Can Portland Voters Stomach Five Tax Measures In 2016?

Don't spend your Powerball winnings just yet: 2016 is already shaping up to be the year of the money measure.

Last week, City Commissioner Steve Novick announced that the Portland City Council will vote Jan. 27 whether to send a 10-cents-a-gallon gas tax to the May ballot.

The gas tax is the latest episode in a city transportation-funding soap opera that's aired for nearly a decade, with plot twists including an ill-fated "street fee" pushed in 2014 by Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales.

Tax backers usually want to avoid May ballots—voters tend to be older and more conservative then, give or take a few thousand Bernie Sanders socialists. But getting the gas tax in front of voters early makes more sense in a year when as many as five tax measures could ask Oregon voters for about $2.7 billion a year in additional cash, either directly via property tax increases or indirectly through payroll taxes or higher prices on consumer goods.

Portland voters are fairly easy to sell on new taxes: In the past decade, they've approved money measures to fund schools, the arts, libraries, fire safety, children's services and the Oregon Zoo.

The November ballot already looks so crowded—with Portland State University, Portland Public Schools, labor groups and housing advocates possibly hunting for dollars—that observers wonder whether tax fatigue will force somebody to wait until the next election cycle.

Mike Lindberg, who served on the Portland City Council from 1979 until 1996, says groups seeking additional public funding would do well to consider what else is on the ballot with them. "You need to be very conscious of who else is asking for money," he says. "In my own opinion it's hard to pass more than two at once."

Here's a look at all of the proposed measures jockeying to get inside your wallet.

1.

What: Portland gas tax

Who's backing it: Commissioner Steve Novick is bringing his 10-cent-a-gallon proposal to the Portland City Council on Jan. 27.

What it's for: Filling potholes, repaving streets, adding sidewalks and improving pedestrian crosswalks.

How much it would raise: About $16 million a year—a tiny fraction of Portland's maintenance backlog of more than $1 billion.

When: May 2016

2.

What: A new Portland Public Schools construction bond that would cost at least $1.10 per $1,000 of assessed value (or $220 per year for a home assessed at $200,000).

Who's backing it: Oregon's largest school district.

What it's for: Rebuilding Benson, Madison and Lincoln high schools.

How much it would raise: Portland Public Schools hasn't settled on a figure, but it could be in the range of $450 million to $650 million total over the life of the bond. The new bond would be on top of the existing bond that voters approved in 2012. The new bond would at least double whatever homeowners currently pay for school construction.

When: November 2016

3.

What: A new tax to fund affordable housing projects in Portland.

Who's backing it: A group calling itself the Welcome Home Coalition, backed by Street Roots, the Community Alliance of Tenants, housing nonprofit JOIN and others.

What it's for: Advocates want to find a dedicated funding stream to build additional units of affordable housing.

How much it would raise: Backers haven't decided on a specific method or dollar amount but say they need at least $50 million a year to address the problem adequately.

When: November 2016

4.

What: A business payroll tax of one-tenth to two-tenths of 1 percent for Portland State University.

Who's backing it: PSU President Wim Wiewel and the university's board of trustees.

What it's for: College scholarships.

How much it would raise: $30 million to $70 million a year.

When: November 2016

5.

What: A higher corporate minimum tax on businesses whose Oregon sales exceed $25 million a year.

Who's backing it: Our Oregon, an advocacy group backed by labor unions.

What's it for: To supplement Oregon's general fund budget, which pays for schools and other human services.

How much it would raise: $2.5 billion a year.

When: November 2016

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