So Much for a "Portland Street Fund" Détante

Portland Mercury:

Last week, during a heated public meeting over a new tax to fund Portland's roads, Mayor Charlie Hales invited one of the plans' most strident critics to talk privately about alternatives.
In a brief back-and-forth, Hales' and petroleum industry lobbyist Paul Romain toyed with the idea of meeting to discuss a funding mechanism that might not cause oil interests to try to kill the tax (by putting it up to a public vote). It was hopeful, sort of—a potential end to the acrimony that's stymied a street fee twice already this century. But it wasn't to be, apparently. Check out the acrimony laid bare in an e-mail exchange between Romain and Commissioner Steve Novick. Novick sent it to reporters this afternoon, letting us all know: "I really don’t understand what his deal is." From: Novick, Steve Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 11:53 AMTo: 'Paul Romain'; Dietz, SusanCc: Alpert, Josh; Pierce, Tera; Haynes, Marion; Romain, DanelleSubject: RE: Scheduling with Mayor Hales Dear Paul - You say you are interested in funding transportation by cutting other programs funded by the City. Last week I sent you a link to the City's budget documents and a list of Budget Office staff, and invited you to contact them with any questions. In your absence, Danelle is very welcome to take me up on that offer. Meanwhile, I hope you will both review the Mercury's excellent summary of the City budget; here's a link to that. You will see that I was not lying when I told you that most of our General Fund money goes to police, fire and parks.http://m.portlandmercury.com/portland/where-the-money-goes/Content?oid=12946748 I am surprised by your sudden interest in broader City budget issues, because as far as I can tell, you have not shown such an interest before. If you thought the City had plenty of money, I would have expected you to oppose both the Children's Levy and the Arts Tax, on the grounds that the money for those programs could be provided through pre-existing revenue sources. But I do not recall your opposing either tax; you certainly did not file Voters' Guide statements against either. When the City was making budget cuts in 2013, hundreds of Portlanders turned out to argue for their favorite programs; I don't recall you showing up to advocate for cuts. When I quite publicly argued, in the last City budget cycle, that we should cut certain programs, like the mounted patrol, and allocate some General Fund money to transportation, I don't recall you joining that discussion either. But if you do have specific suggestions about cuts that we could make, I am certainly ready to listen. You had an interesting suggestion last week, about applying the local income tax to nonresidents who earn income in Portland. I have asked the Revenue Bureau to explore the legal and practical feasibility of that idea. Since our proposal will only address a portion our transportation maintenance and safety needs, additional revenue from your idea would be quite welcome. Danelle, I am cc'ing you so you can follow up in Paul's absence. Happy Thanksgiving! From: Paul Romain Sent: Monday, November 24, 2014 4:47 PMTo: Dietz, Susan; Novick, SteveCc: Alpert, Josh; Pierce, Tera; Haynes, Marion; Romain, DanelleSubject: RE: Scheduling with Mayor Hales I am leaving on vacation, so I cannot schedule any kind of meeting prior to January. The meeting will be relevant only if the City Council does not adopt either of the two tax measures. The meeting should include a number of people who are interested in road maintenance and should involve a detailed review of all of the city spending. It is not a meeting to try to convince a few of our clients to support two fatally-flawed tax measures. We thought that the initial task-force meetings this Summer were going to include this kind of review. We were prevented at the initial meeting from looking into any other portion of the budget other than the Transportation Bureau. We do not support either of the two taxes proposed and will work with many others in the community to refer both measures if they are not referred by the Council. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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