Portland City Council gives final OK to budget that includes several cuts

After five months of work, Portland City Council finally put to bed the 2013-14 budget Thursday afternoon. The budget, which comes in at $16 million less for the city than the one before it, represents hundreds of lost positions and reduced funding to several programs.

The only commissioner to vote against the budget was Amanda Fritz, who had voted against it once before, citing certain social service cuts. Afterward, however, council members went back into the chamber to vote yet again having realized that Fritz's no vote prevented certain emergency ordinances from going into effect. The second time around she voted 'yes' -- making the decision unanimous. Mayor Charlie Hales, however, had to give her assurances there would be "ongoing discussions" about spending contingency money for human trafficking victims.

All told, the budget represents several difficult decisions.

The city will fund 142 fewer positions next year; about 26 of those will require actual lay offs. Police bureau staffing will be greatly reduced because of early retirement offers. The Office of Healthy Working Rivers has been eliminated. More than $100,000 for homeless shelters is gone. The city will cut $200,000 from its Friends of Trees contract. The budget also strips $50,000 from Hillsdale and Alberta Main Street programs. The Janus Youth program will have to absorb a 25 percent cut in city funding.

"To bridge our shortfall this year, bureaus have made some significant reductions," said Andrew Scott, the city's budget director, saying it would be a "real reduction in work."

Commissioner Nick Fish called it the most difficult budget he has had to work on.

"There is real pain in this budget," Fish said. "This is a tough budget, but it is a realistic budget."

He was not alone in those sentiments. Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who has been on the council for 15 years said "these are the deepest budget cuts I've dealt with."

"This was an incredible task, a daunting task," Saltzman said. "We had to cut deep."

Though the cuts are serious, the budget passed Thursday is still not as bad as the one predicted just a matter of months ago.

Initially several other high profile cuts were included. Things like Buckman Pool, a reduced mounted patrol, some SUN community schools, a domestic violence service center, a needle exchange program and funds for human trafficking and youth shelter services were all eventually spared.

Those services were added back through various avenues, including savings from Public Employees Retirement System changes, a court settlement that allows Portland to increase its land-line phone tax and unspent levy money. A funding deal with Multnomah County leadership also spared some social services.

In his final comments, Hales again noted the difficulty in creating and passing a reduced budget. He said he looked forward to future years when the city's economic outlook will be sunnier.

"The economy is improving and our prospects as a city is rising," he said.

-- Ryan Kost