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Negotiations between the Portland Metro Chamber and city officials over the appropriate size of a parks levy to send to the November ballot have ended, at least for now.
The number they settled on: $1.40 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The City Council will discuss that proposal next week, and vote on whether to send it to the November ballot. If approved by the council, the referral would be a 60-cent increase to the current parks levy, which is set to expire in 2026.
For months the council has mulled what size levy to pitch to voters, looking for a number that would avoid deep cuts to the parks bureau while not alienating the business lobby.
Portland Parks and Recreation has warned that without an increased levy, the bureau will have to massively cut back its programming and parks maintenance as soon as next year.
It appeared late last month that the City Council had found a range of levy size the Metro Chamber found acceptable. That mattered because the chamber has threatened to run an opposition campaign against the levy if it believes the rate is too high. With recent polling showing that voter support for an increased levy is already tenuous, it’s likely that the chamber’s opposition could tank the measure at the ballot box.
Earlier this week, though, those negotiations broke down.
The dispute is detailed in an email Jon Isaacs, Metro Chamber executive vice president of public affairs, sent to a group of nonprofit, labor and parks stakeholders that city officials convened this week in hopes that all parties could find consensus on a dollar figure. (Ideally, a coalition of nonprofit, business and parks advocacy groups will join forces to support whatever levy is placed on the ballot.)
In his email, Isaacs wrote that the chamber would not support a levy over $1.40. The only proposal the chamber would support, Isaacs wrote, would be a $1.37 proposal.
“I was informed today that the rate the city is likely to include $1.45 as the rate in the draft ballot title tomorrow. If that is the case, as I clearly stated, the Chamber will actively oppose the levy,” Isaacs wrote on Wednesday. “Since our meeting on Monday, we have not heard a single proposal from anyone else for how we can keep this measure under $1.40, which is a bare minimum threshold.”
Isaacs’ email caught city officials off guard, and the Metro Chamber, Mayor Keith Wilson’s office and the office of Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney met Thursday morning to try to find a middle ground. They were under a time crunch: The council clerk must file the following week’s council materials by Thursday afternoon. Plus, the chamber’s Government Relations Executive Committee was set to vote on whether to oppose or support the recommended levy on Thursday morning.
The chamber, Wilson’s office and Pirtle-Guiney’s office, alongside the city’s consultants, after two hours of deliberations, agreed on a $1.40 levy to send to the council.
Those familiar with the negotiations say that the chamber and the city reached a few key agreements: that capital maintenance (three cents of the $1.40) would focus on public restrooms, and that the PP&R would hire one full-time employee to develop public-private partnerships to help support the parks system.
The City Council will hear the levy proposal at its July 16 meeting.
