Oregon Public Broadcasting

By the end of Thursday, the city of Bend will likely have a draft budget until the year 2011.

The city’s budget committee is scheduled to vote Thursday night on a 20-percent cut in the city’s spending.

As Ethan Lindsey reports, this is a test for new city council members who were  expected to be pro-business and anti-tax.

Bend faces the same financial crisis as most cities – except it’s possibly even more pronounced here.

Bend’s seasonal unemployment rate is more than 14 percent, and the amount of new home construction has almost frozen.

A 20-percent cut over two years totals  $100 million slashed from Bend’s overall budget.

Tom Greene: “My eyes have been opened up.”

Tom Greene is a new city councilor, elected in November.

He’s a realtor and part of a cadre of newly-elected councilors, whose campaigns were funded by pro-business groups and developers.

Tom Greene: “Before I just saw it from my standpoint. And now I am constantly reminding myself, you are representing the city, you’ve gotta take in what’s best for everybody, not just you personally.”

Mark Capell has been on the Bend city council for 2 years, but is the second-longest tenured member.

Mark Capell: “Well, we have been hit pretty hard in terms of the unemployment rate.”

Capell says the city responded to the recession last year, by laying off 43 people and eliminating another 56 unfilled positions.

The new budget includes 20 additional layoffs. But that’s not enough to balance the books.

More cuts or new revenue is needed.

And this week, councilors, along with the other members of the budget committee, heard several proposals to raise fees and rates.

Many on the council signaled an openness to those revenue-raising measures.

That’s something of a surprise, says Capell.

Mark Capell: “A lot of the new councilors are learning that there are profound deficits in our funds. And a lot of those campaign promises by new councilors were made without the knowledge that they have gotten over the past 6 months.”

Greene was one of three new members who swept into office on an anti-incumbent tide in the city.

All received a majority of their campaign funds from business groups, and all spoke out against new taxes, fees, and rate charges.

But they are now leaning in favor of one proposal to cover the city’s shortfall is to increase water rates by 8 percent every year, for the next three years, and  raise sewer rates by 14 percent.

That will raise millions-of-dollars.

Because on sunny summer days, Bend residents use almost twice as much water on average as their counterparts in the wet Willamette Valley.

Greene says it’s likely that the council will support a rate increase for water and sewer users.

Tom Greene: “We have to look out to the future, to the next 5-10 years, and I think building that infrastructure will help us maintain and diversify the economy so maybe the next downturn doesn’t affect Bend as much as this one is.”

But the councilors are split on a new, 3-dollar a month Transportation Utility Fee, or TUF, to pave the roads.

Jeff Eager is an attorney and another one of the new councilors who expressed opposition to increasing household costs.

Jeff Eager: “I’ve got some concerns about the personnel costs that the city of Bend has, that a business, if there were one, would not have. I think that if you don’t raise those issues when people want rates increased, then they never get addressed. I want to make sure that all the fat is out of those budgets.”

Other cities around the state, and country, are also debating fee and tax increases to make up the budget shortfall.

Urban centers, like Portland, have long been more willing to pay those costs, while rural parts of the state push back.

Bend is again right in the middle.

Bend Councilor Jodie Barram says she supports the that TUF  transportation Utility Fee because it will save money in the long run.

Jodie Barram: “I think reality is staring us square in the face now, because we are facing some tough decisions. Because it’s tough, no pun intended. To enact something like that now.”

Even if the transportation fee doesn’t pass, councilors will have to find a way to pay for the city’s water and sewer system.

Bend won’t vote on the final budget for several weeks.