Bonds to pay for basic services?

According to Jim Redden in today’s Portland Tribune, Commissioner Erik Sten is considering asking voters to approve a bond measure in November 2008 to fund infrastructure improvements, parks, and community centers “especially east of 82nd Avenue”.

Recognition of needs in neighborhoods outside of downtown is welcome, and we certainly should have a plan to identify and pay for them. Although Jim’s article highlights needs in East Portland, there are neighborhoods in every section of the city with major deficiencies in urban services – sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic signals, and suchlike, as well as improved parks and community centers.

Before supporting a bond measure, I’d want a wider discussion about whether the current City budget is being prioritized appropriately. Take tomorrow’s City Council Agenda item on a ten year, $1.15m tax exemption for more downtown condominiums, for example. It would grant the developer an estimated return of 8.35% on investment – a rate most Portlanders aren’t able to capture without playing the stock market. The hearing on the tax abatement issue will review only whether the proposed public benefits of that project meet the criteria for approval of the tax break. What I see is needed, is a wider discussion (outside of the pressured lobbying for specific projects of the formal budget process) to review whether the Council’s focus on dollars for downtown is in line with the livability of all 95 of Portland’s neighborhoods. What if general fund dollars were allocated to neighborhood needs outside of downtown, and citizens got to vote on whether to approve bonds for improvements in the Central City?

The Tribune article further reports that Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s top priority isn’t parks, a City bureau he’s currently assigned. His staffer Matt Grumm is quoted saying Dan’s number 1 goal for the 2008 General Election is to pass a renewal of the Children’s Initiative. Social services are supposed to be primarily County responsibilities.

The City and County really, really need to get those discussions about Resolution A started. And Portlanders also should take another look at the city’s Charter – y’know, that thing we just voted on last month. It seems to me the priority should be finding ways to fund needs that are specified in the Charter, like parks and streets, before citizens are asked to provide extra money for programs that aren’t part of the City’s core responsibilities.