Split Bend council rejects fall gas tax vote

By the barest of margins, a sharply split Bend City Council voted 4-3 Monday against sending a controversial local gas tax proposal for street repairs to the November ballot. Just what happens next is still up for discussion.

Councilors again returned to the issues of fixing an estimated $80 million street maintenance shortfall during a special meeting called due to a looming filing deadline for the November election.

While Mayor Jim Clinton and colleagues Nathan Boddie and Barb Campbell favored going to voters for a 10-cent local gas tax this fall, councilors Victor Chudowsky, Doug Knight, Sally Russell and Casey Roats voted no.

Chudowsky says we should look at the Oregon gas tax as an example.

Since 1984, the gas tax has increased 10 times with a population growth of nearly 87 percent. Since raising gas taxes has failed on the state level, we should take that into account at a local one.

“So we may start with 5 or 10 cents and you get this bump, but what happens after that?” he asked. “If the state of Oregon has had funds necessary to raise funds once every three years, the Bend gas tax will be very similar. If we become dependent on it, over time there will come a point we will have to raise it- just like the state has had to do.”

Campbell said the issue is fairly simple and that residents know full well what it’s all about — all they have to do is drive the city’s streets.

“This, of all questions to put to the voters, is one that the voters have the information they need,” she said. “They can make the decision for themselves. Do they want us to spend more money maintaining this asset that they have?”

Bend 2030’s Vic Martinez and Erin Foote Marlowe again urged councilors to hold off on sending a gas tax to the ballot and proposed creation of the working group. Tim Casey of the Bend Chamber of Commerce supported that recommendation. But other speakers said it’s time to ask voters as the costs continue to rise and the city falls farther behind.

Before the split vote, Russell proposed going to a March special election instead and working with Bend 2030 and other community partners to engage key stakeholders. Boddie seconded her motion, but Knight urged a full community conversation without a predetermined outcome of a fuel tax that already has drawn opposition from local fuel dealers. Clinton said he’d back a November vote, but after more discussion Russell withdrew hew motion.

Another motion, by Campbell, to send a five-cent gas tax to November instead died for lack of a second. Chudowsky asked that two options be developed – one with a local gas tax, one without.

The discussion is far from over. A committee of three city councilors – Roats, Knight and Campbell – will meet with Bend 2030 members Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall to discuss the process to develop a street funding plan. And then councilors no doubt will discuss the matter again at their regular Wednesday night meeting.

The subcommittee will tackle three big questions before the council: the objectives of a gas tax, who will be involved in drafting the proposal and what does the public need to know before the vote.