Jeb Bladine: Challenges in a new chapter of city government
McMinnville, now embarked on a new chapter in city government, has challenges galore in areas of finance, operations, special projects and community trust. It begins with planning for a new budget year, which already has been promised to continue tax-and-spend programs that propagated so much public controversy.
The city, with a new, one-year mayor and an often-divided City Council, has named a new city manager. A look back at those leadership positions provides context to roller-coaster trials of city governance.
After 24 years and 28 years, respectively, Mayor Ed Gormley and City Manager Kent Taylor left those positions in 2009 (Gormley) and 2014 (Taylor). Those years of careful spending, steady progress and strong community partnerships slowly morphed into times of complications and snags.
One new city manager shattered internal morale throughout city government in less than two years; another, over eight years, manipulated the council and public into excesses of mission-growth, spending and taxation. During the past decade, four different mayors have presided over a variety of ever-changing and continuously delayed missions.
City governments in Oregon have long suffered from unfunded, state-imposed laws, compounded by their own lack of fiscal controls. Beginning in 2019, facing budget shortfalls, McMinnville adopted a series of highly controversial utility surcharges to finance general city government. That statewide trend evolved after courts declared the fees “not a tax on property” so long as enforcement targeted property occupants rather than using owner-lien mechanics.
Never mind that every piece of developed property needs water, electricity and sewer services, making those fees just another tax in sheep’s clothing.
The past decade saw city failure to carry out downtown urban renewal with timely affordability; confusing focus on various unfulfilled “legacy projects;” significant expansion of regulatory powers over private property; major growth in city employee counts and spending; excessive consultant costs; overpowering length of city operating documents that can confuse more than illuminate; and continuation of those controversial utility and other user fees.
Plus, in the past four years — assuming finalization of recent action by the city Budget Committee — a 57 percent increase in general city government taxes on residential, commercial and industrial properties.
Four years ago in this space we wrote: “Why are utility surcharges a bad idea? They simply represent a tax by another name. Unbound by legal limits, they are an easy, never-ending temptation to finance more government without public restraint, and the public will be reminded of that every month on every utility bill. Water & Light officials know this well. They understand the historic and future importance of maintaining a financial wall between general city budgets and municipal utility services.”
All that said, the city of McMinnville still has many strong and dedicated volunteer leaders, an engaged citizenry, and a lengthy history of responsible and impressive public and private accomplishments adding to local quality of life. There indeed is much to overcome, and today’s city leaders might best begin by tackling and resolving issues one-by-one instead of being buried by an ongoing avalanche of challenges.
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
Comments
Lizzy
It would be useful to know what your computations of tax increases is based on. 57% over 4 years? The state law limits increases in general to 3% per year. That's a total of 12%. If you are quoting total taxes collected one year over another, that includes additional taxes due to economic growth and development, not what the average tax payer is paying. Growth and development should add revenue to support itself.
Lizzy
All local governments face the challenge of providing public health, safety and asset maintenance at a time when costs have only gone up, starting with the pandemic and continuing on with no let up. The justification for any new project should be based on a comparison of the cost of continuing on as is vs. the cost of planning and new construction or development over the long run.
Jeb Bladine
Thank you for asking, Lizzy.
Voters were asked to approve a new Fire District with a tax rate of $2 per $1,000, and did, with simultaneous reduction of the city's General Fund tax rate by $1.50 per $1,000. Since then, assuming that the last 50 cent tax rate is added for 2026-27, the city will have added that entire $1.50 per $1,000 back into the tax rate.
As a result, in the past 4 years, the tax rate for city operations and Fire District will have risen from $5.02 per $1,000 to $7.02 per $1,000. That, by itself, is a 39.84 percent increase in taxes on the "assessed value" of properties.
Property assessed at $200,000 would have paid $1,004 to the city General Fund four years ago at the rate of $5.02 per $1,000. For next year, that property presumably would have an assessed value of $225,000 after 4 consecutive increases of 3 percent. The taxes on that $225,000 assessed value at $7.02 per $1,000 would be $1,580. That's a $576 tax increase over 4 years on that property, which, compared to the $1,004 tax bill 4 years ago, is an increase of 57.4 percent in dollars.
CubFan
Jeb Bladine
You mentioned the roller coaster in city government, most notably the antics of prior mayors and city managers. Agree completely. HOWEVER… I truly believe we are headed in the right direction with Mayor Morris and (hopefully) Adam Garvin at the helm. Both have a strong “roll up your sleeves and dig in” work ethic. Neither are willing to idly sit by and “rubber stamp’ expenses or procedures, just because that’s the way it’s always been done. They both have demonstrated strong and commendable leadership.
I have been, and continue to be, a staunch opponent of the utility fee. Cities across the state have been forced to implement “fees” to subsidize budgets. Yet, I realize the city is in a pickle. PERS has hamstrung city governments across the state. As with personal budgets, the City has to find a way to live within its means. City government can’t view citizens as a piggy bank. The piggy bank is cracking. Citizens are themselves dipping into savings and incurring credit card debt at an alarming rate.
Jeb Bladine
Yes, ClubFan, thus the opening-line reference to "a new chapter in city government." Time will tell if, as hoped, some of the story changes.