In 2006, Cornelius voters roundly rejected a gas tax proposal that city officials proposed as a way to pay for road improvements.

Flash forward to 2010. The economy’s worse, the gas tax is about to go up statewide, and the gas tax is back.

But Cornelius city officials attached a carrot to a yes vote in this special election. Ballots are due March 9.

Approve the two cents a gallon gas tax — which was passed by the city council last year and referred to voters by a petition from the Oregon Petroleum Association — and the city will repeal a $2.25 per month streetlight fee imposed on every Cornelius business and residence.

“Our streets are falling apart,” said Cornelius City Manager Dave Waffle. “I just got an e-mail from a citizen angry that we’re just patching potholes, instead of repairing the street where she lost a tire.”

But street repairs are expensive, costing an average of $18,000 per block to repave a residential street. The gas tax, if approved, will raise about $180,000 in revenue, Waffle said.

That’s on top of the $231,000 the city will be getting from House Bill 2001, the extensive transportation bill from the 2009 Legislature that raised registration fees and gas taxes.

And that’s where Bob Barman has a problem.

The owner of a new Chevron station on Adair Street, Barman said he is concerned about the impact of the new taxes on his business and his customers.

“At the average fill, it’s at nearly $6 every time someone needs to fill up, to pay for the roads,” he said. “This is way premature. They haven’t even spent that (HB 2001) money yet, and now they’re going out asking working families and unemployed families to cough up more money, when they’re already stretched to the max?”

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