BEND, OR -- Later this month, Bend City Councilors are expected to deliberate on a new code implementing a utility fee to pay for transportation operations and maintenance. Mayor Melanie Kebler acknowledges charging utility bills for wear and tear on city streets has its limits. For example, drivers who live just outside the city limits and use those roads every day won’t pay into the fund. "We can put it on the utility bills for the accounts that we have," she says, "And we don’t charge utilities to someone who lives outside the city of Bend. We can’t; we don’t have a system out there." 

If the transportation fee is approved, it would be phased in over several years, starting after July first. Kebler expets the code to include a provision to look at other funding sources in the future, "Before we get to the third year of implementing this fee, we are directing the City Manager to come back and talk to us, and have a real discussion about whether we also need to consider a fuels tax, which can capture folks who are coming in - either they live outside of town and come in and get their gas in Bend, or they’re visitors." 

A local gas tax would require voter approval. But, Kebler says they’re all aware a similar proposal failed at the ballot in 2016, "By a very large margin. So, we’re a few years out from that. And I think part of the discussion council will need to have is, ‘can we pass a gas tax?’" Kebler tells KBND News, "That’s something we wanted to commit to discussing and making a decision in the future. I don’t know what that decision will be, but we have put that in the code that we are going to have that discussion before we get to year three of implementing this, because it’s important and the community has raised it as a concern."

To hear our full conversation with Mayor Kebler, as she explains how the transportation fee would be rolled out and how much it would cost utility ratepayers, visit KBND's Podcast page.