Clackamas County logo

Women’s Transportation Seminar

WTS Luncheon
March 13th, 2007


Transportation Funding
Clackamas County Commissioner Lynn Peterson

What is happening to our transportation system in Oregon? The public may notice more potholes. The freight industry may notice more congestion. Transportation professionals like those of us in this room who work in the world of visioning, planning, financing and building projects have been noticing a growing list of needs and a shrinking source of funds to meet these needs. Is this the future we want for our communities? Can we just sit back and let this critical system deteriorate for lack of good ideas and smart choices?

Let’s take stock of where we are at in terms of funding transportation:

  • The gas tax has lost substantial ground to inflation and fuel efficiency
  • The state has bonded against the gas tax for OTIA packages, giving the public the benefits sooner rather than later but leaving the state trust fund broken.
  • The feds will likely look to increase the gas tax 3-5 cents just to finish the current SAFETEA authorization through ’09 or it will go bankrupt.
  • Too many SDC programs throughout the region don’t fully recover the eligible cost of transportation to serve expected growth.
  • TriMet LIFT service costs over $20 a ride and demand is growing at double digit rates due to growing elderly population, this is limiting our ability to grow needed bus and LRT service in the region.

Our transportation system ties us together. It is a critical element in the health of our economy. Its function and design are integral in creating healthy, safe, and unique communities. How we fund the transportation system and what we choose to fund will impact this generation’s ability to “Keep Oregon Green”

Yet who is leading the way toward the future we do want to see? Sure, there are some proposals floating around the state capital:

There is a bill talking about a 2-cent or 3-cent increase in gas tax—which would allow Oregon to increase the gas tax for the first time since 1993. That equates to about $50-$75 million a year. Sounds like a lot. By the time you look at the split, it means Clackamas County would get about $600,000.

Another bill lays out a 5-cent gas tax increase every five years for the next 10 years. And while that keeps up with inflation for those ten years it doesn’t keep up with the cost of construction.

But there isn’t a buzz in the Capital. If there isn’t a buzz in the Capitol of Oregon on innovative futures, I can guarantee you that it isn’t happening in any capitol in the nation. And if it isn’t happening at the state level, there may be little change at the federal level during the next reauthorization which is upon us for 2009. If state and federal leaders cannot face the difficult realities, we local officials must find ways to address the basic transportation needs of our communities. And we must work harder to generate the buzz—with legislators, with businesses, with neighbors, and with professionals like you.

We can’t simply rely on the same funding mechanisms—together, the gas tax, the weight mile tax, and vehicle registration fees cannot keep pace with the current—let alone future—needs of our communities. And simply raising these taxes is not something the public will understand—if they can’t see the connection between our transportation system and the values of our communities.

Is transportation a community value? There is no buzz in the capitol for transportation like there is for education or health care reform because we haven’t connected the transportation system to what people value. Most people are not like us, living and breathing community development, yet they feel the effects of having a system that gets people and goods where they need to go, safely and efficiently.

How many of us have heard the following in some fashion in the course of our work?

  • We should work to build the complete transportation system
  • We should increase safety in our neighborhoods and on our roads.
  • We should keep Oregon green
  • We should create unique places – not any town USA
  • We should invest in keeping our economy healthy
  • We should strive for innovation to achieve cost-effectiveness
  • We should treat communities and the people who live and work in them fairly.

The challenge to all of us here today is to connect these community values to our need for creative solutions to our transportation investment challenges. But how?

Proposal

We need a bold vision and the solution won’t be as simple as a map of the interstate system. And I believe local leaders have to make sure their communities’ values and needs are heard by state officials.

As Metro Councilor David Bragdon has stated many times – there is a revolution in transportation every 50 years. The last 50 years was the interstate. The 50 years before that were the railroad glory days. And before that were the days of major canal building.

People have started talking about the fact that we might not have cars in the future. I don’t think that is the next revolution in transportation for the next 50 years. Maybe 50 years we can talk about how far transport technology has come with the testing of a sheep from Corvallis to a farm in rural Oregon.

I believe that the next 50 years will be about diversification in fuel, funding and modes. It will be about innovation and experimentation. I think we are already ten years into this change. When the kids and graduate students have been playing around with changing existing technology and it finds itself into the marketplace, some of this change has already occurred but at a snails pace. We need to rev up the engine.

So here are ideas from one local leader who knows that bold transformational changes are needed. I am here today to sow the seeds of change, so we can do more than talk about a revolution. We can transport ourselves into the future we know we want to see.

Let’s talk about this from a value perspective.

Work to build the complete transportation system.

In order to build the complete transportation system that focuses on programs not projects we will need to:

  • Move away from reliance on the gas tax. Oregon was first in the nation to have a gas tax. We should be the first to move away from it. Fuels are going to diversify and there will be tax incentives to make it happen. The entire nation is looking to Oregon on the demonstration Vehicle Miles tax. We need to make a decision soon.
  • Flexibility. Move toward more flexibility rather than creating more silos. Create more accountability by looking at mobility and cost-effective measures for all modes.
  • Transit. Create a state and regional transit fund. In the region we could take the MTIP and dedicate it for transit, pedestrian improvements to transit and bike projects and use other local and state funding mechanisms to provide for roads.
  • Freight/RR – Connect Oregon 2 may be the one transportation issue with some buzz in Salem today. Building on the success of the first Connect Oregon program which invested in freight, rail, and transit, this is the type pf program that connects our investments with our community values—in this case a healthy economy. But we should keep it focused on benefits to the public not just to private railroad operators.

Increase safety in our neighborhoods and on our roads.

What about increased safety in our neighborhoods? Some folks in Salem have suggested that we might have to start thinking about a local-state partnership for maintenance. We could require jurisdictions to look at a local tax as maintenance only, as we did in Lake Oswego or we could include sidewalks in the maintenance fee such as Tualatin. And then we could take the next step

forward and include traffic calming. This would mean that the pedestrian and safety issues within our communities would have a dedicated funding source.

Keeping Oregon Green

What about Keeping Oregon Green? I have heard some things at the national level to consider.

  • Should we tie transportation revenue to something like a carbon tax? Where the more you emit from either a concrete batch plant or your tailpipe, the more tax you pay.
  • Or should we talk about a new tax that helps provide conformity to land use as well as energy use – i.e. trips not taken.

Create unique places – not any town USA

And what about our pride in creating unique places? It means funding projects that are cross- jurisdictional and allowing for more innovation in design.

  • Arterial Fund. What if we were to transfer all district highways to MPOs since they are the arterial network for the region? We could today add 2-cent on to the existing gas tax in the MPOs only to bring them up to urban standards with sidewalks and medians.
  • Parkway. What about new roadways in the MPOs? Will the state recognize the mobility benefits of 45mph, limited access roadways with smaller interchanges that create a sense of place?

Healthy Economy

In regards to a healthy economy we should create some goals about our financing scheme...

  • Maybe “Pay as you go” should be a goal – we are too in debt today, let alone placing the problem on future generations.
  • Funding must be stable over the long run. – Should we tie the transportation revenue to inflation?
  • We should look at a Return on Investment evaluation process based on performance – maybe the counties can deliver maintenance at a more cost effective rate than the state.
  • Should investments be tied to economic development and/or the GDP? Sir Rod Eddington – former British Airways Exec. has proposed a transportation system that supports economic health and claims that transit is an economic tool measured by GDP.
  • (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1967118,00.html and a summary of the report at www.sussexenterprise.co.uk/data/6272200.pdf )

Finally, Fairness - Who pays for what?

  • County and local roads provide the foundation for the transportation system in the urban area. Should we have a higher tax rate in the MPOs that is dedicated to the MPO area?
  • And should we think about increasing SDCs for full cost recovery of eligible projects to serve growth. Happy Valley/Clackamas County SDC does as well as Pleasant Valley, Springwater and Wilsonville. The whole region should follow suit.
  • Tolling – Should we allow the state to charge users a fee for new construction?
  • And we might need to go beyond a straight vehicle miles traveled tax to include vehicle types by impact on roads.

This is my way of creating buzz—and I hope I can count on you to join me. It is going to take more than a buzz in the capitol building to get real change made on transportation funding and implementation before the general public gets as excited about transportation reform as we do We can do this together, if we recognize that we need to focus on values first and then tie the change to those rather than making it about congestion or pollution.

I encourage you all to come up with your own ideas, or help me flesh these out into something that can get the general public excited. We know how important September 2009 is to us—9 months after a new President takes office, as the highway trust fund goes bankrupt—but many people aren’t paying attention to what’s just around the corner.

We can build the buzz starting today. Yes, existing funding mechanisms are broken, but there is great potential for innovation, creative solutions, and ideas that reflect Oregon’s values. Talk to your elected officials, your business and community leaders, your colleagues and neighbors. We are at the forefront of a revolution that transports us 50 years forward—where future generations will reflect on and benefit from our willingness today to connect our needs with our values, and to put or money where our mouth is—in meeting the needs of our changing communities.

Thank you for your attention today and I hope you will fill out the questionnaire on your table or forward your ideas to me! In the meantime if you have burning thought, please let us know today, here and now!

Note: I mentioned a couple of things during the question and answer portion of the speech. Here are some of them:

  • Texas Transportation Summit – statewide transportation discussion is now in it’s 10th year and can be viewed at www.2007transportationsummit.com/about.php
  • Facts on Portland Region Needs beyond those mentioned above...
    • Hwy 271 additional land in each direction for a 7 mile project is estimated to cost $500M. Under current funding scenarios, that project will be complete in 2089.
    • Sunrise Corridor – Unit 1 is a 4 mile project estimated to cost $600M and would need to use the entire state allocation for modernization projects for at least the next 40 years.
    • If the first phase of just the five major highway projects in the Portland region were to be funded completely out of a gas tax increase state-wide, the additional gas tax increase needed would equal 37.5-cents.