Charlie Hales campaigned on a platform of maintaining Portland's roads. Randy Gragg jokingly refers to him as "Mayor Potholes". The city auditor has said that Portland doesn't spend nearly enough money on maintaining its roads.
The Bureau of Transportation receives very little money from the city's general fund - most of its budget comes from the state gas tax and from parking meter meters. The state gas tax hasn't kept up with inflation, cars are getting more fuel efficient, and people in Oregon are driving less. As we've seen in NW Portland, expanding the use of metered parking is no easy task, whatever the merits of it might be. PBOT needs more revenue, and fighting with the police and firefighters for general fund money isn't going to be a battle they can win. Oregon doesn't have a sales tax. Property taxes can't go up without a funding measure put to the voters. So the street fee it is.
All of which is by way of saying - Charlie Hales said he'd fix Portland's roads, and now people are upset with him for finding a way to do it?
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