Item B: Funding Strategies for Transportation System Operations, Maintenance, and Preservation

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CentralServices Finance & Court Services Budget Office City of Eugene 860 West Park Street, Suite 300 M Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 682-5021 (541) 682-5802 FAX www.ci.eugene.or.us September 19, 2001 Date: MayorTorreyand Members of the City Council To: The Citizen Members of the Eugene Budget Committee From: Final Recommendation on Transportation Funding Issues Subject: On July 11, 2001, we submitted to you our interim conclusions and report on the City?s transportation system funding issues (?Transportation System Funding Interim Report?, dated June 2001). At that time, we shared with you our conclusion that significant additional funding from one or more new, City- controlled revenue source is neededin the near future if Eugene is to preserveour investment in transportation system infrastructure. We also communicated to you a number of other interim conclusions, based on our study and discussions, as follows: In the face of projected O&M funding shortfalls and service reductions beginning in FY03, C ensuring adequate funding for the of the City?s operation and maintenance activities transportation system is absolutely essential. The most important capital funding needs to be addressed are in the backlog of preservation C , with estimated annual funding needs of $8.5 million work on roads and off-street bike paths for roads and $425,000 for off-street bike paths. Providing adequate funding for is critical to prevent ongoing annual preservation activity C preservation backlogs from accumulatingin the future. The subcommittee?s current consensus is that, in order to accomplish these priority objectives, C the appropriate . level of new revenue needed is $9 million annually The two funding measures which most closely conform to the subcommittee?s guiding principles C while also generating sufficient revenue to address the priority objectives are: the, with a projected annual yield of $7.7 million; Transportation Utility Fee C a small, with a projected annual yield of $1.3 local motor vehicle fuel tax C million. We strongly support and encourage cooperative efforts with the City ofSpringfield for the C regional implementation of any new revenue source for transportation funding. Finally, we suggested that, prior to issuing our final recommendation to the Council, an independent for the purpose of issuing a report based on a critical review be conducted by an external consultant examination of the pavement condition analysis and preservation backlog estimates which were integral to our study and conclusions. That study was undertaken for the purpose of obtaining an independent, expert opinion as to the accuracy