— Lisa Caballero contributed to this story.
Standing on a gravel street in southwest Portland this morning, Commissioner Mingus Mapps kicked off the campaign to renew the local gas tax. As we hinted last month after seeing early drafts of the proposal, Mapps confirmed today he won’t increase the tax and it will stay at the 10-cent per gallon rate for the next four years. Mapps’ Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is in crisis-mode and desperately needs the money, so he was surely tempted to ask for more — but must be mindful of voter sentiment and can’t afford to come away empty-handed.
The tax funds the Fixing Our Streets (FOS) Program first approved by voters in 2016 and renewed in 2020 as a local source of transportation revenue. FOS funds projects like Safe Routes to School, the gravel streets program, and other projects citywide. Its largest expenditure so far has been the recently completed Capitol Highway project. The funding is crucial because only about 20% of PBOT’s $510 million annual budget is discretionary revenue.
Commissioner Mapps and Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Director Millicent Williams announced the plan at a press conference near a rivulet on SW Arnold Street, one of southwest Portland’s many unpaved streets. It was cold, but spirits were high because, let’s admit it, dump trucks and big equipment bring out the kid in everyone. By the end of the event, PBOT’s maintenance crews had nearly completed grading and graveling the street (they would have been done sooner if they hadn’t had to dodge the assembled press corps).
PBOT’s draft proposal for how to spend the $70.5 million the tax is expected generate each year includes $23.5 million for paving streets like SW Arnold, as well as busy streets and neighborhood greenways. The plan Mapps will ask voters to approve in May splits the revenue into three equal parts: $23.5 million for “smoother streets”, $23.5 million for “safer streets”, and $23.5 million for “community street services”.
As of today, the FOS website includes more details on the type of projects we can expect from each bucket.
Here’s the breakdown (taken from PBOT):
Smoother Streets
- $19 million for grind-and-inlay paving projects on the most critical and most used streets that benefit the most people and experience the most wear and tear. This means collector streets and arterials, transit and freight routes, emergency routes, streets on our High Crash Network, and the Neighborhood Greenways that make up our pedestrian and bike network.
- $4.5 million for crack seal and slurry seal projects on local streets, specifically where there is a high concentration of streets that qualify for this type of pavement preservation work.
Safer Streets
Safety on busy streets: A total of $9 million for crossings, sidewalks, lighting, and other systemic safety fixes on busy streets, as follows:
- At least $1 million invested in each of the four new city council districts, ensuring all Portlanders see a benefit from these safety investments, for a total of $4 million;
- $5 million used strategically to make larger safety investments with a focus on areas that score higher on PBOT’s Equity Matrix, especially projects that leverage additional outside funding.
Safety on neighborhood streets: A total of $6 million for safety projects like neighborhood greenways, traffic calming, and crosswalks on local streets and minor collectors that primarily serve the surrounding neighborhoods, as follows:
- At least $750,000 invested in each of the four new city council districts, ensuring all Portlanders see a benefit from these safety investments.
- $3 million used strategically to make larger safety investments with a focus on areas that score higher on PBOT’s Equity Matrix, especially projects that leverage additional outside funding.
Safe Routes to School: A total of $6 million for safety projects like crossings, traffic calming, lighting, signage, and improvements along neighborhood greenways directly adjacent to schools and on the main routes regularly used by children and parents to get to school, as follows:
- At least $750,000 invested in each of the four new city council districts, ensuring all Portlanders see a benefit from these safety investments.
- $3 million used strategically to make larger safety investments with a focus on areas that score higher on PBOT’s Equity Matrix, especially projects that leverage additional outside funding.
Additional safety enhancements: $2.5 million citywide to strategically leverage repaving projects, utility projects, and other similar work to add safety features like enhanced crossings and other pedestrian and bikeway improvements
Community Street Services
- Potholes ($5.5million) – Funds a crew to efficiently address potholes
- Signal and lighting maintenance ($3.5million) – Funds to address the growing backlog of signals and streetlight repair and maintenance
- Gravel Street Service ($4million) – Funds a crew focused on PBOT’s Gravel Street Service throughout the city
- Base repair ($4million) – Funds much-needed support for base repairs
- Safer intersections ($2million) – Funds safety improvements at intersections with signals. Examples: adding accessible pedestrian push buttons, changing signals to give pedestrians a head start crossing the street, and adjustments to signal timing.
- Pedestrian, bicycle, and public space retrofits ($2.5million) – Funds permanent upgrades to temporary safety installations. Examples: replacing reflective plastic wands along a bike lane with concrete traffic separators; replacing a painted curb extension with a concrete one; or supplementing planters with concrete islands.
- Residential street safety and traffic calming ($2million) – Provides support for PBOT’S transportation safety and livability hotline to respond to safety concerns from the public. This would also fund traffic safety interventions such as speed bumps on residential streets, with such projects prioritized by safety and equity criteria.
Mapps told the crowd this morning he plans to present the gas-tax renewal to city council at the beginning of the year and that he was confident in the support of his fellow council members. If all goes as planned, voters will be asked to renew the tax on the May, 2024 ballot and it will provide revenue through 2028.