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.