set to vote on the proposal the next day, December 9, at 10:00 am.