Portland budget analysts say the city shouldn’t spend $2.3 million to improve its snow and ice response, arguing it isn’t worth the added costs to prepare for an outlier year.
Transportation Commissioner Dan Saltzman had announced in the wake of a January’s storm — and with the threat of freezing rain looming — that he intended to request the funds to expand the city’s resources for responding to snow and ice.
The request included a one-time allocation of $1.2 million for new equipment and $1.6 million annually to increase staffing for snow response. The new equipment and staff would pay off in other areas of road maintenance during the off months.
But budget analyst Yung Ouyang wrote that the city already budgets $750,000 a year for winter storm response, and that PBOT has a $2.5 million contingency fund it can draw upon for extraordinary storms.
“On average, the city experiences one major storm per winter,” Ouyang wrote, “and there is insufficient data to determine how often the extreme weather experienced this winter will be repeated in the future.”
The winter was the 11th snowiest in Portland’s history, and the Jan. 11-12 storm was the biggest in about 20 years.
The analysis also notes that Portland’s snow and ice removal costs topped $4 million this winter. The city reported $2.2 million in costs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that it’s not clear whether those costs will be reimbursed.
The city is benefiting from record revenue growth, the result of a strong economy, that will result in a one-time a $17.1 million surplus.
But it faces a $1.8 million ongoing deficit, budget officials said, because of obligations under a new police contract approved last year, the city council’s approval of publicly-financed elections and an agreement with Multnomah County to help fund a Joint Office of Homeless Services.
