Jeff Reynolds: Mult Co Chair Proves Republicans Right

December 15, 2011

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Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen is a dyed in the wool big government tax and spend liberal. So what’s he doing proving the Republican Party right and finding a way to pay for a big public project without raising taxes?
Background: The Sellwood Bridge is fully contained within the bounds of Multnomah County, and is owned and operated by the county. This bridge rates a 2 on the 1-100 federal sufficiency scale. Commerce and commuters would greatly benefit from a replacement. Most folks would consider it the responsibility of Multnomah County to replace the bridge.
So when the Clackamas County Commission hatched a plan with Multnomah County to charge a $5 per vehicle registration fee for every car in Clackamas County to help pay for the bridge replacement, let’s just say that most Clackamas County voters were flummoxed. To bolster their case, Clackamas and Multnomah Counties issued all sorts of reports showing how many Clackamas County drivers used the bridge without (Gasp!) paying for it!


What the counties jointly proposed as an innocent little fee that most drivers would barely notice, the voters took as a naked grab for power and a higher spending baseline. After all, Clackamas County had NO intention of referring this new fee to a popular vote. Suffice it to say that the Clackamas County Commission got the proverbial smackdown when citizens banded together, got enough signatures and referred this to a voter referendum.
Fast Forward to this week’s Oregonian headline:

$17.7 million federal grant helps close funding gap for Sellwood Bridge replacement

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $17.7 million grant, nearly eliminating an almost-$23 million shortfall that Multnomah County officials faced.
The county expects to absorb the rest of the gap in other ways, such as extra state money or reduced material costs, said spokesman Mike Pullen.
County officials have slashed about $63 million from the project since the beginning of the year, but were scrambling to find extra money after Clackamas County voters rejected a $5 annual vehicle registration fee in May that would have added $21 million to the project.

Yes, this is still taxpayer money. It doesn’t just fall from the sky. But the point is clear – where there’s a will, there’s a way. There are thousandss of already existing revenue streams. This project will now begin, despite Multnomah County not being allowed to bilk a neighboring county’s taxpayers. In fact, from the quote above, it’s obvious that the means existed all along, if county officials had just put their thinking caps on: “County officials have slashed about $63 million from the project since the beginning of the year.”
Of course, we’ve seen several instances recently in the Portland Metro Area where one municipality decides taxpayer money can be spent in another completely unrelated municipality without bothering to ask the taxpayers – just look at Randy Leonard sending Portland Water Bureau revenues to Clackamas County to improve a park. Or more directly related to Chair Cogen is the example of Multnomah County tax revenue being diverted to the PDC for a new urban renewal district instead of school budgets, resulting in the largest school bond in the history of Oregon being proposed in the May 2011 special election (the bond was narrowly defeated).
So Chair Cogen’s new found fiscal conservatism is to be applauded – whether or not it’s a jailhouse conversion. The future of spending sanity is bright in Multnomah County!
Jeff Reynolds is the Multnomah County GOP Chair and the founder of a new media watch dog blog 54 40 or Fight!

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