PORTLAND AT A TIPPING POINT: REDUCING PPB AND FIRE BUDGETS WILL HAVE NEGATIVE EFFECT ON QUALITY OF LIFE THROUGHOUT CITY OF PORTLAND
Guest blogpost by RPC member Brian Owendoff,
CEO & Principal. BMO Commercial Real Estate, LLC
The city of Portland is facing the possibility of our strained law enforcement system facing new catastrophic cuts when vulnerable citizens need them more than ever. Fewer dispatchers and officers would lead to longer response times, less crime prevention and investigation, and fewer officers patrolling districts to build community trust.
It is important to note that we currently don’t have enough police officers or firefighters in Portland, and making these cuts would only make the situation worse.
Additionally, the private sector is spending hundreds of thousands monthly on third party security to address the shortage of officers, which is close to 400+ from our current level of 789 officers. Many small businesses can no longer afford BOTH the highest state & local tax burden AND the cost for third party security.
Portland has the lowest percentage of its Annual City Budget dedicated to public safety! Portland’s annual city budget is $8.2 billionand it spends $295 million on police which is 3.6% of the overall City Budget. San Francisco spends 5.17% of its annual city budget on police; Seattle spends 5.4%; Sacramento: 15.68%; Fresno: 14.42%; Denver: 6.26%; Las Vegas: 8%; Nashville: 9.4%; Boston: 10.3%; Milwaukee: 15.7%; Louisville: 21.9% See chart below.
Our two biggest local economic drivers – Nike and Intel –are struggling. Nike is at 2016 employment levels, and Intel Oregon lost theirbid for the Chips Act research center expansion and is now being forced to sell real estate in Northern California to generate capital to fund ongoing obligations. Coupled with the out-migration of higher net worth producers from Multnomah County the result is reducing taxpayer funding while government service demands increase daily. And we are seeing homeless individuals from California arriving in Portland on one way Greyhound and Amtrack tickets.
These cuts to public safety are being called a "shared sacrifice" even as some new city council members demand more staff and offices. It appears that spending under charter reform is far exceeding original promises and the council should not be ramping up its own expenditures while proposing cuts to public safety funding.
Defunding police and public safety will result in more crime and more chaos. More crime will lead to higher demand for government services. More crime will result in more existing Portland businesses closing or leaving as the cost of insurance and security increases due to an increase in crime. Ultimately, this will result in higher unemployment which will increase homelessness due to loss of income and inability to meet basic housing and basic living costs needs. This will result in LESS tax income to fund government services.
Portland is at a tipping point…and further reducing Portland’s Police Budget is a mistake. We are already among the LOWEST MAJOR US CITIES for the percentage of annual city budget spent on law enforcement. Portland’s Police Budget is 3.6% of the city budget, which ranks us last with our comparable cities.
JUST SAY NO TO DEFUNDING LAW ENFORCEMENT: Reducing the PPB budget will snowball and receive national attention and Portland cannot afford more reputational damage.
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