PMLR-Tacoma Plan
There are many severe problems with Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail project.
It's too big, too expensive, unfunded, publicly opposed and will rip off essential services for decades.
All of these problems can be remedied with the Tacoma Plan.
The Tacoma plan will save $500 million and be far more beneficial than just a remedy for Clackamas County and Milwaukie.
TriMet, Portland, Metro and the federal shares would all be eliminated or reduced.
All of
the regional partners are already contributing to this project with
their shares of the ODOT, Lottery, Metro/JPACT and the federal funding.
The Tacoma Plan allows the bulk of the project to be completed including the new bridge and connections to PSU, SoWa, OMSI,
SE Portland, the rest of the light rail system and to the Tacoma Station Park & Ride.
TriMet
The Tacoma Plan relieves TriMet itself of
having to borrow their share and the tremendous burden of having to
stretch future operations revenue to pay debt service. TriMet already
faces the nearly insurmountable task of using future revenue trying to
recover service lost during years of cuts while also funding new
operations. Recklessly committing millions towards unnecessary debt will
make that task impossible.
Future payroll taxes will be needed for:
Fund rising costs of operations
Fund rising costs of pension liabilities
Fund return of cuts to service
Add and operate new bus service
Fund part of new streetcar line operations
Fund new PMLR operations
Adding debt service on $40 to 60 Million for PMLR isn't possible unless some of those are sacrificed.
Portland
Portland will have to scour out
revenue from pots already desperately short of funding projects and
other debt servicing in SoWa and other vital services. The PDC is about
to use SoWa UR to borrow $10 million for PMLR with no real increment available for the borrowing capacity or debt service. http://bojack.org/2012/06/
Metro
Metro's
share from JPACT allocations of fed gax tax flex funds could be cut back
freeing up those gas tax allocations for many other unfunded projects.
Miwaukie
Milwaukie will not have to cut services to pay their share. http://bojack.org/2012/06/
Clackamas County
The county has NO source for their $25 million share and would not have to Trade Public Safety for Light Rail.
Additional benefits
With the $500 million in savings the full 1000 space Tacoma parking garage could be put back into the project.
TriMet would more easily be able to preserve existing bus service and add back service cuts in future years.
The Tacoma Station can serves arriving express buses from many points south.
Future expansion of transit may be possible if and when a better future economy and public support provide real funding.
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Is Clackamas County Trading Public Safety for Light Rail?
Through
a FOIA request, the chief petitioners for the Clackamas Rail Vote
Measure 3-401 received copies of a letter from Clackamas County Sheriff
Craig Roberts to the Board of County Commissioners and the text of
Sheriff Roberts’ testimony to the County Budget Committee, expressing
his deep concern about the implications of the Portland Milwaukie Light
Rail project (PMLR) for public safety and other basic County services.
(These are included below.)
The
alarming information contained in these documents strikes at the very
core of why the chief petitioners support a public vote on
PMLR. Clackamas voters who overwhelmingly supported a public safety
levy last November were not voting to free up county funding for light
rail. As the sheriff stated, “…moving ahead with light rail will mean moving backwards on public safety….”
The Board of County Commissioners is ready to trade voter approved public safety for a non-voter approved light rail project. This is unacceptable. The county cannot afford to participate in the PMLR as intended. The only option is to withdraw from the Inter-Governmental Agreement and urge TriMet to scale back the project.
The
Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail Project is too big, too costly, at the
wrong time, with inadequate funding and lacking public support. An
optional phasing of the project to terminate at Tacoma Street will
reduce the financial burden for all the local partners and allow time
for future economic growth to provide the adequate funding and public
support not currently available.
We thank Sheriff Roberts for his dedication to public safety. We need more elected officials who are willing to stand up for the priorities defined by the voters.
Jim Knapp, Oak Lodge Water District
Mary Olson, Lake Oswego City Councilor
Steve Spinnett, Mayor of Damascus
Chief Petitioners Measure 3-401
----------------------------------------------------
Board of County Commissioners,
You
recently released a public announcement, indicating that you will move
forward on May 22 with a full-funding agreement for the Orange Line. As
Sheriff, I feel compelled to speak out about the impact this decision
will have on public safety and other essential services that the county
provides to its citizens.
I
am neither in favor, nor opposed, to the expansion of mass transit —
provided that sufficient resources are made available to ensure the
safety of the public. However, the budget implications of this decision
concern me deeply.
In
order to pay for its $25 million share of the Orange Line, the Board of
County Commissioners will have to allocate $1.9 million from the general
fund each year for the next 20 years to cover the debt service. It is
my understanding that this money will come from property taxes that are
currently paid into the urban renewal district around Clackamas Town
Center, which is set to expire in 2013.
Those
of us in public safety have been waiting three decades to see the
benefits of the expiration of this urban renewal effort, and the need is
especially acute at this moment in the county’s history. Since fiscal
year 2007-08, our budget allocation from the county’s general fund has
fallen far behind allocated costs, emergency dispatch rates — even
inflation!
After
making do for years with innovative cost cutting — as well as
reductions in the training we provide for our deputies and other
measures — last year we had to eliminate 18 FTE and had our first layoff
in more than a decade. Having twice voted to support a public safety
levy, this is clearly not the direction the citizens of Clackamas County
want to see for their Sheriff’s Office.
The
construction of the Orange Line may well be a worthwhile public
project. However, it does not exist in a vacuum — moving ahead with
light rail will mean moving backwards on public safety, and likely other
basic services to county residents.
I
urge you to recognize that the initial planning for this project was
developed years ago, when the local and national economy were much
stronger. Since then, our economic situation has deteriorated
drastically, and so I urge you to take a fresh look at whether or not
this project is still in the county’s best financial interest before the
full-funding grant agreement is signed. Thank you for your
consideration.
Craig Roberts
Clackamas County Sheriff
----------------------------------------------------
Budget Presentation Remarks Prepared for
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts
To be delivered May 21 at 2:15 p.m.
Ø Good afternoon, County Commissioners and members of the Budget Committee.
Ø I’m
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts. I’m here today to offer some
brief comments regarding the Sheriff’s Office and Community Corrections
budgets for the 2012/2013 fiscal year.
Ø Before
I begin, I’d like to acknowledge all of the time and effort that the
members of our organization have put into preparing this year’s budget —
especially our Budget Manager, Barbara Hass, Undersheriffs Dave Kirby
and Matt Ellington, each of our five division captains and their staff.
Ø Thanks
to all of their hard work, I am confident that the document we have
provided to you is sufficient to answer all of your material questions
about our budget for the next 12 months.
Ø First
I would like to thank the county for the opportunity in the last budget
year to move into the vacant Sunnybrook building in order to
consolidate operations and improve efficiencies.
I
would like to remind the budget committee that when this opportunity
was presented to me by the county, I made it clear that I would not
sacrifice staff by paying debt service for improved facilities.
With
that understanding we consolidated our operations into the Sunnybrook
building and moved forward with other facility projects.
Ø This
year I’ve decided to put this budget into a broader context and offer
you my opinion of what it means for public safety in Clackamas County.
Ø In short, this is not a budget that I recommend. It is not a budget that I endorse.
It is the budget I was required to put forward by the limits placed on me by the County.
Ø After
a careful examination of the County’s proposed budget, I believe that
the budget does not reflect the public safety expectations of the
citizens of Clackamas County and the Board of County Commissioners’
strategic plan to, “Protect people from violence through continuing to
build a best in class public safety system . . .”
Ø Between
Fiscal Year 05/06 and 10/11, the county’s total property tax revenue
has increased by nearly 27 percent — from $72 million to $92 million.
Ø During
those six years, the Sheriff’s Office budget as a percentage of that
property tax revenue has declined from 53 percent to 45 percent.
Ø As
a result, the Sheriff’s Office budget has not kept pace with the rate
of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for the Portland
Metropolitan Area — and we have not been able to keep up with
· …increasing labor rates negotiated — but not paid for — by the county
· …county allocated costs;
· …increasing County 911 dispatch rates
Just to name a few
Ø Decline in General Fund support has placed the Sheriff’s Office at a critical crossroads.
We
have done our part we have not stood idly by in the face of financial
challenges. Just like those in the private sector we have tightened our
belts as funds have decreased.
Ø Over
the past six years, the Sheriff’s Office has implemented innovative
cost-saving measures, cut back on training and reduced and eliminated
public safety programs.
Ø Last year, we eliminated 19 FTE and laid off staff.
Ø In
addition last year we were directed by the county administrator to stop
filling vacancies. As a result, our staff was reduced as people retired
or left employment with the Sheriff’s Office.
Ø While
not filling vacancies saves money in the short term, it increases costs
in the long run. Having fewer deputies available means paying more
overtime and forces a reduction in services available to the public.
Ø Also,
recruiting and training deputies isn’t a quick or easy process. It
takes about two years from start to finish — so the positions that we
are leaving unfilled today will be a burden on our operations for years
to come.
Ø In
this proposed budget, we are being forced to eliminate another 11
deputy positions, and we are now looking seriously at closing jail beds
that have been open since 2007, with the support of the voter-approved
public safety levy.
Ø All of this is happening while the county’s property tax revenue is actually increasing.
County
government is making an affirmative decision to redirect funds away
from public safety and ignore the priorities that the citizens have set.
Ø Indeed, this is directly at odds with the county’s own five-year strategic plan which, on page 13,
lists
as its first goal within its first area of focus, “Protect people from
violence through continuing to build a best in class public safety
system…”
Ø There
is another example within the county’s strategic plan that I feel
deserves to be highlighted, because it is directly impacted by this
year’s budget.
Ø Among
the county’s specific objectives within its goal of helping to keep
citizens safe is to: “Reduce recidivism within our public safety
programs…”
Ø In
Clackamas County, one of our best opportunities to steer people away
from crime lies with Community Corrections — our parole and probation
program.
Ø Since
the Sheriff’s Office assumed management of Community Corrections, it
has earned a national reputation for its effectiveness in reducing
recidivism which fulfills the county’s stated goal.
Ø This
year the proposed budget forces us to eliminate 20 Community
Corrections positions. Only about one third of this cut is the result of
reductions in state funding.
Ø It
is important for me to point out that the citizens of Clackamas County
have twice stepped up to support a public safety levy, most recently
with a 76% voter approval — in spite of the weak local economy.
Ø However,
even as we are able to continue to fund some deputies with the levy
resources the public has given us, the County is cutting the number of
deputies it supports through the general fund.
Ø Put
another way, the money that the voters are giving us through the front
door to increase patrol and jail services is being carried out the back
door by the County’s cuts to the Sheriff’s general fund support.
Ø As
the chart behind me reveals, the last time we had this few deputies
being paid for by the county’s general fund was in fiscal year 05-06.
Ø Let
me reiterate: While property tax revenue continues to increase the law
enforcement cuts we are looking at reflect the reduction of Sheriff’s
Office general fund support from 53% to 45%.
Ø Along
with every other member of the Sheriff’s Office, I have worked hard for
the past six years to protect the public to the best of my ability, in
spite of the limitations that have been placed on us.
Ø I
have an obligation to the citizens of Clackamas County and to you, the
Budget Committee, to make clear that these unsustainable budgets put the
safety of the community and the lives of our deputies at risk.
Ø In summary this proposed budget will require me to:
· Eliminate 11 deputy positions in addition to the 19 positions we had to cut in order to balance last year’s budget
· Eliminate 20 positions in Community Corrections that will result in 10.5 layoffs
· Close the Residential Center eliminating 34 beds designed to hold offenders accountable in the community rather than in jail
· Not open the 50 jail beds created by the county approved remodel
· Consider closing 84 jail beds which will directly offset the 84 beds funded by the levy
Ø As the independently elected Sheriff, it is my duty and obligation to explain….
why voters will not be getting the increased services they voted for.
It
gives me no pleasure to offer this message to you. On two occasions I
have gone before the voters of Clackamas County to ask them to vote for a
public safety levy with the promise that it would maintain a certain
level of critical law enforcement services. This proposed budget breaks
that promise.
Ø That
is why I strongly urge this budget committee not to adopt this budget
without amendments that meet the public safety expectations of Clackamas
County citizens and keeps the promise to the voters.
Ø Thank you for your time.
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