Column: Increase in city gas tax is needed

I’m writing as the mayor of Newport to urge citizens to support your city council’s proposal to improve our streets through a very modest increase in the city gas tax.

As anyone who drives, bikes, or walks within the city of Newport knows, our roads are in serious need of repair. Take a good look. Pay attention to the potholes, cracks, patches and fading paint (crosswalks, lane dividers, etc.). These are getting worse each year.

Our current budget for streets is less than $1.2 million a year — total. This is from our state revenues and our current local gas tax. Best estimates for the amount needed to have fair-to-good streets is $2 million-plus a year. We will fall further behind as costs increase every year.

Our city council is calling on the citizens of our city to step up. Let’s be frank, no one is looking forward to raising taxes. Our current city gas tax is 1 cent/gallon during the winter and 3 cents/gallon during the summer. Pennies, not percentage. It hasn’t increased in over 10 years. If we raise the tax to 5 cents, you would be paying a dollar total in tax for that same fill up that averages 50 cents for a 20-gallon fill-up. This would result in raising approximately $311,000/year for roads and streets.

Newport is my home, and I take pride in living here. I hope that you do too. Without increased money for our streets, they will continue to degrade. Our town will look shabbier and shabbier. Potholes, cracked pavement and lack of maintenance create dangerous traffic, cycling and pedestrian conditions.

If you’re willing to do this, we will also be collecting the same amount from the average of 30,000 visitors/tourists a day who purchase gas while they are here. That’s still a good deal for the tourists from Portland, Eugene and other Oregon cities who pay at least that where they live.

There are arguments against this initiative, and I’ll address them:

• “What about the room tax?” The state imposes stringent rules on cities for using these funds. Much of it must be spent on advertising and direct tourist-related services. Street repairs and maintenance are specifically prohibited. We, and other coastal cities, have been lobbying Salem for years to change this. Way more than half the traffic using our roads and streets are visitors, but room taxes can’t be used for maintaining our streets.

• “This is a regressive tax” Yes, it is. But the reality is that it is minimal cost. Folks with limited incomes will pay the same as the wealthy, but we’re talking about an average of 50 cents more for a 20-gallon fill-up. Damages to tires and vehicles are much costlier, and, if you think about it, these costs are “regressive” too.

• “The city has plenty of money” Yes, we do. Our money is carefully budgeted for supporting police, fire services, our water systems, parks, library, city planning, building inspections, engineering, and the many services the city provides.

• “Electric vehicles use the roads, but they won’t pay this tax” Yes, this isn’t fair. EVs are charged significantly more for vehicle registration, but the state does not share this revenue with cities. If we can come up with a way to collect funds from the EVs, we will, but that’s not a reason to not, at least partially, raise needed funds.

• “If the city did a better job collecting fees and fines, we wouldn’t need more money” It’s easy to say that, but far from the truth.

• “If city workers did a better job, we wouldn’t need this” Our city workers do an amazing job keeping our water, sewer and stormwater systems going. They maintain our streets and facilities within the resources that they have. I am proud of our city workers and support them. You should too.

Arguments for supporting this initiative:

• We must find ways to improve and maintain our streets, and the sooner we begin, the lower the long-term costs.

• Visitors and tourists will share the cost. Remember, there are more visitors on our roads than residents.

• All the additional funds raised by this tax will go directly to street improvement and maintenance.

• While this initiative won’t raise all the funds needed to fix our streets, it will be a significant help. We will continue to seek ways to raise the needed money.

Please consider voting yes on the proposed gas tax increase. It’s a modest increase that will result in safer and more attractive city streets. Our city council works very hard to steward the resources available to us. We would sincerely appreciate your support. Thank you.

Jan Kaplan is the mayor of Newport.