The BILLION Dollars In Public Housing Bonds & Taxes Is Metro’s Money

Counties, Metro Surface Major Disagreement Over Homeless Services Tax at Second Meetinghttps://www.wweek.com/news/2024/03/21/counties-metro-surface-major-disagreement-over-homeless-services-tax-as-second-meeting/

Metro’s 2018 housing bond, which raised $652.8 million to subsidize affordable housing in the tri-county region plus $356.7 million housing tax.

County Chairs Tootie Smith (Clackamas), Jessica Vega Pederson (Multnomah) and Kathryn Harrington (Washington) said there is no surplus for Metro to divert to housing construction.

Metro, which administers and oversees the SHS tax, presented numbers yesterday showing that it expects the counties to conclude the fiscal year that ends June 30 with a boatload of unspent SHS dollars—i.e., the surplus is no myth.

It comes to $104 million for Clackamas County, $145 million for Multnomah County, and $150 million for Washington County, not to mention $32 million left in Metro’s coffers (the agency gets 5% of SHS tax receipts). That means there will be $431 million sitting in the bank at year’s end—with $375 million of new money expected to pour in next year.

[What we have here is a regional version of the Federalism Conundrum. Who has the upper hand? Metro obviously. It has the checkbook. Bring on the lawyers?]

Published Comment

Metro rightly declared that Public Housing was a REGIONAL issue. The voters agreed and gave Metro a BILLION dollars and counting to establish and execute a REGIONAL Public Housing Policy. The hubristic Metro Councilors vastly overreached their abilities and FAILED to deliver their promise to the voters. Instead of establishing and executing a REGIONAL Public Housing Policy they simply funneled the taxpayers BILLION dollars into the three county Public Housing establishments that have a long history of failure. Which is why Metro could convince voters to give Metro their money in the first place.

Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties all have the authority to issue bonds and raise taxes for Public Housing. But, they do NOT have the authority to establish and execute a REGIONAL Public Housing Policy. Despite the fact that Metro deceived the voters, the BILLION dollars In Public Housing Bonds & Taxes is Metro’s money. They have no obligation to give it away to anyone. However, they do have the obligation to the voters who gave Metro their money in good faith to establish and execute a REGIONAL Public Housing Policy.

To reestablish credibility with its constituents, Metro must STOP giving away or spending any of the Public Housing bond and tax money in its accounts until it has held public hearings then a vote to establish a REGIONAL Public Housing Policy. It must immediately followup with a publicly vetted plan to execute that policy.

The conflict over how much money there is and who should get it is NOT the real issue here. This is the first public test of who’s in charge here when it comes to authority over Public Housing policy within Metro’s governmental catchment? To date Metro has not yet exercised its rightful dominance. The three counties have either avoided or ignored acknowledging Metro’s superior position in matters of Public Housing. They just want the money. This conflict demands a resolution and soon.

Richard Ellmyer

Portland Voter and Citizen Activist since 1975

Campaign manager and legislative assistant to state senator Bill McCoy 1980-1981.

Campaign manager and senior staff to Multnomah county commissioner Gladys McCoy 1981-1984.

Celebrate North Portland award 2016 for Volunteer Work and Service with Political and Social Issues Impacting North Portland.

Certified Oregon Change Agent by Governor John Kitzhaber 2011.

Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last twenty-two years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.

Project Champion and Data Wrangler - Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m...

GIS for Activism conference, May 23, 2022, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

RichardEllmyer - How I, A Citizen Activist, Used GIS To Effectively Tell A Necessary Yet Unavailable Truth About Public Housing

30 minute Video https://media.pdx.edu/media/t/...

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Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of million readers in Oregon and beyond. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus . Contributor: Patch news