people in Multnomah County never
met a tax they didn't love.
Well, that appears to be changi.
Last night, voters overwhelmingy
rejected a new tax that
would have funded eviction.
Lawyers, I mean, seriously,
turned the thing down.
A whopping 80% of voters
said no to measure 26 to 38.
We were pleasantly surprised by this outcome.
In fact, you can go as far
back to 2011 the last time.
A local tax measure was defeated
in our community.
And I I think it should be sendg
a message right now to policymas
and leaders in the public that u
have to work with business in te
community to make sure that when
you're increasing costs and makg
investments that they've done in
the right and appropriate way.
Because just adding additional
burden on households, on busine,
on seniors is probably not the t
path right now and voters are sending a.
Very distinct measure that theyw
what they want our public offics
to be investing in right now.
That was Andrew Hone with the
Portland Business Alliance.
That group's been fighting
hard against the measure.
Their State of the Economy repot
for this year showed that Portls
tax burden has climbed to the
second highest in the nation,
right behind New York City,
which has much higher earners.
They say taxes for businesses
increased 32% from 2019 to 2021,
and in that same time period,
12,000 people left Multnomah Co,
while many people started
choosing Clark County instead.
The measure would have raised
about 12 to $15 million a year
for people facing eviction.
Home told us that the PBA is
not against the measure itself,
not necessarily against legal
representation for people facing eviction,
but that this was the wrong
way to go about it.
Now Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler s
trying to freeze some city tax increases
and also rates for other servic.
This afternoon,
Mayor Wheeler went over his budt
for next year and he added sevel
amendments that would freeze some city
taxes and fees for an entire ye.
He wants to free system developt
charges for the next year.
Those are one time fees for
new development in the city.
He also wants to reduce the
increases that had been proposed
for water and sewer services.
He also wants to freeze parking
meter rates where they are instd
of increasing them by $0.40 an ,
which was approved by the City
Council last year.
We want people to stay,
and I think people acknowledge .
We are at an inflection point in
our city and studies now show tt
people are choosing not to stay here.
They're moving their households,
they're moving their places of employment.
And they're choosing to invest elsewhere.
We're at an inflection point,
and I see this is a critical mot
in the city's history, an unusu,
unprecedented moment in the cits
history that we should respond .
And from my perspective,
at a time when we are fairly
begging people to come to downtn
Portland and see that we have
improved the situation and we h,
there's still a ton of work to ,
but we have improved the situat.
And studies show that when
people come to downtown Portlan,
they are twice as likely to have
a favorable impression of the
city of Portland than prior to
coming to downtown Portland.
So it's really important at
this moment in our history for
us not to send mixed signals to
say come to downtown Portland.
And oh, by the way,
we're increasing the parking
meter rates 40% per hour.
To me that just seems inconsist.
Wheeler said the reductions and freezes
would only affect a small amounf
the budget for each of the bure,
but Commissioners Biggest Maps d
Renee Gonzalez weren't buying i.
They both voted against the fre,
saying they would result in
city workers losing jobs,
also services being reduced and
harm to city infrastructure,
and they think the freezes woult
actually change enough for peop,
only a few dollars per month.
In the end, the mayor did get his way
on the water and sewer tax redun
and the development fee freeze.
But the commissioners voted not
to pause parking fee increases,
which means the parking rates are going
to go up by $0.20 an hour instead of 40.