PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Portland City Council has unanimously elected to send a continuation of the Fix Our Streets 10-cent per gallon gas tax to voters.
This will be the third time Portlanders will vote on the tax that funds Safe Street projects, potholes, repaving, street lighting and regraveling projects.
It comes as the Portland Bureau of Transportation is facing a $60 million deficit over the next five years, because of projected shrinking revenues from the gas tax.
Continuing the gas tax will not avoid those funding problems, but PBOT says it will get worse without them.
“Fixing our streets is but one of the many pieces of our puzzle and we hope to get that moved forward and approved by voters and we’ll continue to work to pull together the best funding model for the future of the organization,” said PBOT Director Millicent Williams.
The tax will appear on the ballot this spring. It’s projected to generate $70 million over the next four years if voters pass it.
