Bend won’t cut police, fire funding for street repairs

The Bend City Council and its citizen budget committee wrestled with street-maintenance funding options for several hours Wednesday afternoon and decided not to make cuts to police or fire services and instead to focus on other ways to raise revenue and cut spending to keep roads from crumbling even further.

Even before last month’s vote, the city had added substantially to this year’s street repairs budget, much of that from one-time sources, so the retreat focused on a short-term strategy to find $1 million to $1.3 million for 2017 and subsequent years, to keep aging streets from deteriorating even further.

The discussions included General Fund reprioritizations and which services or programs could be cut from areas such as public safety or community development.

The mix of project cuts and funding options agreed to Wednesday add up to $759,000, more than half the funding shortfall.

If the city had reallocated money from the general fund, the police budget could take a $250,000 hit. Police Chief Jim Porter said that mostly would have come from the traffic unit and could have an impact on motorist and pedestrian safety.

Other possible cuts, such as to Community Development/Planning Services, would cut into budget reserves and could lead to higher fees, officials said.

City Manager Eric King outlined other revenue options, such as a 3 percent tax on retail marijuana sales that it’s estimated would generate about $346,000 a year. That would require a public vote, presumably in November.

The city also will look at reallocating transient room tax revenue, despite concerns raised by some in that industry, and the possible marijuana tax, as well as cuts to projects such as eliminating a new fleet manager position and garage improvements.

Councilor Sally Russell said she’s concerned that some of the items left for consideration don’t represent long-term solutions to the street maintenance funding problems, and involve cuts to items that will be needed in the not-too-distant future.

The second part of the financial retreat will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27, again at Municipal Court. That meeting will focus on utilities. The council will vote on any changes in a supplemental budget in June.

NewsChannel 21’s Wanda Moore attended Wednesday’s meeting and will have a report coming up at 4 on Fox and 5/6 on NBC.