I like this idea; multnomah county as a legislative body dictating how various property taxes are spent is ineffective due to incompetence on the part of our (elected!) county commissioners. Some questions: what would the justice/court system look like? How would portland stand up a municipal property tax collection system—would the city absorb the county tax assessors?
A better and less disruptive idea may be to simply end our partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
There are precedents for this. Indianapolis, Kansas City, Philadelphia. San Francisco. Jacksonville, Nashville. Miami. All have been city-county consolidations for some of the same reasons being considered here. But in Portland's case, what would happen to the county that is currently outside Portland's city limits? Do smaller incorporated cities like Gresham or Troutdale have a problem with the county existing with their own city governments? What about the unincorporated areas of the county? Is Portland efficient enough to run the county? 40 years after the fact and the part of the city that still has the worst reputation for being mismanaged is the former mid-county areas in outer East that were annexed into the city in the 70s and 80s. I am fine with another study. But I expect these questions and issues to be raised. Efforts to consolidate the two go back as far as 1968.
Nothing could be worse than the current arrangement of the City and County, both run by dysfunctional boards that can’t seem to collaborate on much of anything. I first heard this proposal mentioned by Ken Thrasher, whom I respect enormously (and wish he had run for PDX Mayor!). I’d love to see it on the ballot!
I like this idea; multnomah county as a legislative body dictating how various property taxes are spent is ineffective due to incompetence on the part of our (elected!) county commissioners. Some questions: what would the justice/court system look like? How would portland stand up a municipal property tax collection system—would the city absorb the county tax assessors?
A better and less disruptive idea may be to simply end our partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
Go Matt! In idea worth exploring.
Multnomah County outlived its usefulness about 20 years ago. It's about time to put this on the ballot as a first step.
There are precedents for this. Indianapolis, Kansas City, Philadelphia. San Francisco. Jacksonville, Nashville. Miami. All have been city-county consolidations for some of the same reasons being considered here. But in Portland's case, what would happen to the county that is currently outside Portland's city limits? Do smaller incorporated cities like Gresham or Troutdale have a problem with the county existing with their own city governments? What about the unincorporated areas of the county? Is Portland efficient enough to run the county? 40 years after the fact and the part of the city that still has the worst reputation for being mismanaged is the former mid-county areas in outer East that were annexed into the city in the 70s and 80s. I am fine with another study. But I expect these questions and issues to be raised. Efforts to consolidate the two go back as far as 1968.
This happened in Nashville decades ago and it worked fine. Nashville and it’s County—-Davidson—-have just one government which they call Metro.
Its, not it’s. Dang spellcheck.
Nothing could be worse than the current arrangement of the City and County, both run by dysfunctional boards that can’t seem to collaborate on much of anything. I first heard this proposal mentioned by Ken Thrasher, whom I respect enormously (and wish he had run for PDX Mayor!). I’d love to see it on the ballot!