If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
Hey, The Beatles knew this back in 1966.
Oregon Senate majority leader Peter Courtney's resigned to not getting a transportation package through the legislature this year, but House speaker Tina Kotek's a bit more optimistic, as is gov. Retread. The good news is that they're not looking at it as a means to revive the zombie CRC light-rail bridge into Vancouver. That being the case, they may be able to get something done.
It seems fairly certain that Oregon's parties will work together to raise our fuel taxes, but that's not a bad thing, as it goes to maintain and improve infrastructure. The only thing that is certain to screw this up is if the Democratics pursue their plans to enact a "carbon tax" as well, which Retread and his First Squeeze would dearly love to see happen. If they push on that, the fuel tax is DOA, because the Republicans aren't going to go along if Democratics ram through another environmeddlist agenda just because the felonious Squeeze says it's a great thing.
In any case, whatever the legislature does, Porkland mayor "Streetcar" Charlie is certain that it won't be enough, and while his sidekick, the Little General, has buttoned his lip on the subject, Streetcar's made it pretty clear that there is going to be a "street fee" in Porkland's future. Maybe if he'd quit diverting $5 million in fuel tax funds each year to pay for operating that silly streetcar, the city could fix a few potholes. Yeah - that's just crazy talk.
Thanks to David Gulliver for the youtube link.