Over the past month, the Portland City Council hit the gas pedal on its road-paving ambitions.
The council in late April passed a street fee that is estimated to bring in around $47 million annually to help the Portland Bureau of Transportation maintain roads.
The average monthly fee will appear on Portlanders’ monthly utility bill, adding around $12 for homeowners, $8.40 for renters and $61 for businesses. Three-quarters of the revenues must go toward street maintenance and repair, while the other 25% will go toward advancing the goals of the city’s traffic safety initiative, Vision Zero, and sidewalk improvement projects…