The Portland Housing Bureau has $106 million in unspent funds, the city administrator disclosed late last week. Some of it may be spoken for, but it leaves open the question of how City Council will spend the funds. When the pot of unspent funds was believed to be only $21 million, City Council was divided over whether to spend it on rent assistance or a Prosper Portland housing project. Maybe all of the above are possible now. [Portland Mercury]
A key issue: Portland City Hall is moving from a system where individual bureaus had independence over their own budgets to the new(ish) form of government where there is centralized administration. Both Mayor Keith Wilson and Council President Jamie Dunphy signaled that they believe the uncovered funds reflect “long-standing problems” — Dunphy’s words. “Our transformation into a single, unified local government structure has brought budgetary concerns into sharp focus,” said the mayor. Either way, City Council — which approves city budgets — has the right to know what funds are available. [Oregonian]
Next up: The city administrator says auditors will now examine unspent reserves across the city, though the housing bureau may be an exception. And the City Council is moving toward investigating why they weren’t alerted to the original unspent $21 million — even as they were making budget decisions last fall. [Portland Mercury]
Point of comparison: That’s a lot of money on its own, but particularly considering the Portland Housing Bureau’s budget for this fiscal year is less than three times the amount of unspent funds: $244 million, down from $308 million last year. [Willamette Week]
Another controversial pot of city funds: The arts tax has $9 million in reserves for a rainy day, the city recently disclosed. “Reserve funds aren’t uncommon for city programs and are often kept for emergencies. But the arts fund isn’t authorized to have reserves,” reports OPB. A city spokesperson defended keeping a year’s worth of reserves, but art organizations and City Council President Jamie Dunphy said spending them down during this budget crunch could make sense. [OPB]
- Related: Dunphy, who was previously on the board of Music Portland, says the arts tax needs an overhaul: “So now we have a decreasing pot of money, an increasing challenge in collecting outstanding dollars, and increasing tensions between schools and the arts orgs which are just getting hollowed out.” Costs associated with collecting the tax have increased over time, meaning there is less money left over. [OPB]
