I was shocked to read last week’s article in the Cascade Business News outlining the Core Area Plan that the City Council is set to approve on May 20. The article, essentially a city press release, was all fluff about the wonderful dreamy results of such a plan. Almost a guarantee of utopia.
To the uninformed public, not a word about the costs. Not a word that it requires a gigantic urban renewal district (think of the Juniper Ridge debacle). Not a word that the real impact of the proposed action is a redirection of about a quarter of a billion dollars of tax payer funds. Such deception is inappropriate and is a major contributor to distrust of city government.
This proposed core area plan/urban renewal project reallocates $50 million from the city general fund — from which police, fire and emergency medical and road maintenance are paid — and redirects it to this redevelopment effort. It is interesting that city officials constantly complain that their tax rate and therefore tax revenue is too low, but are willing to take nearly two million dollars a year from essential public safety services, and reallocate it to this redevelopment program. Apparently the city determined redevelopment is more important than funding public safety. Overall, the plan represents a transfer of a quarter of a billion dollars from the allocation made by voters, to a gigantic questionable program benefiting one district of the city. Such a massive reallocation should have voter approval.
Unstated in the City’s glossy simplified presentation of a wonderful Core Area Plan is that it will also take huge amounts of taxes from other taxing districts to fund the gigantic Urban Renewal District required. The takings over the life of the Urban Renewal District are:
- $87 million taken from schools;
- $11 million taken from COCC;
- $6 million taken from 911;
- $20 million taken from the rural sheriff’s district;
- $10 million taken from the library district;
- $22 million taken from the county;
- $26 million taken from the Parks District.
Apparently to the City, what’s a couple hundred million dollars of other people’s money?
About half of the quarter billion dollars the Core Area Urban Renewal District will receive is planned to be spent on “infrastructure.” This includes primarily “streetscape improvements” such as bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit enhancements, intersection improvements, new road extensions and even help with water, sewer and storm water masterplans.
Maintaining infrastructure is a primary city function. Just because the city apparently has not kept up with this primary responsibility, should it be allowed to arbitrarily take revenue from all the other vital governmental units? Sounds like the mafia approach — we just want a little from all these other agencies — for 30 years!
Should the City Council just be able to redistribute a couple hundred million dollars from other agencies and gift it to itself? This “Core Area Plan” will authorize it to do so.
And nearly half the remaining money, after the infrastructure allotment, is designated for subsidizing high-rise apartments. All this will remove a significant employment center from the central city area to build these high rises. Obviously the businesses will have to move. The huge cost of moving these businesses would also be financed by taxpayers. The list of projects can be changed at any time by any future City Council. So it is pretty much an open book to spend on anything. It will result in gentrifying a unique area of the city, pretty much the natural result of a huge urban renewal district. Does the fastest growing city in the state need to subsidize developers and growth?
It is also noteworthy that taking from these other agencies means residents of the rural areas of the county from La Pine to Terrebonne will help pay for Bend’s infrastructure and beautification projects for this one neighborhood. Shouldn’t they have a say as to whether their tax monies should be given to the City of Bend?
The justification for this Urban Renewal District rests on the assumption that the City Council has the ultimate wisdom so that it must overrule voter’s decisions and redirect a portion of taxes from other agencies to city redevelopment efforts, for 30 years, because they think that is more important. If such a major reallocation is to be done, it should be done by voters.
Additionally, in light of the pandemic and its known very negative effect on the State of Oregon’s budget (planning on an 18 percent reduction), it appears likely that all these local agency budgets will also be significantly negatively impacted by the pandemic. With this immense uncertainty, it seems a very inopportune time to commit funds to this massive project.
The above article was prepared by the author in his/her own personal capacity. The opinions expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cascade Business News or of Cascade Publications Inc.
