Title
Clackamas County and Clackamas Cities Consideration to Enact a Countywide Vehicle Registration Fee (VRF)
Body
RECOMMENDED ACTION (Motion):
Staff recommends that the City Commission authorize the City Manager to provide the County Administrator with the attached letter of support for a new VRF for countywide transportation improvements.
BACKGROUND:
On Thursday, September 6, 2018, the County held the Clackamas County Coordinating Committee Meeting (C4) which was an opportunity for the Clackamas County cities to consider options to implement a vehicle registration fee to address deferred transportation projects, including, but not limited to safety, maintenance, and capacity.
County staff presented three distribution models (see the attached Countywide VRF Distribution Scenario Concepts worksheet) for revenue stemming from a potential $30/year vehicle registration fee. The model scenarios were: 1) state-mandated 60% to the County and 40% to the cities; 2) modified state formula of 50% to the County, 40% to cities, and 10% set aside for a strategic investment fund, with expectation that the County would use 10% of its share as a strategic investment fund; 3) modified state formula of 40% to the County, 20% to cities, and 40% set aside for a strategic investment fund.
County staff noted that of the three counties in the Metro region, Clackamas is the only county with no local funding mechanism (see the Road Funding by County attachment). Multnomah County collects $18M annually from gas tax and VRF, and Washington County collects $49M from gas tax, VRF, local property tax, and a road district.
Following discussion, C4 members discussed their preferences among the VRF models. During consensus gathering, every attending city agreed with the county continuing to work toward a vehicle registration fee of $30 (with the exception of Canby, who preferred a fee of $25), and a majority consensus rested on Scenario 2 pending further discussion.
On September 11, 2018...
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