City of Portland Adopted a Transportation Utility Fee

On April 29th Portland City Council voted 9-3 to create a Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) that will raise $47 million annually to begin to address the roughly $6.6 billion street maintenance backlog. As the current TUF raises less than 1% against the current maintenance backlog, we can expect this fee to be revisited. The TUF is slated to take effect in January of 2027.

Over the past 15 years, city leaders have proposed various iterations of taxes and fees to collect dedicated funds to fix Portland’s roads – all ultimately failed to be passed. Many municipalities across Oregon and the nation have adopted a similar TUF that gets added to existing water and sewer billing to property owners.

Portland’s TUF will charge owners of single-family homes $12 a month and multifamily properties $8.40 per unit, per month. Commercial and non-residential properties will be changed $61 a month. Multifamily NW testified against the city of Portland adopting this fee, placing the burden of collecting individual Transportation Utility Fees onto housing providers.

This ordinance passed with an amendment to extend the existing low-income discount program for water and sewer rates to similarly qualifying multifamily housing residents. We’ll be monitoring how the city will accomplish this as they get closer to implementing the TUF.

This new monthly fee will likely put upward pressure on rent in Portland, as the TUF cannot be automatically assigned to existing tenancies. Still, Oregon statutes do provide the ability for housing providers to set up and disclose the bill-back to the renter for public service charges of local governments.

The Multifamily NW Forms Collection has the necessary language to ensure correct billing. You’ll want to connect with your landlord tenant law attorney to make sure your utility bill-back strategy is compliant before implementing. The Association offers ongoing educational opportunities to help provide this know-how as well, for example, the 9-Part Oregon Landlord Tenant Law Series is offered three times a year – every Winter, Spring and Fall – great for new hires and refreshers for members’ understanding of the constantly evolving rental housing regulatory environment.