“The group discussed the importance of making it clear to the public that funding sources being used for many new projects, such as the proposed eastside streetcar extension, are not available for basic paving and maintenance.” I

This is an extremely evasive statement and part of the streetcar funding shell game. With $6 million being appropriated from the Systems Development Charges Fund for the streetcar, money that can be used City wide for new sidewalk construction and roadway capacity improvements, including adding to the capacity of intersections to make them safer; and with parking meter revenues going to streetcar as a subsidy for operations instead of being used as funding for roads and bridges, any new tax or fee would be back filling money that is being siphoned off from current revenue sources to fund the streetcar. Therefore, since money for transportation projects in being taken away, any new tax or fee that replaces it is indirectly funding the streetcar. All transit options need to charge fares that better reflect the true costs of providing the service.

Looking at the survey as posted on at www.portlandonline.com/transportation, the difference of opposition between a vehicle registration surcharge and a bike license fee is only one to three percentage points. That is less than the 3.3 percent margin of error for the survey. Both have second tier ratings. Consequently, when only the annual vehicle registration surcharge comes up as having the most likely voter for support, and not the bike license fee, there is an outward look that somehow the deck was stacked in the way the questions were asked, and/or social engineering comes into play whereby staff continues to target motor vehicles while being self-serving in not forwarding the bike license fee. Charging both a gas tax and an increased vehicle registration fee is not user paid tax equity between modes. Without some sort of bicycle tax in the mix, I will definitely vote no on any proposal. Bicyclists use roads and bridges, and as a result, under tax fairness principals, bicyclists must also be directly charged to help pay for the infrastructure they use.