Multnomah County budget: What we are facing
In the coming weeks Multnomah County will start to finalize our budget for next year. It’s not clear yet how it will all wind up, but one thing is crystal clear: at the end of the day, a lot of people in this community will be suffering. This is the ninth straight year that the County has had to cut its budget. We are past the fat, past the flesh and deep into the bone. Simply put, our safety net is shredded; our public safety at risk.
We need to use this crisis to ask ourselves some important but uncomfortable questions. Are we really who we say we are? That is, do we really care about people in need? Do we really believe in giving young people the support they need to thrive? Do we really believe in preventing crime rather than just locking up criminals? Do we even really believe that crime should have consequences?
The truth is that increasingly our words ring hollow. Our self-image - as a progressive, caring community - increasingly is becoming a delusion. Our system of funding critical public services is broken. During the boom years we cut services that people needed. In the recession: we slash them. This is insanity. We need change.
One thing that needs to happen is we need to get beyond the taboos that have taken hold during the past few decades. I’ll start with one: taxes as a four letter word. No one likes paying taxes. I dread April 15th as much as the next guy, but taxes are how we address our collective needs. The way we invest in ourselves and there is no apology needed. The anti-tax hysteria that took hold in Oregon and across the nation in the past few decades is hurting our community and undermining our future prosperity. We need to be smart about how we do it, but we simply cannot just cut our way out of the present crisis.
I want to be transparent and open as I work with my colleagues on the Board to address this budget crisis. In the coming months I will share my feelings about the choices we face and my ideas about the best way to address them here on my website. I welcome your comments, feedback and thoughts.
Posted on February 25, 2009
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Comments
(Note: Comments are the views of their authors, and no one else.)
Posted by: Mike Burton - February 25, 2009 01:17 PM
let me add a five letter word to the tax question: "sales"
Posted by: Andrea Schneider - February 25, 2009 02:14 PM
Hi Jeff,
You have written a brave and well stated statement. I think we are going to have to ask the hard questions and engage in difficult dialogs with our friends, neighbors and community members, no joke.
The current situation is asking us to dig very deep for ideas and new answers to sometimes really old questions and answers. While money is a huge issue, it is also what we do with the money that needs attention.
Are we brave enough to comb through our agencies for redundancy and duplication of effort? It is not unusual to find deep groves in the earth when we talk about organizational change to match new ideas.
When we talk about reducing risk and increasing resiliency in our communities, we are talking about compelling issues that often share common causes and conditions (most times). Yet, we frequently design programs as if each part of the whole needs its own program. It's not true.
I wonder if we would design the systems we have today for the issues we face? I think not.
We spend the dollar over and over again. Is it possible to spend the dollar once with results in mind. Is it possible to share resources and leverage what we do have?
As a community policing evaluator, I know local law enforcement cannot be effective in reducing crime, if they don't have the community as partners. We need a completely different conversation and very open minds to tackle things in new and different ways. It just can't be more of the same.
You have opened a really great dialog! Thanks.
Posted by: Nora Lehnhoff - February 25, 2009 02:44 PM
Thanks for broaching the politically unmentionable. When ideology trumps societal responsibility, it is our children and our future that will suffer.
Posted by: Angela Gusa - February 25, 2009 03:03 PM
I'm very impressed with this statement and appreciate your honesty. Our president has helped to completely open up this conversation and inquiry into our values and ethics and I hope that we can continue the conversation on a local level. The importance of calling people to action and appealing to their highest sense of what is True cannot be overstated. Trying to change the way we are doing things by divisiveness and blame will not work. I believe people are ready for sanity. Thanks Jeff!
Posted by: Michael Morrow - February 25, 2009 03:05 PM
I agree with all the responses, especially Mike's. While the county's tax base is a bit different, the state's reliance on the "one-legged-stool" in insane. And the inability of our lawmakers, including progressives, to work up the courage to tell people the truth about our badly broken tax system is tragic.
A few loud, well-funded, lobbyist voices in Salem shape our state's future. Without a balance of taxes, including a targeted sales tax, Oregon--and our counties--will face continual fiscal crises. Cutting state taxes for those making under $150,000, and creating a targeted sales tax (as well as fairly taxing alcohol and corporations), will stabilize our entire state infrastructure.
President Obama made clear last night that it is time for bold thinking, and--as Jeff suggests--seriously re-defining who we are as Americans, Oregonians, and Portlanders.
Posted by: Kate Sokoloff - February 25, 2009 03:17 PM
Jeff: Good for you! It's a pleasure to know someone in politics who dares to say what he thinks. Only in Oregon would the idea of a sales tax be considered "bold." (And don't get me started on the kicker.) If our elected officials can get over their fear of being voted out of office when next they face an election, perhaps they would feel free to come up with real solutions for improvement, think more boldly, be okay with being the unpopular kid, and most important, sell it to the voters.
Posted by: Liz Smith Currie - February 25, 2009 04:33 PM
Yes! I'll do whatever volunteering you need on a levy or local tax campaign.
Posted by: jeff cogen - February 25, 2009 07:28 PM
Thanks for the great feedback and suggestions. I'll do what I can in the coming weeks and months to begin making this a reality, but this is going to take a village...
Posted by: Khadim Chishti - February 26, 2009 02:39 PM
Dear Jeff,
At least five years ago I sat with you over coffee and encouraged you to run for county commissioner.Thanks goodness you did and won.I am asking now that our discussion about taxes include all the possibilities.It is time for creativity, courage and servant leadership. Thank you for doing this challenging honorable work.
Khadim Chishti
Posted by: Terry Parker - February 27, 2009 10:39 AM
What is plainly transparent here is the word ”taxes” has five letters, not four, and that is where in the problem lies. Obviously government budget officials must not be using their thumbs as part of their count. Middle and working class income is not keeping up with inflation. Taxes on the middle and working class is has also risen faster than inflation.” Caught in the middle” is probably a better classification for the working class.
Much of the problem has been brought on by government tax policy which not only includes more tax breaks for the wealthy, but also includes a mishmash of excessive nanny type social engineering taxes assessed on middle class individuals and working class families, all for the purpose of controlling the lifestyle choices they make, taxing one activity only to subsidize another activity. Moreover, this often creates a disproportionate amount of taxes being paid between age groups and generations whereby middle aged people with families and older people who have paid taxes and worked most of their lives pay more, while younger and generally more physically active adults often receive a disproportionate share of the subsidies. When the tax codes are being used as a hammer to bash individual lifestyle, housing and transportation choices, and then subsidize others, democracy is lost - replaced with socialism. When there is a disparity of taxes between age groups and generations, that it borders on discrimination.
This is not to say that low income people don’t need a helping hand, or better yet a helping hand up, but progressives still don’t get it: sustainability starts with financial self-sustainability. Taxes must NOT be based on and/or controlling lifestyle, housing and transport choices. Taxes MUST be based on paying for the services being used. The fifth letter, the “S” in the word ”taxes” must no longer stand for subsidy. It MUST signify “sums of money” that are collected from the people that represent that fifth letter rather than having the dollars being paid out. One of the concepts of this new meaning be would be to eliminate all property tax abatement programs except for low income housing.
Other examples can be found in the transportation arena. They include: 1) Instead of bicyclists freeloading and bicycle infrastructure being paid for by poaching motorist paid roadway funds, a bicycle tax, license and registration fees needs to be established so bicyclists pay their own way. This must also include bicyclists paying for any bicycle infrastructure on the replacement for the Sellwood Bridge. 2) Instead of only having transit fares only cover twenty-something percent of transit operation costs. transit passengers need to be paying a greater share of the costs of providing the service. My response to TriMet’s proposed service cuts included: less dependence on tax subsidies, totally eliminating Fareless Square, charging for carrying bicycles on transit and raising fares which would include creating a discount program for low income people who can prove the need.
It is time so-called self-portrayed progressives wake up to the fact that they can no longer be in the business social engineering using the tax code as a dictatorial hammer to make changes in personal in a democratic society, and then expect the economy to remain vibrant. The current mindset is dismantling the middle class.
Posted by: Terry Parker - February 27, 2009 10:43 AM
Typo corrections to my last paragraph:
It is time so-called self-portrayed progressives wake up to the fact that they can no longer be in the business social engineering by using the tax code as a dictatorial hammer to make changes to personal lifestyle choices in a democratic society, and then expect the economy to remain vibrant. The current mindset is dismantling the middle class.
Posted by: jeff cogen - February 28, 2009 09:37 PM
Terry,
You and I have very different ideas about what challenges we currently face and how we ought to face them. Still, I appreciate your willingness to engage in the debate. We all benefit from having a vigorous discussion of the our ideas.
Jeff
Posted by: samantha Wattenburg - March 18, 2009 05:13 PM
There are an abundance of funds, people just have to look to get it. Poverty is the enemy, not the socio/economic status or the poeple that live in these conditions. I look at the news as an opportunity to help, and found one story that caught my eye. Multnomha County may loose funds for public safety? I have a message for the finanical director or county grantsman for the safety department. Try applying for federal assistance on grants.gov. There is plenty of money for safty. There are grants specificlly for county use. Do not be greedy and ask for more of what you do not apprisheate, but help the homeless, disadvantage, and those that are suffering. You can achieve this by understanding that You have everything you need, but you dont need everything that you have.
Posted by: Erin - March 24, 2009 09:58 AM
Three letter word for the tax question CUT!