A city committee looking for ways to bring Bend’s roads up to snuff is aiming to target tourists. Some of the ideas miss the mark.

The city’s transportation advisory committee met this week to start working its way through a list of actions that would provide Bend with more money to maintain, improve and build new roads. It may be no surprise that the group appears most interested in ideas that put the burden on someone else.

One idea still on the table is boosting the city’s systems development charge for transportation, a fee that’s levied against new construction in the city. While hiking SDCs may sound good, Bend is already an expensive place to live, and raising the cost of building new homes can only make the problem worse.

Two taxes, a limited sales tax and a seasonal gasoline tax, also drew favor. Again, at least as they were discussed, there are problems. Both, committee members said, would help ensure that tourists pick up part of the bill for transportation infrastructure.

One would add a sales tax to restaurant meals, car rentals and the like. That sounds attractive, although it’s a good bet that many of Bend’s restaurants would close their doors if they had to rely on tourists alone to stay in business. Bend residents no doubt would pay a major portion of a sales tax that unfairly falls on one segment of the economy. As for a car rental fee, it seems likely that most tourists who come to Bend by air rent their cars near the Redmond airport.

A seasonal gas tax is better, but only just barely. It’s better as a year-round tax. After all, skiers drive, too.

Seriously, if a gas tax is good in July, it should be equally good in January or November. We continue to believe that a year-round gasoline tax, carefully crafted and carefully explained, could win approval. It is, after all, one tax that’s paid by those who use the roads.

An even better option, as we have said before, could be a transportation bond. The city would have to identify improvements Bend residents support and residents get to vote on the package. That’s what the city should get behind.