The City paid $11.9m, not $8.5m, for OHSU’s tram

I can’t believe I’m the first citizen to discover what I posted in comments on who paid what for OHSU’s tram – that the City paid $11.9 million in tax increment funds to help pay for it, not the $8.5 million commonly quoted. I know there are neighbors who’ve followed this process for over 10 years, with stacks of paperwork and large stored electronic files to prove it. But when I search for OHSU tram $11.9 million on Google, only 7 hits come up, all false positives containing “OHSU tram” and “$11.9 million” in unconnected reports.

When I search for OHSU tram $8.5 million, 59 hits show up, almost all stating the City of Portland contributed $8.5 million in tax increment funds for the tram.

So let’s all be clear. The City paid $8.5 million directly, and ALSO gave/credited OHSU with another $3.4 million in tax increment funds, which OHSU then applied to their tram bill. The City paid $11.9 million for the tram.

If you think it was worth it at $8.5 million, likely you still feel that way with a cost to the City of $11.9 million. But the next time someone says that the City paid only $8.5 million of the $57 million price tag, I hope there is a loud chorus yelling, “eleven point nine”.