They put forth the proposal and tried to put it to a vote two weeks later. The proposal was a "fee" added on to the existing sewer bill in which every household would pay $12 dollars a month and varied charges to businesses depending on how many visits they received based on a federal data base of average trips to businesses by business type. Fees for coffee shops are some of the highest for the service industry. A McDonalds would have to pay about $1500 a month, a small fast turn over restaurant would pay $200 and a convenience store would pay about $90.

I've been on the phone with city councilors and staff at least a dozen times in the last two weeks, so have a lot of other people. For the moment the business side of the vote is on hold and maybe it will go to a vote in a general election. Portland usualy supports new taxes to preserve services but at the same time we have voted for a lot of programs in the past few years and the will might not be there for this to pass.

The city council might still sneak it by with a council vote and the opinions of local business be damned. Pisses me off that I donated to the campaigns of the guy who pushed this regressive tax forward on more than one occasion.