STOP THE PORTLAND STREET FEE

Recently Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick introduced a plan to raise
revenue for street safety and maintenance. Designed to raise $54 million dollars per year,
Commissioner Novick and the Mayor have come up with a complicated, regressive tax plan
that will hurt lower income residents and kill the Portland economy by taxing businesses on a
complex and completely arbitrary tax schedule.

The Street Fee, also known as the Transportation User Fee, is based on the idea that
everyone uses roads and sidewalks, so everyone must pay regardless of income. As
proposed, every household and business will be assigned a number of trips. For the
residence portion of the tax, each household will pay $12 per month, regardless of income,
based on ten trips per. Recently a small discount was added for only those homes who qualify
for water/sewer fee reductions.

The non-residential tax will be determined through a formula taking into account type of
business (and therefore number of trips generated) and square footage. The number of trips
is based on a national standard for type of business and has absolutely no relation to the
actual trips generated. All trips will be counted equally, whether by foot, bike, or car.

It is also important to note that what counts is type of business and not how much revenue it
generates. Mikes Drive In in Sellwood would pay EXACTLY the same as McDonalds. Your
local barber would pay the same as Supercuts. The local coffee shop? They will pay the same
as Starbucks. No one is exempt from this tax. Portland Public Schools will owe close to
$610,000 per year and churches could pay more than $4,000 per year.

Street Tax bills will be generated using the same database as the water/sewer bills, although
they wont be added to the water bill and will require separate administration. If you pay water
for your home or business, you will pay this bill. If a residential or commercial property owner
provides water to his/her tenants, the taxes will be sent to them and they will be required to
collect the tax from each individual resident or business, essentially turning residential and
commercial property owners/managers into Tax Collectors.

Well maintained and safe streets are vitally important. And yes, new revenue sources need to
be found to fund overdue maintenance and safety projects. But a regressive, economy-killing
tax that treats your corner drive in the same as McDonalds, that pulls teachers out of the
classrooms, and makes property owners the tax collectors is not the way to do it.

The town halls will be held:

Tuesday, June 24, 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Oregon Convention Center, Portland Ballroom 255
777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Wednesday, June 25, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Kaiser Permanentes Town Hall
3704 N Interstate Ave.

The details of the Street Fee change frequently. For up-to-date information, go to
Stop Portland Street Fee on Facebook or www.NoStreetFee.com on the web.