Supporters of Light Rail

The state legeslature passed legeslaion to finance building of a north-south light rail system in 1996. Citizens referred it to the voters as measure 32. Here is a list of big contributors ($5000 and over) who were in favor of building light rail. Their contributions totaled $980,000 . (All pro-rail contributions totaled over $1,156,340.) (see big contributer list below)
In 1998 rail was again on the ballot. Measure 26-74 was on the Nov. 3 ballot in Tri-Met's service district. It was for $475 million in property tax-backed bonds to build a 16.4-mile, $1.6 billion light-rail line from Clackamas Town Center through downtown Portland to North Portland's Kenton neighborhood.
Download the 1998 C&E report View the 1998 CE report as HTML

1994 - The light rail supporters spent $1.1 million, the opponents spent about $110,000 and won.

NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR

AMOUNT

Connection

Portland General Electric $52,500 Sells Electricity
Pacific Power $52,500 Sells Electricity
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $50,640 Wiring the system
Fred Meyer $50.000
International Union of Operating Engineers $44,710
U.S. Bancorp $35,000 Sells bonds
First Interstate Bank $30,000 Sells bonds
Siemens Duewag Corporation $30,000 Makes rail car components
Oregon Public Employees Union $27,400 Will operate trains
Legacy Health $25,000
Portland Trail Blazers $22,750
Local Union Legal Foundation $20,000
Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas $20,000 Designs & builds rail lines
Bridge Structural, & Ornamental Iron Workers $17,400 Construct the system
Sheet Metal Workers $16,350 Construct the system
Bank of America $15,000 Sells bonds
Intel Corporation $15,000
Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen $14,000 Construct the system
LTK Engineering Services $13,400 Engineering
BRW Inc. $12,500
Middleton & Company $12,000
Greenbriar Company $10,000
Tom Walsh $10,000 Principal in Construction Company
Zummer Grinnel Frasca Partnership $10,000
Goldman Sachs & G.) $10,000 Finance
Nike, Inc $10,000
Kiewit Pacific $10,000 Construction company
Morse Brothers $10,000
Union Pacific Railroad $10,000
Hanley Industrial properties $10,000
Bombardiere Corporation $10,000 Builds trains
City Center Parking $10,000
Obie Outdoor Advertising $10,000
OTAK Architects $10,000
Standard Insurance $10,000
U.S. West Communications $10,000
United Infrastructure $10,000
Amalgamated Transit Union $8,100
Cement Masons $7,650 Builds the system
Hoffman Corporation $7,500 Contractor
CH2M Hill $6,000 Engineering
O'Brien Kreizberg $5,600
James Furman & Co- $5,000
Dames & Moore $5,000
Providence Health Systems $5,000
Slayden Construction $5,000
Kaiser Permanente $5,000
David Evans & Associates $5,000 Engineering, consulting
Class PAC $5,000
CFI Pro Services $5,000
Davis, Wright, Tremaine $5,000 Lawyers
NW Natural Gas Co- $5,000 Gas for electricity
Zidell, Inc- $5,000
Stoel, Rives, Boley, Jones, & Gray $5,000 Lawyers
Yeon Properties $5,000
Pacific Gas Transmission $5,000 Gas for Electricity
AT & T Wireless $5,000
Block 216 Partners $5,000
Keylorp Management $5,000
------------
Total, Big Money Contributions over $5,000 $884,800
Percentage of All Contributions 76.5%
Total, Contributions over $1,000 $980,640
Percentage of All Contributions 84.8%
Total, All Contributions $1,156,340

Source: Records for Oregonians for Roads and Rails and for Oregonians for Local Control at Secretary of State's Office, Elections Division, Salem, Oregon.

WhoWantsRail-text only-forHTML-2.wpd

1998 spendig report

Supporters of Measure 26-74, which asks for voter approval of financing to build a south-north light-rail line, have raised $381,603 in their campaign in support of the new MAX line. The Yes on South/North committee has spent $98,260. A group opposing the rail line, called Atlas Oregon Political Action Committee, has raised $16,734

The Yes committee received more than half of its money from contributions of $25,000 apiece, much of it from companies that have been involved in construction or operations of Tri-Mets existing light-rail lines.

The largest came from Tom Walsh & Co. of Portland, a firm established by the former Tri-Met general manager. The Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, a Portland architectural firm, contributed $25,100 to the campaign.

Contributions of $25,000 came from 200 Market Associates, a Portland real estate firm; the Hoffman Corp., a Portland construction firm; LTK Engineering Services of Blue Bell, Pa., a consulting firm; Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc.; an engineering consulting firm based in New York; Stoel Rives, a Portland law firm; Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. of Iselin N.J., a rail car manufacturer; Pacific Power; and Legacy Health System.

The Atlas Oregon Political Action Committee reported a contribution of $11,000 from real estate developer Robert Randall of Portland; $2,500 from investor Paul Farago of Portland; and $1,000 from businessman and activist Frank Eisenzimmer of Boring.

The ballot measure would provide $475 million to Tri-Met to help pay for construction of a 16-mile, $1.6 billion light-rail line running from Clackamas Town Center through downtown Portland to the Kenton District of North Portland., (Oregonian, Oct 6, 1998)