In a Statesman Journal piece, "Ward 8 candidate Jim Lewis shares reasons why he wants to continue work on Council," Lewis says he's against tolling on a new bridge across the Willamette River.
As a matter of clarification, I want to dispel a rumor that I in some way support tolls for the existing two bridges and the new bridge, nothing could be further from the truth and neither myself or the residents of West Salem would allow tolls to ever be a part of the formula for funding.
But at the April 24, 2017 City Council meeting, Lewis cast a vote in favor of including congestion pricing (another word for tolling) as part of the funding strategy for the Salem River Crossing, or Third Bridge.
I wrote about this in a blog post, "Salem City Council votes 5-4 against Third Bridge."
As noted in the post, at that meeting Cara Kaser made a motion to reject an Intergovernmental Agreement that called for congestion pricing/tolling on a Third Bridge. It passed on a 5-4 vote.
Jim Lewis voted against that motion, which meant he favored congestion pricing/tolling. So don't be fooled by Lewis' attempt to deny his previous support of tolling.
City Council minutes don't lie.
The next day, April 25, I wrote another blog post that included a video of Public Works Director Peter Fernandez saying that "congestion pricing" indeed means tolling. So Jim Lewis has favored tolling, no matter what he says now.
Comments