SALEM — Civic leaders in Salem have long been frustrated by the flood of commuters from Portland, who drive in for their state government jobs and leave town by 5 p.m., contributing little to the capital city’s culture and commerce.

It turns out, though, that Interstate 5 is a two-way street. Census figures show that more people commute in the opposite direction, from their homes in Salem to jobs in Portland and its suburbs. The distance from Salem to Portland is 47 miles.

About 31,000 Salem-area residents reported a primary job in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area — 7,000 more than reported the opposite.

The numbers of Salem-to-Portland commuters didn’t surprise Roxanne Daniel, a Wilsonville resident who works in Salem and plans to move there soon.

“It’s so much less expensive to live in Salem,” Daniel told the Statesman Journal in Salem.

Some commuters say the depressed housing market is an obstacle to moving closer to their job. They worry that their homes would languish on the market, or they would have to accept a cut-rate price for a quick sale.

‘My job is where it’s at’

Jim Conlin doesn’t mind working in one city and keeping the rest of his life rooted in another. The state worker makes the daily commute to Salem from Beaverton, where he grew up.

“My job is where it’s at. My home is where it’s at,” said Conlin. He isn’t prepared to sell his house in a down market and relocate.

Still, while Salem may export more workers to Portland than it receives, it still has unique challenges. Eighteen percent of Salem’s workforce — nearly one in five workers — lives in the Portland area. And that’s a problem, said Salem Mayor Anna Peterson, who sees cash for the local economy and potential civic leadership leaving town at 65 mph.

“We lose their participation in the community,” Peterson said.

Many commuters from the Portland area, combined with an abundance of state property that is exempt from property taxes, has long vexed city leaders. Some have occasionally argued that Salem isn’t getting its fair share of tax revenue.

Ten years ago, a faction of the Salem City Council pushed for a city income tax structured to primarily affect commuters. The plan was opposed by Salem’s business community, however, and by 2003, when former Mayor Janet Taylor first took office, the idea was dead.