Customers at local gas stations are being asked to sign a petition that would repeal a gas tax increase of 3 cents per gallon, bringing the city gas tax to 8 cents per gallon, but the city’s street repair backlog is increasing yearly and is estimated at $170 million.
The gas tax is the principal local fund for the 2007 pavement preservation fund, and a vote against the tax may put the city’s road repair projects in an even deeper hole.
“The focus right now is on saving streets before they fall into disrepair,” said Eric Jones, the Eugene Public Works affairs manager.
If the city gas tax is raised to 8 cents, it will be the highest of the 12 Oregon cities with a local gas tax. Six cities asses a 3 cents-per-gallon tax, and five cities charge 2 cents or less, while Eugene’s current gas tax is 5 cents per gallon, according the Oregon League of Cities.
If the petitioners gather the necessary 6,365 signatures, the issue would go to voters in a possible November election. However, with such a large deficiency in funding, even the increased tax would not save the roads that need reconstruction.
The current 5 cents-a-gallon gas tax draws $3.4 million a year for the city’s transportation infrastructure, and the new tax is expected to bring in an additional $2 million per year.
Eugene’s Critical Street Project list consists of five projects: West 18th Avenue from Chambers to City View streets; West 18th Avenue from Willamette to Washington streets; Hilyard Street from East 24th Avenue to 30th Avenue; Patterson Street from East 13th to 23rd avenues; and Willamette Street from 29th to 47th Avenues.
All of these streets are considered to be in need of reconstruction, a process Jones says is “very expensive” and “disruptive.”
“The city can’t focus on those projects that are that expensive at this time because the resources are limited. Instead the strategy will be to save streets that have not yet fallen into disrepair,” Jones said.
With $5 million to work with this summer, the Public Works Department had a decision to make: to undertake one of these reconstruction projects, or to complete 10 overlay projects.
With the summer approaching, they decided to choose the overlay projects, which are spot repairs made as necessary to the road bed and a new asphalt surface constructed on top of that.
The gas tax increase was part of a package the city council adopted to address the “critical shortfall in funding the maintenance and preservation of Eugene’s transportation system,” according to the transportation funding report.
Four options in the plan include the gas tax increase, a street utility fee, a street and bike bath lighting fee, and a local property tax levy.
The 3 cents tax increase was scheduled to commence July 1, but the tax will be on hold while the repeal process is ongoing.
The Eugene-Springfield average gas price, $3.26 for regular and $3.49 for premium, is already above the national average of $3.13 for regular and $3.45 for premium.
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