Trimess

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Karen Bowerman


Dear Friends,
Do you live on Pothole Road?  Do you feel like a stunt driver when avoiding potholes? Few argue that county roads are in disrepair, but ask our residents and you'll hear that roads are the priority (along with public safety). The simple truth is that our allocation of gasoline tax dollars is flung far and wide. We need our county commissioners to stand against gas tax dollars being drained by light rail and pathways. Similarly we need our county commissioners to stop TriMet funds from your payroll taxes being bled for light rail before bus service meets our everyday transportation needs. 

As your County Commissioner, I will work to serve county residents' everyday transportation needs.  I will support road improvements and will help find lower cost service alternatives for improved bus service.  It is time for new leadership -- not new taxes.

Oregon's gasoline tax is 30 cents per gallon, on top of Federal 18.4 cents. Have you seen our gas tax budget? It is linked here.  More is spent on debt service ($458 M) than on highway maintenance ($422 M), not even counting the rail division's allotment.  There are objective measures of road condition standards -- I say, let's meet those standards first. 
TriMet is soaking up payroll tax dollars for light rail and the Columbia River Crossing. Have you seen our TriMet's $1.2 B budget? It is linked here, and you'll find that ridership is decreasing while increased dollars go to projects such as light rail maintenance for Steel Bridge improvements to restrore light rail speeds to 15 mph! TriMet debt service is enormous ($38.3 M) and unfunded liability is unacceptable ($852 M). TriMet has become unable to meet our everyday transportation needs with efficient bus service throughout the region.

If road maintenance and good bus transit are truly priorities, county leadership is required on two levels (1) expenditures should reflect your priority and (2) road repair funding must be addressed now because further deterioration of our roads requires even more taxpayer money for repairs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...and pathways"

What does she mean by pathways? Are there billion dollar TriMet pathways I missed out on?

Or is this some kind of doublespeak to try and tie uber expensive Light Rail and super cheap cycling improvements together for a does of equal hate?

Anonymous said...

She has my vote