The statistics on Bend’s government spending are being distorted by the political action committee formed to oppose Bend’s upcoming vote on a gas tax, according to the YES For Bend Roads political action committee.
“The alleged facts circulated by the ‘No Bend Gas Tax’ PAC distort the picture in order to support their big oil company clients,” said Peter Werner, chair of the YES PAC. “The opposition claims conflict directly with data provided by the Bend City Government.”
Specifically:
Opponents assert that here’s plenty of money to fix the roads – increased property tax revenues, higher tourism tax revenues, and “found money.” They say City just needs to change its priorities.
In fact, all of the increased revenues from property taxes, tourism, and even excess reserves that can be used are already allocated to road improvements. That still leaves us $2.7 million short of the $6 million needed each year.
The opposition knows these numbers. They know the recommendations of the citizens Street Maintenance Committee, which recommended a gas tax to fill that funding gap. The recommendations were accepted by the City Council and led to the vote in March.
Opponents have called the roads department a bloated bureaucracy. They point to budget increases last year, and assert that most of the increase went to administration, not to fixing roads.
The “administrative budget” they are citing includes essential services like street lighting, and also reflects re-categorized programs and services. The city’s budget for streets and operations staffing has grown by only two employees in the last several years.
The opposition asserts that the City is wasting $70,000 on a special election for political reasons.
In fact, the election in March will allow the gas tax to be implemented in time for the peak summer tourist season, when we expect more than 17,000 visitors a day. If each visitor buys gas, they will contribute to our roads, as is fair. The timing will also allow repairs to get underway sooner.
The opposition says the gas tax will be bad for business, and discourage business grow.
In fact, good roads are good for business – getting employees to work more smoothly and goods to market more quickly. And infrastructure is the #1 factor in business site location decisions. Just ask supporters Mike Hollern or Bill Smith.
The opposition represents itself as being the voice of local gas station owners.
In fact, the opposition PAC is largely funded by fuel companies. Their biggest contributor owns a number of gas stations. They have vowed to fight gas taxes all over the state, and have already waged a number of campaigns.
“In fact,” Werner concluded, “the gas tax is an essential tool in our City’s efforts to get our roads back to the condition our residents need and deserve. The Street Funding Committee looked closely at other alternatives and decided the gas that was the fairest, most reliable choice. Current and former public officials are doing our voters and our City a disservice by distorting the facts in order to advance their agenda.”
Get the Facts
What is the motor vehicle fuel tax proposal?
Measure 9-105 proposes a five-cent per gallon tax on gasoline, dedicated exclusively to road
repairs and improvements in Bend. The tax expires (or “sunsets”) in ten years, unless its renewal
is approved by the voters. The fuel tax is estimated to generate about $2.5 million in funding.
Why now?
The condition of our roads is reaching crisis proportions. And bad roads are much more
expensive to fix than good ones. Every $1 spent now on preservation saves $5 for rehabilitation
or $12 for total reconstruction. With this special early election, we prevent about $800,000 in
continued road degradation, and we capture revenue from about 30,000 summer visitors per
day.
What’s the problem?
Our city, like others in Oregon, relies almost entirely on federal and state funding for roads.
Federal funds have stayed the same for 22 years; state funds have increased only once in 20
years—yet costs have increased 100 percent+. (Our state funds are based on Bend’s permanent
population and don’t account for tourist use of city streets.) Also, during the recession, the City
cut back on some of its preservation work. Existing funds aren’t keeping up with deferred
maintenance, which has increased from $16.2 million in 2005 to $80.1 million in 2013.
Doesn’t the City have plenty of money to prioritize our roads?
Almost 80 percent of the City’s General Fund budget is reserved for essential Fire and Police Services.
Transit, community services and economic development use another 14 percent. That leaves only
about $4 million in City funds for roads. A dedicated funding source is needed to bridge the
gap. Opponents are citing numbers for internal City expenses that have been re-categorized, so
that it looks like there have been big increases in personnel and administrative expenses, which
is misleading.
If there is an $80.1 million backlog of deferred street maintenance, how is
this $2.5 million going to help?
The $80.1 million figure was calculated by an industry accepted model to determine how much
it would cost to bring the City’s overall network of roads up to a Pavement Condition Index (PCI)
of 82 (on a scale of 0-100), which is an optimal condition to maintain roads with the least cost
treatment options.
However, achieving this optimal condition in a short amount of time would be prohibitively
costly for residents, result in unacceptable disruption to the community with excessive detours
and delays during the construction season, and would be beyond the capacity of our existing
staff to deploy and manage contractors to complete the work. The citizen led committee, which
studied the amount of resources needed to improve the condition of our roads, was sensitive to
these factors.
The committee established a reasonable goal of improving the PCI from the current 68 to 73 in a
5-year timeframe. This goal requires an additional $6 million of annual revenue, $3.3 million of
which was committed from existing resources, narrowing the funding gap to $2.7 million—and
ultimately determining the proposal now before voters.
Who pays and how much?
This measure will cost the average Bend driver between $2.50 and $3.00 a month. Plus, it will
capture revenue from the two million annual visitors to Bend.
How will the money be used?
All revenue from this fund is legally required to be used exclusively for the repair and
maintenance of existing roads in Bend.
If the fuel tax passes, would this mean that existing revenue sources could be redirected toward other uses?
No. City Council Council recently approved a financial policy, which dedicated existing revenue
directly toward street maintenance that prevented any “back-filling” of a new revenue
source. Additionally, given the needs of an additional $6M annually to improve our roads, both
more existing revenue and a new revenue source were needed to solve this problem.
What about better solutions, like public transit and bike lanes?
The City has plans for a “multi-modal” transportation system, with new roads, bike lanes,
pedestrian walkways and public transportation. But first, we must repair and preserve the roads
we have. This will create opportunities for future improvements in other areas.
Why can Bend can afford a new ice rink and schools, but can’t fix its roads?
The Bend Park and Recreation District is not funded from the City’s budget. They have their own
dedicated tax revenue base to fund their projects and development. The same is true for the
Bend-La Pine School District.
Where does Visit Bend get its money and why can’t the City use some of that
money to fix our roads?
Visit Bend is funded by TRT (Transient Room Tax) dollars. By state law, 35 percent of Bend’s TRT
collections must be allocated to the Tourism Fund for tourism promotion. The City contracts with
Visit Bend to invest these funds toward the greatest return for the local tourism economy. The
remaining 65 percent of TRT collections goes to the City’s General Fund, which may be used for police, fire, roads and other services.
With all the development in Bend, what are the developers’ responsibilities when
it comes to road maintenance and infrastructure?
Developers pay impact fees for transportation, sewer, and water infrastructure. State law
prohibits those funds from being used to maintain existing infrastructure, including road
maintenance.
Do other cities use a gas tax?
There are currently 24 other cities and two counties in Oregon with a gas tax. That’s more than
half of the population in Oregon living in cities with a gas tax.
