Charlie Hales focuses on street improvements, relationships with police and other basic services.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales focused on street improvements, relationships with police and other basic services in his proposed budget unveiled Tuesday.
The budget clocks in at $3.5 billion.
From the Portland Tribune:
Hales could have proposed spending it on new programs or initiatives, something his predecessor Sam Adams was famous for. Instead, here’s where Hales wants most of it spent:
- Street projects would receive nearly half of the increase, almost $20 million. The additional money would continue the city’s commitment to maintain 100 miles of streets a year, add safety improvements in East Portland so TriMet will start frequent service on 122nd Avenue, and finally begin funding the long promised “Up From the Mud” program to pave the 50 miles of dirt roads in the city.
- Continuing police reforms, including creating the new positions required to implement the U.S. Department of Justice settlement agreement to end the bureau’s historic use of excessive force against the mentally ill. Hales is also proposing spending $500,000 to help fund the new regional Psychiatric Emergency Center with Multnomah County and other partners called for in the agreement.
- Expanding hours for teenagers at Portland Park & Recreation community centers and other facilities to provide safe options to being on the streets. Among other things, Hales wants to spend $2 million of the additional funds to reduce the user fees that were begun during the Great Recession to offset budget cuts.
Adequately paying city employees is also a priority, the Portland Business Journal reports.
Increases in Portland’s minimum wage for city employees, to $15 per hour, would cost $900,000. Another $1.93 million would provide security, public access and youth programs at the 2016 Indoor Track and Field events.
Portland’s City Council is poring through the budget and is expected to approve it by late June.
East Portland will be the beneficiary of the budget proposal, OregonLive.com writes.
“The main street of east Portland is 122nd Avenue,” Hales said, saying the $8 million would add critical safety improvements to make the thoroughfare available to more frequent transit service.
The proposed budget includes $18.9 million in one-time spending for the Bureau of Transportation, with $8.9 million for paving projects and $6.9 million for street safety improvements.
The Oregonian called Hale’s approach “practical” as he heads into a bid for re-election.
From OregonLive.com:
And in perhaps his biggest bout of Portland boosterism to date, Hales earmarked $1.9 million toward next year’s international indoor track championships , to be held at the Oregon Convention Center. With so much extra money to spend, some City Hall insiders expected a bit more glitz, summoning visions of former Mayor Sam Adams crisscrossing the building to cut deals to support his next big, if ill-fated, idea. But Hales – so far unopposed as he seeks a second term in the May 2016 primary – said he’s plenty content with his approach.
“That’s not really a surprise,” he said of a mostly no-frills budget, “coming from me.”
