Paying for Portland-Milwaukie, Ore., light rail
Written by jrood
Funding for the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail (PMLR) project will not affect money available for bus service, TriMet points out. In Fiscal Year 2013, TriMet is slated to sell bonds to generate roughly $40 million for its contribution to the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Line. Like a mortgage, these bonds will be paid incrementally over 25 years or so. TriMet's annual payment will be approximately $3.2 million for debt service on the bonds. It is important to stress that this borrowing won't begin until FY13 and has no impact on current service levels.
The agency plans to get
this money not from bus service, but from an increase in payroll tax revenue
that was authorized by the Oregon Legislature in 2003 specifically for service
expansion of light rail and other service in our region. This was the same
revenue source that paid to build and operate the Green Line.
Over the past three months,
the agency has been working to close the final $137-million local funding gap
for PMLR. Regional partners have contributed nearly $102 million to fill the
gap, leaving just two percent of the $1.49-billion project to be covered. TriMet
is looking to other partners to fill the remaining gap.
Meantime, TriMet will ask
its board of directors for authority to issue about another $20 million in
bonds as a placeholder if needed to close the gap. Those bonds, if needed,
would not be issued until FY15. Again, it is important to stress that the bond
issue five years from now has no impact on current service. The cost to TrIMet
would be about $1.9 million per year. This money would come from future
increases in the payroll tax.
The Oregon Legislature
approved an increase in the employer payroll tax rate that is projected to pay
for new service. This new revenue will pay for the debt service on the new rail
as well as future expansions of rail and bus service.
