More Millions - wasted?

PGE Park - why government shouldn't try to run a business.

• Wasted $6-24 million on PGE park
• "$38 million sweetheart deal"
• "The real history of this deal began with the secrecy agreement,"  
• PGE Park group wants city to waive payments
• Next: Baseball boosters want to spend $275 million of public money to build a new stadium
• Washington times on Baseball: "the publicly subsidised ballpark would generate massive revenue streams for the team's owners"
• Washington Post on Baseball     Ralph Nader: Baseball's Stadium Shakedown

More Development Spending

• property taxes on Pearl District condo - $163 per year
• Portland dumps $15 million more into the Pearl district. (aside: PDC spends $307 million this year)
• $30 million for North Macadam (Depending on who you talk to, the total spent will reach $150-$277 million)
•  Private development denied:  $ millions investment with no public subsidy  - Portland planners rejected the plan
• $150 Million for Pearl District infrastructure
• Less than $500 property tax on a $400,000 Condo

Portland School District #1

• contract “buyouts” for top administrators that have cost the district almost $800,000 in the last three years. Goldschmidt, brother of former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, billed at the rate of $1,250 per day
•  School board wants to unload headquarters
•  Big contract, special perks and golden parachutes. 

Massive Waste In Local Government

There was almost 20-30 million in waste at the water bureau alone:
"the city's losses, estimated to total from $20 million to $30 million"
"The water and sewer bureaus say they have absorbed most of the system- related losses through budget cuts."

If the water bureau saved most of $20-30 million, how much waste is there in other departments?
Shouldn't they cut this waste BEFORE raising our taxes?

Just Plain Incompetence

• Water bureau wasted $20-30 million
•  Portland drove out 400 jobs: Columbia sportswear
• $12 million spent to construct Multnomah County's Children's Receiving Center. The center was designed with 16 beds, but is opening to only eight children a day because the state Department of Human Services shows fewer children are going into foster care now than when construction began. (do the math: $12 million divided by 16 beds = $750,000 per bed. Condos in the Pearl would have been cheaper!)
• Katz was in New York City pitching Portland to Major League Baseball on election night when ballot measure 28 was defeated.

Plans to spend even more

$500 million to pay for the first phase without a public vote.  $35 million from the Clackamas Town Center urban renewal district and a $40 million pledge from Portland.

Leaving Our Children In Debt

Pondering horse barns, horse laughs

State of Oregon

• Oregon state government's lack of internal auditors put $11.9 billion of public money at increased risk for loss or mismanagement in 2001-03.

• Although Oregon ranks near the bottom of the nation in taxes, it was 14th in 2000 when both taxes and fees are included.

• Green-building tax credit : more than $350,000 in just one Brewery Blocks building

Exemptions, Contributions & City Hall: Clout For Sale?

• 11/5/2002 - Council contributors target campaign giving

• 11/5/2002 -  How to rein in contributions

• 11/5/2002 - City Hall: clout for sale?

• 1/1/2003 -- Less than $500 property tax on a $400,000 Condo

• 6/27/2003 - Tax break rankles in tight times

• 6/27/2003 - Critics question the need for continued property tax breaks

• 6/27/2003 - High-rises at high prices

• 7/30/2003 - anointed real-estate developer Homer Williams

How Long Will Our Recession Last?

• 1/3/2003  How is Oregon going to dig itself out of the economic doldrums? It may be more difficult to dig ourselves out (than it was from the last serious recession in the early 1980s).

• 6/27/2003 LAtimes: the state has become a butt of jokes for its failings (may require intrusive registration)