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Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick, looking for some community support in his effort to generate money for city street and sidewalk maintenance, is not married to the street fee proposal. He would be willing to ditch the controversial plan, he said, if another were to come along that could raise the same revenues and support.

That is why Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales this summer are spearheading three work groups to learn more. One will address the street fee’s regressive nature by looking at ways to reduce the impact on low-income residents. Another will address potential impacts on the business community. A third will examine how nonprofits and public institutions would be affected.

Novick’s “pet idea,” to adjust amounts paid by low-income residents, would be to give them rebates on their utility bills. They would actually come out ahead, he said.

The problem, in many cases, is that the landlord typically receives the utility bill. The work group will attempt to find a solution to this problem.

For businesses, Novick would like to see a study on a gross receipts tax being added to the trip generation model criticized harshly by the business community. That model would base each business’ fee on the number of customer trips it would likely generate. The type of business and square footage occupied would be factors.

What if a business is struggling? An additional fee would be unfair, Novick acknowledged. But add gross receipts to that formula and businesses would pay based on a sliding scale of average trip generation and gross receipts, he said.

Administering that idea would be difficult, however, because it would require different city computer systems to talk to each other.

The work groups are slated to start meeting in mid-July. Portland City Council is slated to vote on the street fee proposal Nov. 12.

More information about the street fee is available at .