Late last week, the city council wrapped up negotiations over the
fall budget surplus, and prepared to approve over $5.7 million in new
general fund requests.
The good news? Funding for bike safety improvements—proposed
in the wake of two bike/truck collision deaths—made it through to
the final package, as did special requests to fund things like “parade
access” (i.e., no Rose Parade duct tape), 24-hour restrooms
downtown, and a “Sweatfree Consortium” that will oversee sweatshop-free
policies in cities like Portland.
Not so lucky: $75,000 to implement a citywide drug strategy, $50,000
to review the over-budget tram project, and $109,722 for police
training—including crisis intervention training—were all
nixed.
But the mayor didn’t touch the funding to continue his visionPDX
project—$244,930 will go toward “vision to action” programs and
“visioning final reports.” (Maybe we can “visualize better police
training”?)
Venture capitalists also fared well at city hall last week.
Currently, venture capital funds are taxed more harshly than mutual
funds in Portland. Consequently, only one venture capital fund is based
in Portland—and it has only stuck around because it hasn’t
generated taxable income yet, Capybara Ventures’ Bob Ward told the
council on Wednesday, November 28. Since the city wasn’t gaining
anything by overtaxing non-existent venture capital funds,
changing the tax structure to mirror mutual funds’ is “one of those
win-wins” that could lure the venturists—and their
money—into Portland, Mayor Tom Potter noted.
Later that night in city hall’s Lovejoy Room, the Oregon League of
Minority Voters (OLMV)—headed up by Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s
former aide, Promise King—held their inaugural meeting. The
group, with board members like Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen
and the mayor’s Community Affairs Director Carmen Rubio, plans to lobby
around issues that impact minority voters. The OLMV also plans to
“request responses from political candidates regarding minority
issues“—in other words, expect to hear plenty more from them
as 2008’s campaigns ramp up.
Meanwhile, City Commissioner Sam Adams has been raking in the dough
for his mayoral bid. He’s capped donations at $500 per
individual—pulling in about $24,000 so far.
Patrick Lanagan—head of Fat Cobra Video on N Interstate and
Eagle Portland on N Lombard—is one of those $500 donors. But
there’s also a $500 contribution to Adams from “Plaid Zebra, LLC” which
runs Eagle PDX (Lanagan is the listed agent, with Fat Cobra as his
address). In other words, the porn shop owner is Adams’ top
donor. Viva Portland!