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Proposed Sellwood Bridge funding

$11 million	Previously secured federal funds
$30 million	State of Oregon allocation
$40 million	Federal Surface TransportationExtension Modification Act of 2010
$22 million	Future Clackamas County vehicle registration fee
$100 million	City of Portland’s cut of Oregon’s Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009
$127 million	Multnomah County vehicle registration fee
$330 million

Almost everyone agrees that Portland’s ailing Sellwood Bridge needs to be replaced. Fewer people agree on who should pay for it.

Under the present plan, $249 million would come from vehicle registration fees and gas tax revenues as a result of the $300 million Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009, also known as . It allows counties to impose their own vehicle registration fees to help pay for transportation projects.

But Don McIntire, president of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, says taxpayers shouldn’t have to empty their pockets without being given a choice. Sponsors of an initiative that would require voter approval of all new vehicle taxes passed after Jan. 1, 2009, agree.

“It is the wrong time to suck $300 million out of Oregon’s economy,” McIntire said. “This initiative would subject every local gas tax to an up-or-down vote.”

If McIntire’s group is able to gather 110,358 signatures by July 2, the November ballot would include a measure that would require voter approval of all new vehicle taxes. It also would effectively eliminate the majority of funding for the Sellwood Bridge project, according to Mike Pullen, public information officer with Multnomah County.

“The Don McIntire proposal would kill everything except for our federal funding,” Pullen said. “Every city and county in the state would be similarly impacted.”

$11 million in federal money has already been secured for the Sellwood Bridge project. Also, Multnomah County plans to seek $40 million from the federal government via the proposed Surface Transportation Extension Modification Act of 2010. Pullen said passage of the act, however, has been delayed because efforts to reform health care and the financial system have taken precedence.

The remainder of money needed for the Sellwood Bridge replacement project would come from $127 million in vehicle registration fees imposed by Multnomah County, $30 million from the state of Oregon, $100 million from the city of Portland’s cut from HB 2001, and $22 million from a future vehicle registration fee that could be imposed in Clackamas County. If McIntire’s initiative were to pass, voters could vote against the gas tax and vehicle registration fees.

McIntire believes the Sellwood Bridge needs to be replaced, but said the state should not have let the structure deteriorate to this point.

“The Sellwood Bridge shouldn’t be in the shape it is today,” McIntire said. “What do you think about the fact that the government is ignoring the bridge to spend over a billion (dollars) on light rail to Milwaukie? The government misuses money.”

Similarly, Allen Alley, a Republican running for governor, said the state should be focusing on improving its failing infrastructure instead of projects like Portland-to-Milwaukie light rail. The state of Oregon will use $250 million in lottery-backed bonds to help pay for the $1.4 billion light-rail project.

“The Sellwood Bridge has been shrink-wrapped so the chunks that have been falling off of it won’t hurt anyone,” Alley said. “Why on earth would a government spend money on (new light rail) when the Sellwood Bridge is falling down? It should be moved to the top of the state’s priority list.”

Pullen said Sellwood Bridge construction could be performed in phases if necessary. The plan is for work to begin in 2012 and last four years. The funding outlook is much brighter this year than in 2009, Pullen said.

“A year ago we thought we’d be asking the federal government to pay for a third of the project,” Pullen said. “Now our federal ask is down to 12 percent of the total project cost. When you’re asking so little, and putting so much of your own money in the game, a project has a better chance of being funded at a federal level.”

A campaign manager for the ballot initiative declined to comment on how many signatures had been gathered, but McIntire said the initiative has a good chance of appearing on the November ballot.

“We wouldn’t be doing this unless we thought it would work,” McIntire said. “We have got to reduce the size of government. That’s what keeps us going.”