As Portland’s roads continue to crumble faster than the city can afford to pave them, a committee of the Portland City Council is mulling a $68 million-a-year funding package that would charge homeowners, renters and utility franchise companies a monthly fee so that the city could fill potholes and keep its streets from deteriorating further.
Members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, led by committee chair Olivia Clark, expressed strong support Monday morning for imposing two separate fees to raise up to $68 million in revenue annually. The recommendation from Clark came after the city led intensive listening sessions and online polling across all four council districts to gauge Portlanders’ appetite for different funding mechanisms.
The funding package, if approved by the committee and then the full council this spring, would consist of two parts…