Metro mission creep
Portland's Metro regional government is doing all sorts of good deeds with taxpayer dollars these days. Readers point out that it may be perfectly legal, but like the Portland water bureau, Metro's branching out into areas that it needn't be involved in, and probably doesn't do well. There's already an agency for local improvement grants, the Portland Development Commission. We certainly don't need two. Just as we don't need another government agency running concerts in the (concrete) "park." Social service grants can be, and should be, handled by the county.
| Posted at 3:57 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
We can argue all we want about whether these grant programs are good public policy, but AIUI this one was created by an act of the Legislature setting up the grant program within Metro, funded by a surcharge on garbage tipping fees, and was supposecd to "mitigate" negative impacts of the St. John's landfill on North Portland.
There is far too much "mission cvreep" within the CoP; Mult Co. and Metro, but given the act of the legislaturte in creating the program within Metro and establishing the funding mechanism linked to Metro's garbage tipping fees, its kind of hard to see this as outside Metro'
s "jurisdiction. To me, it looks like the Legislature put this program squarely within Metro's jurisdiction.
Whether its good public policy or not is certainly debatable.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | July 16, 2012 2:51 PM
Disband METRO and send North Portland $400M a year instead.
Posted by Steve | July 16, 2012 2:55 PM
Wait. Who's tipping the garbage people?
Posted by Allan L. | July 16, 2012 3:10 PM
METRO can stick its nose anywhere it wants to! The Council simply has to determine a matter to be "of metropolitan concern."
From the Metro Charter:
CHAPTER II: FUNCTIONS AND POWERS
Section 4. Jurisdiction of Metro. Metro has jurisdiction over matters of metropolitan concern. Matters of metropolitan concern include the powers granted to and duties imposed on Metro by current and future state law and those matters the Council by ordinance determines to be of metropolitan concern. The Council shall specify by ordinance the extent to which Metro exercises jurisdiction over matters of metropolitan concern.
Posted by Molly | July 16, 2012 5:45 PM
Sounds vaguely unconstitutional, doesn't it?
Posted by Jack Bog | July 16, 2012 7:01 PM
I thought Metro was short for "Metropolitan"...I guess it's "collect the taxes from the METROpolitan area, and give it to the City of Portland."
All the more reason to disband Metro and TriMet. And heck, the Port as well, even though they are relatively timid compared to the first two. I'd just love to see Washington County actually use Hillsboro to compete against PDX the way SFO, OAK and SJC compete, or LAX/LGB/BUR/SNA/ONT compete.
Posted by Erik H. | July 16, 2012 8:56 PM
This all-encompassing power was granted by the Charter we adopted in 1992. The ballot title and explanatory statements promised the new Charter would "limit the powers of Metro." Spawned in fraud ...
Posted by Molly | July 17, 2012 7:22 AM
Never underestimate back-n-fill politics.
For example, we need to inspect dog houses randomly. Then the sample says we really need to inspect ALL dog houses on a regular basis. Then we need to hire more inspectors and surpervisors.
Its a screwed-up way to do things, but they get away with it.
Posted by Steve | July 17, 2012 9:56 AM