File photo: Fueling my truck at the North Albany Chevron station last October.
The crushing defeat of the governor’s and other Democrats’ bill to increase the gas tax and motor vehicle fees tells the Albany City Council something about the chances of a local fuel tax.
In Linn County, the state measure got a “no” vote of 92 percent in Tuesday’s election. In Benton County, 71 percent of voters said “no” as well.
Within Albany, the rejection might not have been quite as high. We won’t find that out until the precinct results are released. But it’s safe to say that the measure lost heavily within Albany as well.
The council has been talking about putting a local gas tax before voters. At the last council meeting, a consultant recommended putting off any such election until May or November 2028. Before then, a whole lot of persuasion of the electorate would have to take place.
This persuasion might include drawing up a list of street repairs that would be paid for by local gas tax revenue. But some projects on the list would necessarily have be to planned many years in the future. Hard to see how that could encourage city voters to increase a tax they have to pay the next time they fill up.
The council might as well forget about the idea of a local fuel tax.
That leaves a street utility fee to be added to the water bills. As Councilor Steph Newton has noted, such a fee is bound to be regressive. It also does not solve the problem. Residents would be paying higher monthly utility bills long before they see any effect on street repairs.
Here’s the thing: Major streets in Albany are in pretty good shape. Some are in great shape. Albany residents never have to suffer the effects of rotten pavement on the older side streets if they don’t have to drive there.
Which suggests a different approach to raising money for street repairs. Local improvement districts are one possibility that has not had much discussion, if any.
Or the city could try to save money by hiring fewer — or no — consultants and spending the savings on those blocks of pavement in the worst shape.
In any case, Tuesday’s election outcome should bury the idea of imposing an Albany city fuel tax for a good long while. (hh)
Methinks there are consultants waiting to have City money spent on them to help find ways to raise taxes somewhere…
We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.
Hasso – your suggestion “Or the city could try to save money by hiring fewer — or no — consultants and spending the savings on those blocks of pavement in the worst shape” is a great one!
Ditto, Double Ditto!! That is, I wholeheartedly agree!! No consultants needed!!
100% agree! Forget the consultants and listen to the citizens (who voted you into office) instead of trying to pull stuff over on us.
Sweet baby Jesus, we HAVE TO FIND a way to FIX the DANG ROADS!
You blame the Democrats but it’s your Republican President that’s the real reason for the Gas Tax failure.
Just another reason to be thankful Trump is my president!
I’m with you, Senders. Trump is the reason our city, state, and country are all on the skids.
Yep, 29% approval and plummeting.
How about explaining EXACTLY HOW?
Why wasn’t one passed during the Biden or Obama eras?
Kapaun! The reason Trump is to blame for the gas prices is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz because of the war Trump started. Duh!
What does that have to do with the Gas Tax FAILURE? That was the question, not why is gas so high.
Again, duh!! High gas prices rile people up and it is hard for a lot of people to come up with the money to pay them, so therefore these said people, who are voters, do not want to add more to the price of a gallon of gas with a gas tax!!!!!
Where would all this would be tax money really go? There seems to be a lot of money in tax revenue which goes to non applicable costs. Where did the Covid money go? The Tobacco Settlement i was another money gift that wasn’t spent on the subject
I new orange man bad would get the blame for tina’s tax…..Now back to that 22 million dollar brick road….Who got the last c.a.r.a money….should have been pot hole money only if Steph N. approves….dang flock camera’s…
The Streets Budget rolled over $18 million dollars from the ’22-’23 budget if I’m not mistaken. By their own admission they need $11 million to fix the streets. They have the money to do so, but like any government body, they want to take more money out of our wallets. 5% of the GDP of LINN COUNTY goes into the coffers of the City of Albany. We don’t have a resource problem, we have a spending problem.
Why not bulldoze up what is left of the blacktop on the worst neighborhood streets in Albany and put down gravel…. There were many graveled neighborhood streets when I was a kid. We aren’t getting our country back again even after Trump is out of office. So, we have to start doing things differently in order to survive on this planet.
Maybe the City should install more red light and speeding cameras as those appear to be great revenue sources. They could dedicate the money for street improvements while continuing to try and convince everyone the cameras are there for safety reasons.
There have been 2 systems making LOCAL streets in Albany, 1, the old one, the city made the street, and everybody paid for it. and 2, the current one, the developer makes the street and the people who buy the houses pay for it. both systems work if you stick with either one, but that is not what Albany did.
Now, fixing the street is a problem, if you have paid for your street, having bought a house that the developer made, the street is probably not in bad shape yet. The old part of town where the vast majority of repairs are made, didn’t pay full price for the street to begin with so when everybody pays for the repairs, they skate out of their responsibility, and the new houses get to pay twice.
The fair way to do this is that all major repairs on LOCAL streets, not feeders, or collectors, be done by the owners of the adjacent properties with a Local Improvement District.
While that may be true, the actual cost of repairing the street will absolutely scare off repairing their street,. In addition, we wouldn’t capture the income derived from commercial – industrial businesses. etc.
no more than any other expense from the city, the repair is financed and paid over time. And, Ray, how does that complicate business???
Hypothetically, you have a neighborhood with a “bad” street that will cost 500,000 to repair properly. Say there’ a dozen homes on that block. Do the math… No wonder we don’t have more LIDs going… And, your businesses aren’t paying a dime for it, yet they cause a huge amount of the damage IMO. Good luck on convincing any to vote for the LID…
Your businesses pay for it the same as anybody else on the street, unless you’re talking about outside business delivering to somebody’s house. Or are you talking about school buses amazon ups and garbage trucks? Something that people want to come into their neighborhoods. How much did the hospital pay for the street out in front of them being reconditioned., not much, I bet. Much of these arguments tend to be around.I want someone else to foot the bill for the place in front of my house , and I don’t want to have to pay for theirs, that is a problem with the way government does things..
The attempt by the Governor to sign the fuel tax at the last minute failed miserably. This is the real news on the failed fuel tax. The extreme disrespect of one government official to manipulate process while thinking that if I just limit response time, I will prevail sounds like the dangerous mindset of a dictator. It smacks of the concept that she one person knows better than the citizenry of this state. Two hundred thousand signatures later and a massive voter rejection should stand us a warning to questionable government actors who believe they exist above the public they allegedly serve.