PORTLAND — The Portland City Council postponed Wednesday’s vote on a road repair fee that would cost most households about $140 per year starting in 2015.
The chief supporters of the fee, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick, said the vote will be pushed back to November.
“Think of this as a track race,” the mayor said in a statement Tuesday. “We haven’t moved the finish line, which is July 2015. But we’re moving the starting blocks.”
Nearly half of Portland’s most traveled roads are in poor or very poor condition, and Hales and Novick say the city needs additional money to repair them. A January 2013 city audit said “aspirational” projects, including the streetcar, had displaced core services such as street maintenance, leading to roads marred by cracks and potholes.
The proposal included a discount for low-income households, but scores of people complained at a 5 1/2 -hour public hearing last week that the fee would be too painful for the poor and small-business owners. They said the matter should be put to a public vote and predicted that opponents would gather enough signatures to force a referendum, just as they did when overturning a 2012 council decision to add fluoride to the drinking water.
Hales said the delay will give residents more time to weigh in with suggestions to improve the plan. Additional public forums will be scheduled and two work groups formed. One will analyze city policy regarding low-income residents and fees and the other will “further engage” with small businesses on the design and implementation of the fee.
The street fee is projected to generate at least $40 million per year.
