"When sewer revenues are being used for bicycle improvements, does that mean that sewer charges "exceed the actual costs of providing" sewer service"

This entire water rate increase was justified by saying we may need it if we have to do what EPA says. Of course charges exceed actual costs of provind service, how do you think they fund all of the bad ideas in this town otherwise?

Someone needs to start a "Save our Sewers" campaign, because these shenanigans are just the beginning of the Great Sewer Raid ...

I'm not sure why but I did expect better from her.

I'm in for a donation to get a class action lawsuit going.

Looks like St. Patrick's day is sell-out day across the country. From Kucinich to Oxman to Fritz.

Politics is "on the fritz".

Hmm, the position that this will be illegal is very weak. All they have to do, and they're doing it just look at Fritz's site, is change the wording of the end-goal, the stated intended purpose of the theft of public money.

Instead of being pissed about where this paltry/token sum is coming from, why is there no outrage at what the stated purpose of this is? A curb-extension is billed as anything but. THAT's what they're building with this money. Curb-extensions are dangerous for cyclists and force us into the traffic lane on streets lacking stupid bike-lanes. They're intended purpose is to prevent traffic from passing left-turning motorists on their right-hand-side at uncontrolled intersections.

That's the damn Nanny State at it again. These are purposefully design to significantly impede traffic. All traffic. Commercial and non-commercial alike. EMS, everything is effected by this asinine impediment.

Bio-swales, another justification for curb-extensions, are completely unvetted. There's no plan for managing the soil, and flora, in these once they become saturated with pollutants. There's been no exploration of the possibility these could become concentrated with dangerous chemicals. There's been no exploration of what happens to Fido if he eats veggy out of one of these, let alone wild-birds, and other wild animals, like squirrels and even rats. Experts will speak to bio-remediation as if. Fat soluble PBBs, and benzene, are just two very dangerous chems that bio-remediation won't touch, but that these swales will likely capture and store. The experts talk about heavy-metals from automobile brake-pads yet soil, inherently, is almost saturated with heavy-metals and then some.

All just fake excuses to lay down more automobile impeding traffic-treatments aimed at dissuading you from using a car. Who cares about the 20 mill, what about the crap they wanna build with it?

According to Amanda Fritz, $20,000,000 translates into 90 cents per year for the average residential ratepayer.

I must be doing this wrong; doesn't 90 cents per year for the average residential ratepayer translate into 22,222,222 average residential ratepayers ($20,000,000/90 cents)?

Do you suppose there is another type of ratepayer who pays more? I wonder who that might be.

This is just standard operating procedure for the city these days. Engage in truly seedy shenanigans to direct vast sums of taxpayer money towards wealthy corporations, and then give "progressive" voters a small handout in the form of money for bikes or something like that. Rest assured this will pass unanimously, and all five of these clowns will issue the most self-congratulatory press release in the history of the world, lauding themselves as leading lights in the fight against congestion and traffic and etc.

Until, of course, the next major sewer line ruptures, and then we'll hear a non-stop litany of reasons why our infrastructure is so degraded and we need a huge rate hike.

Disappointed. There is zero accountability for anything at City Hall. Why wouldn't these clowns behave however they want? What will happen to them?

I'd like to be hearing regularly about our dire jobs situation. About schools, cops and the like. Instead all we hear about are these dreamworld projects.

You'd think after laying off great swathes of their staff, the commissioners would be feeling the recession a bit, but when it comes to feelgood Portland nonsense like bikes and streetcars, it's like the good times never ended.

um, Snards, the commissioners may be be approving budget cuts that lay off staff in bureaus, but I don't think any commissioners' staff have been cut - and, per WWeek, Sammy is looking to add a 4th, yes fourth, education staff person to his staff.

From today's Willy Week":

"Adams wants to continue funding many of the education initiatives he started last year. And he is proposing a few new ones, including a program for community-college scholarships. He proposes spending $168,000 on scholarships by raising the utility license fee on Portland’s sewer and water rates. He also wants to give $100,000 to the Portland Schools Foundation and $100,000 to SUN Community Schools. The budget office approves of just $172,424 of this $741,750."

(Emphasis mine)

I'm all in favor of giving more money to education (though who knows if the $$$ from Sams initiatives actually find their way to the classroom) but raising money from water/sewer to do it? If nothing else, I guess its better than money go to education than bike lanes.

"I'm all in favor of giving more money to education"

How about taking it out of the bottomless pit of streetcar money? It'd benefit the streetcar to have better educated riders wouldn't it?

"I'm all in favor of giving more money to education"

Why is that? The same kind of people have been spending our education dollars on education equivalent of bioswales and bike paths.
More money spent by the same people is stupid.

WW's conscientious Beth Slovic has offered "a brief explanation of an obscure City of Portland funding stream called the utility license fee and, in a round-about way, ...an example of local government’s end-run around transparency":

http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/03/17/city-hall-read-the-redacted-memo-then-celebrate-sunshine-week/