Help for Clackamas County Roads Will Be in Hands Of Voters

The Clackamas County Commission knows how bad some of the roads in the county are.

More than half of the 1,400 miles of road maintained by the county are considered fair or poor.

So, now the County is putting a six-cents-per-gallon gas tax on the November ballot.

The tax would disappear after seven years and would raise approximately $9 million each year.

HAVE PATCH EMAIL YOU ALLL THE LATEST NEWS

The tax would be collected countywide and would be split 60-40 between the county and the 11 participating cities.

The amount each city gets would be determined by population.

The commission invites the public to talk about the proposal at their meeting on Thursday, July 21 at 6:00 p.m..

Everyone who wishes to speak will be given the opportunity to do so. Comments may also be submitted to BCCmail@clackamas.us.

Since the county is not allowed to pay for road maintenance with property tax revenue, and since road funding revenue has remained nearly static for more than 20 years, there is now a $265 million gap between the amount of road maintenance needed and available funds.

The county relies on three primary sources of revenue for road maintenance – state gas taxes, state heavy-weight mile taxes (from trucks) and state vehicle registration/title fees. State gas taxes have only increased once since 1993 and are not adjusted to inflation.

Image via Shutterstock