Portland Mayor Keith Wilson released his city budget proposal today, announcing a mix of staffing changes, fee increases and cuts aimed at blunting the force of an estimated $93 million general fund shortfall.
Calling it a “back to basics” approach, Wilson’s proposal for how to balance the city’s $8.54 billion budget includes some relief for the transportation bureau. As BikePortland reported, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) prepped for bleak cuts to address impacts of an estimated $38 million budget shortfall. The agency braced for widespread layoffs and cuts to programs and services like street sweeping, traffic signal repairs, striping crosswalks, Sunday Parkways, Vision Zero, the street plaza program, and more.
The mayor’s budget seeks to slice $15.4 million from PBOT. This means the agency will see some cuts, but the most dire warnings will not come to pass.
To boost transportation revenue, Wilson’s proposal seeks to raise parking and rideshare fees, reinstate a leaf cleanup fee, and finance the city’s legal commitment to ADA curb ramp construction.
When it comes to new parking revenue, the mayor’s plan is to raise an additional $6.8 million via what he characterized as, “modest increases in parking fees in line with peer cities.” $5.5 million of that will be generated through a 25% increase in hourly parking meter rates in each district. Hourly event parking meter rates would also go up. To raise another $350,000 per year, the cost to park in the Providence Park district would increase from $5 to $7 per hour and Moda Center area parking would increase from $3 to $5 per hour. Event parking district hours would also be extended from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, which Wilson says would generate another $1 million per year.
An increase in the fees charged to rideshare customers is also in Wilson’s plan. Currently, folks who use Uber or Lyft pay an extra 65-cents per ride, with an additional surcharge for airport trips and for trips that start or end outside Portland city limits. Wilson wants to double that fee to $1.30 and use the $5.1 million in estimated new revenue to invest in pothole repairs and street cleaning activities such as graffiti removal, and towing derelict RVs (PBOT has said they’d be forced to reduce derelict RV removal 75% — from 550 to 140 RVs annually — without new revenue).
Wilson will stave off the elimination of all street sweeping services by moving $3.1 million from the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) to PBOT. Those funds will allow for the hire of nine new permanent sweeping positions. Because the sweeping would be funded by BES, the locations chosen for sweeping must drain to surface water or groundwater sources.
The mayor’s budget creates additional funding for PBOT by saving them money in the short-term through a refinance of the City’s legal obligation to build and replace ADA curb ramps citywide. The plan is to work with the City Attorney’s Office and the Public Works Service Area on a new bond issuance. Those bonds will create near-term revenue for PBOT above and beyond the interest it will cost to pay them back.
When it comes to cuts, PBOT will be impacted by the citywide “enterprise efficiencies” cuts — these are staffing cuts on positions like communications and equity compliance that are currently duplicated across several bureaus that will be consolidated into the Public Works Service Area. This could be a significant loss if the media loses the ability to get timely, accurate, detailed information about PBOT. I’ve relied on PBOT communications staff for years and they are a crucial part of my work. If I’m forced instead to speak with a generalist without intimate knowledge of transportation policy or the day-to-day workings of the bureau, the community could suffer.
Wilson’s plan will also reduce $113,000 from PBOT’s share of the city’s general fund (all bureaus were asked to cut 8%, and since PBOT gets very little from the general fund, their share is small). Those cuts were expected and will include: a $44,000 reduction in PBOT’s central city street cleaning budget (a reduction to anti-icing efforts); $46,622 from a program that paves gravel streets; and $11,082 from Sunday Parkways. PBOT says the Sunday Parkways reductions, “Would reduce safety programming for these events such as barricades, traffic control and parking signage, and traffic flagging.”
PBOT will also see its allocation from the Recreational Cannabis Tax reduced by $277,664. That’s fortunately only about one-third of what PBOT expected, but it’s still funding that will directly hit Vision Zero-related projects like intersection daylighting and other safety projects.
Overall, it appears Mayor Wilson has prioritized PBOT and saved the agency from the worst cuts. That might be because he sees transportation as a key element in his push for a green economy. At his State of the City event Friday, Wilson was asked a question about job development and he responded by saying he believes Portlanders should, “leave the cars at home.” Here’s an excerpt:
“We should be the greenest city in the nation and using those jobs as that catalyst to move us forward. I really think that green leadership is the way we move our city forward. We are a car-centric focus; we have to focus on a multimodal transportation system. So we need to unlock that potential. We need to focus on streetcars, which is that elemental approach to transportation-oriented villages, and then it has to be anchored with high speed rail. And we have to change how we lead our society, leave the cars at home, take that income and invest it in our communities, for the health of our community.”
One open question is whether state lawmakers will come to the rescue and pass a transportation funding package. Any increase in the gas tax would automatically flow to the City of Portland. “This package adds revenue in anticipation of a state gas tax increase,” reads one line of the budget. But there’s no additional explanation of what would happen if or when that increase doesn’t come to pass.
One question I’m still trying to answer is how — or if — the mayor’s budget addressed PBOT’s street plaza program. PBOT was asking for another $700,000 in one-time general funding to keep the popular program going. I don’t see it in the mayor’s budget, so perhaps it’s gone. I’ll work to confirm and update when I learn more.
From here, the budget will be debated among the 12 city councilors and the public will have opportunities to weigh in. City Council will ultimately adopt the final budget in mid-June. Stay tuned for more updates, as the budget will be a major focus of council for the next 4-6 weeks. For more coverage of today’s news, see this OPB story.
