Portland-area voters Tuesday night resoundingly rejected a multibillion-dollar transportation measure looking to bring major projects and improvements to the region.
Related: OPB’s 2020 election coverage, ballot guide and results.
The measure, referred to the ballot by Metro — the regionally elected government for Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties — was worth roughly $7 billion in local tax dollars and estimated state or federal funding.
The measure failed in all three counties, according to unofficial results from the Oregon secretary of state.
If passed, funding from the measure would’ve kickstarted projects and programs in key regional corridors.
Some of those projects included improvements to the Tualatin Valley Highway and McLoughlin Boulevard. Other regional programs would have replaced diesel buses with electric or low-carbon fleets, as well as focus on “anti-displacement strategies” in order to combat displacement and encourage equitable development in some of the lower-income communities the projects would affect.
Metro President Lynn Peterson was one of the most vocal proponents of the measure, and she said those transportation improvements are still a necessity for the region.
“The ‘do nothing’ scenario really isn’t an option for our region,” Peterson told OPB. “We need to keep moving forward as a region because we’re growing, and we have existing safety issues. The fact is, our communities, particularly communities of color and low-income communities, are struggling the most right now. They still need safer streets, better transit and improved access to opportunity.”
The transportation plan would have gotten the majority of its funding from a payroll tax of up to 0.75% on some businesses, excluding businesses with 25 or fewer employees and local government.
Peterson said one of the reasons the measure did not pass is due to opposition from influential companies, including Nike, which did not work with Metro during its 18-month community engagement process, she said.
“There were some major corporations that refused to participate in the process. Nike, in particular, was repeatedly invited to help shape the measure and declined,” Peterson said.
Nike contributed $500,000 to the political action committee opposing the transportation measure, called Stop the Metro Wage Tax. Other large companies including Intel and Daimler Trucks also made large cash contributions in opposition of the measure. In total, Stop the Metro Wage Tax raised more than $2 million to oppose the measure.
“One corporation doesn’t control an election, and I think there were other factors as well,” Peterson said.
Another large project the measure would have funded is the Southwest Corridor Light Rail, a proposed expansion of the MAX light rail train system into South Portland, Tigard and Tualatin. Peterson feels it was not made clear enough to the public the number of people that project would serve.
“I’m also not sure that we were able to get the message out about the hundreds of units of affordable housing that would be built along that corridor as we grow as a region,” she said. “Or that a large portion of the improvements in that corridor were not just for the light rail line but for the drivers in that region.”
Peterson said some of the improvements and projects the measure would have funded have been four decades in the making.
“The state has not really invested in this region in the way that we needed them to do so in the last four decades, so we’re behind,” Peterson said. “There are a lot of needs and a lot of conversation went into the creation of this package. It was large. It’s got a lot of components to it, and it’s hard to encapsulate all of that into one easy benefit sentence.”
Still, Peterson said she has no regrets about putting the measure on the ballot during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic will be over at some point and our transportation system will need to accommodate a growing economy,” she said. “We all know, especially those who have lived in Portland for a while, we remember how our congestion issues went completely away during the Great Recession in 2010 and then came back with a vengeance.”
Peterson said there is a future for the transportation plan, but it depends on what comes out of discussions with the business and community leaders who had advocated for the measure in the first place.
In the 18-month planning process surrounding the measure, Metro had an advisory task force that included business and community leaders in the region. Other groups including the Get Moving political action committee and the Getting There Together Coalition were also in support of the measure. Those groups were made up of organizations such as nonprofits, labor unions, elected leaders and agencies serving people of color.
“For me personally, I don’t want to see our region stand still,” Peterson said. “But there’s no such thing as a one-person proposal. This was built by a coalition and it was people-powered. So there’s a coalition out there that needs to make some choices about where they want to put their energy next.”
