Street roots., June 20, 2014, Page 5, Image 5

Street roots
June 20, 2014
BLUMENAUER, from page 4
who show how bad marijuana is but not the ;
therapeutic, aspects. We need a good test to
determine who is impaired to drive, because the
traces stay in the system for days when they may
hot be impaired at all. Let’s get this squared out.
When I was in high school, there was a huge
smoking problem. It killed my father. Since I’ve
been in high school, we’ve reduced the amount
of the population that smokes by two-fhirds. We
didn’t lock them up; we didn’t prohibit it. We
modified the products to make them less
dangerous and taxed the dickens out of it, and,
particularly for kids, that taxation discouraged it.
S.R.: A n d we can use those taxes on our streets
an d improve our transportation system. Ofcourse
y o u ’ve heard a thing or tu>o about transportation
an d the road system. A n d you were once the m an in
charge o f P ortland’s
transportation.
E J3 .rlO years;
S.R.: There are a lot of
We've had significant
people pointing fingers at
investment ant© bikes and
Washington, D.C. There
are a lot o f people saying
pedestrian trails front the ’
that we walked into this.
feds. But it's sltrinldng<..The
They ’re looking a t past
fe d e ra l bnd get is scheduled to leadership and D. C. as
have a 3 0 -pe rcen t r e d « t lo a f p a rt o f the problem. W hat’s
your take?
and no new m oney fo r
coastrwetioM alter Oct 1. This
E.B.: it is true that
Is S e r io ilS .
Mayor Charlie Hales and
•
Commissioner Steve
Novick (who heads the
Portland Bureau of
Transportation) inherited
a Situation that was years
in the making. I fought
for years to stop the City Council from bleeding
money away that was supposed to be dedicated
to transportation from th e utirity franchise, fee,
th e m oney th a t th e gas company, th e electrical
,
company, the fiber optics pay to work in the
right of way. They really deteriorate the roads.
This was a revenue stream that the city had for
years that helped finance the road system, and
the City Council, again, I was opposed to it when
I was there, started backing money out to use for
the general fund so they wouldn’t have do other
revenue sources or cut programs. That was, and
is, a serious problem, and it wasn’t replaced.
S.R.: How much was siphoned off?
E.B .: Tens of millions of dollars. I can’t give
you the exact number, but I would say that it’s
over $100 million in 20 years since they started
doing it. That’s money that could be used for
transportation. That’s money that should be used
for transportation, and little, if any, of it is used
for transportation. Steve Novick was asking me
about the history. I said, yeah, this is something
that drove me crazy because we have this big
maintenance backlog. You’ll always have a.
maintenance backlog because you’ll have to
manage what streets you pave and reconstruct at
different times. But when you have 300 to 400
miles, that’s serious. The federal government
has not been a reliable partner. We have more
money per capita for light rail than any city in
the U.S., and we are seeing the fruit of that with
this terrific bridge and the rail line that’s
opening, but the federal government has not
kept pace with its investment in the federal jj
partnership with state and local government. We
have not raised the gas tax in 21 years back
when gasoline was $1.08 a gallon and I’m not
sure Barack had met Michelle. We’ve kept it
basically together with a series of short-term
fixes that are slowly being reduced. The federal
government has stepped in and Portland has
been pretty successful.
We’ve had significant investment into bikes <
and pedestrian trails from the feds. But it’s
shrinking, and we are at this point facing a
significant regional deficit because they are
planning on federal spending staying at the
current level, but if we were going to keep the
partnership it should be going up for inflation
and the cost of construction. The federal budget
is scheduled to have a 30-percent reduction, and
no new money for construction after Oct 1. This
is serious.
'
S.R.: Nationwide, no new money fo r construction
after Oct.1?
E.B.: I will say this also in the defense of the
City of Portland, it is a gift representing this
community. I go somewhere else every month; I
look at what we have done here, the quality of
life, the people, the environment. Wè are on ■
target to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,
and people here are really generous of spirit.
In many cases, government does a very good
job and people take it for granted. The
complexity of providing the transportation
system that works where the lights are
synchronized, where water goes down the chain
and gets treated. There is less of an appreciation
of how we got here, and the risks going forward
rather than the problems that pop up. Sure,
pound the tar out of elected officials, h u t also
part of what’s wrong is that people don’t have
thè context for how we got here and how hard
some of these things, are and how miraculous
some of these things are.
È .B .: In fact you’re>seeing states now trying to
cobble together a 27-month extension, which
expires Oct. 1. They did this by essentially
draining the highway trust fund, and, in fact, the
highway trust fund won’t even last through Sept.
30, and you can’t even get down to zero because
you have to manage contracts. We are expecting
contracts for the light tail Milwaukie project for
another three years. So the federal government,
to deal with cash management, needs to have a
$2 or 3 billion. In order to do that they are going
to stop issuing contracts later this summer. So
states are looking at this and they are starting to
pull back now. Eight states have already
indicated that they are going to cut back this
spring and more are facing the same things. So
we need the federal government to step. up and
be a full partner with us.
The final point is that we’ve, had a dramatically
S.R.: Where’s the fro n t fo r more affordable
different evolution in our transportation
housing? Where’s the fro n t fo r lowincome housing
demands. The funding has been dependent on
subsidies helping people, get o ff the streets?
Volume of fuel consumed. We’re driving less. For
nine consecutive years per capita vehicle travel
E.B.: Look at the budget that the House
has gone down and we have more fuel efficient
approved. It would take funding for those
cars and the mileage is going up. We have
discretionary funds for those programs through
hybrids, electric cars, so the combination of
pre-Eisenhower levels. Arid you look at the
inflation and changes in driving patterns means - budgets that are coming forward and they
the needs don’t go away but the funding is not
continue to chop away and reset, revenue
what it was;
increases, and they want to increase the
spending on things like nuclear weapons. So we
S.R.: So why not raise the gas tax?
are coming into a fiscal train wreck.
I think we will get a gas tax increase because
E.B.: It’s hot a popular tax. Trust me. If you
we are starting to make the case. We’ve got an
took a poll, people would be opposed, bût this
outside shot at making some adjustments to
isn’t a popularity contest. I used the analogy that military spending. There are things that have
it’s like flossing teeth. Flossing your teeth is not
gone on so long that they will change because
a natural act. You have to really work at it. In our
they have to. If you look at the Republican
household we always said, just floss the ones you budget, and there is no path forward that meets
want to keep. But a lot of people do it because
any of these needs. There are people who want
it’s important. The gas tax can be raised.
to get rid of food stamps, they think that '
If I asked you, give me two of the most ■„
unemployment insurance is part of this safety
c o n s e r v a t i v e s t a g e s in the union. Qdds .
net that has turned into a hammock; They are .
are th a t W yqm in g an d N ew H am p sh ire would be
comfortable with 5 million people who are too
at the top of the list, and they have both
poor to qualify for subsidies for healthcare and
increased their gas tax.
riot bat an eye. This is a a very real struggle that
We introduced the legislation' and, in so doing,
is going on right now, and (Republican Rep.)
we were joined by the AF-CIO, the U.S. Chamber, Paul Ryan and other people are pushing the edge
of Commerce, transit, cyclists, engineers,
of it>
truckers and ÂAA. It was a very broad coalition
It’s not true that the Tea Party has been
that said wé don’t like the gas tax either, but our
defeated, You’ve read this in the major papers.
members should pay it because it’s costing us
The Tea Party has taken over the Republican
money now. It’s Costing the average family
party. The way that these people beat back these
because of damage to the car to say nothing of
challenges from the Tea Party was to embrace
congestion. So we’re working hard this year to
the Tea Party. That battle for the soul of the
get it approved, before the end of this Congress/ ; Republican party is going to be Very iriteresting
There will be a lame duck session after the
, over the next few years.
élection, and this might be a good time When all
the Tea Party primaries are over. |
S.R.: How did Congress get so broken, and how
can we fix it?
S.R.: The county has changed a lot on the issue
o f gay marriage. Yoff voted fo r DO M A in the mid-
90s. W hat was the thinking back then?
,
E.B.: I wrote an essay on i t I supported the
civil rights of people based on their sexual
understand is that they’re getting the Congress
orientation from 1973.1 chaired the first hearing
that the American public wants. The American
in the Oregon Legislature that had ever
public is itself fractured, with lots of discordant
, considered that. ,
voices. If the American public wanted universal
In 1996, we were watching this stuff where
background checks they could make that feeling
(North Carolina Republican Senator) Jessie
known; they could boot some people out of
Helms and the Republican party figured out they
office; and the fact, that they don’t means that
had a wedge issue they were going to drive, and I
politicians are responding to their publics.
was concerned that it was going to be a major
The public doesn’t care much about some of
setback. We had always been told that the next
the arcane reform issues. You start talking about
priority was dealing with housing and
reforming commodity programs in the farm bill,
employment discrimination and the combination
and people’s eyes glaze over. The details of the
of it being a political wedge issue that would
transportation trust fund, if we did it right, we
empower the right wing and that it was going to
would put hundreds of thousands of people to
undercut
what I, and most people, thought was
work at family-wage jobs and relieve the pressure
the real agenda in the intermediate was we were
on transportation problems. But very few people
trying to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” And I
are focusing on it. It’s not a priority for them.
made a political calculation that it Would be
I don’t mean to be dismissive. I understand |
thatw e’ve had some real economic challenges. I ' better to not fight the DOMA battle, that we
might get it behind us, and work on these other .
know that we are facing challenges in a world
agenda items. I was wrong. We just should have
that is increasingly complex and no one person
waited
and dealt with the messiness.
is responsible for the problems we face.. It’s a
I have always strongly supported equality
culmination of areas of sub-optimal results. A lot
despite anyone’s sexual orientation, arid I’ve
of people are struggling just to pay the rent and
done work on it before others have, and that
keep the kids in school and make their
vote,
making a political calculation that we Could
cellphones . work.
de-fang that movemerit and move on with
progress, w as a political calculation that was
S.R.: J
that there are a lot o f people who
wrong. It didn’t slow them. It energized them. Of
have that disconnect with Congress and the
all the votes I’ve cast in Congress, that was one
government because they don’t see it doing anything
of the stupidest.
fo r them in a positive way.
E.B.: One of the things that people need to »