Not a bad story. But you failed to convey the very simple and good reasons there is widespread oppostion to the county’s plans for UR.

The county is planning on using UR to borrow $25 million for Milwaukie Light Rail without any means to make the repayment other than the general fund property taxes that are already strained and insufficient.

Making matters worse will be the removal of many parcels from the tax roles to build MLR.

Worse yet subsidized transit oriented development is planned to devour millions more.

Adding debt service for decades the NET loss to the general fund property tax revenue stream for essential services will be in excess of $100 million.

This is in stark contradiction to the blatant lies by proponent commissioners & staff who have actually been telling the public that “Urban Renewal pays for itself”.

How is it that such a whopper is not challenged by ANY journalists? Is there a wholesale and chronic misunderstanding of how UR works?

Why?

This isn’t new or experimental.

The county’s plan would not preserve the public involvement aspect of the citizens’ measure. It would kill it as intended.

The involvement the citizens want is intervention in order to stop the commissioners. By way of public voting.

Just like the recently defeated (63%-37%) vehicle registrations fee that would have allowed these same commissioners to misspend $22 million and another $18 million in debt service costs. All for another county’s bridge and a scheme to fill the funding gap for Milwaukie Light Rail. This after the county has already forfeited their $70 million share of federal flex funds for the new light rail project.

Milwaukie Light Rail is universally opposed by county residents who are being forced to pay for it UNLESS they stop the commissioners.

The signatories to the Initiative Petition sound off and eagerly sign. Includingin Milwaukie and Oak Grove.

With that fee vote so recent why can’t journalists find a way to figure out what is going on?

Fee proponents lied throughout the campaign with tall tales about the bridge falling or closing due to a no vote.

That was blatant lying by publi officials.

Now here we go again with Urban Renewal and Milwaukie Light Rail and not a single reporter can recognize how these same unethical public officials are lying?

Why hasn’t a journalsist asked:

Who instructed Clackamas County’s legal counsel to attempt to negate the one Williams is spearheading?

Was it the county administrator? Under what authority? He has no authority to advocate in the legislative arena.

Did a county commissioner behind the scenes instruct the counsel?

So far there has been nothing but the speculation of some means to trump the initiative petition along with the laughter.

The only version is the preposterous notion fo allowing a small segment of the county to decide to spend over $100 million dollars of county money.

Only the most despicable officials can keep a straight face while pretending that is appropriate.

Chandler is exceedingly disingenuous in not mentioning the likely $150 million that will be spent by the plan he says could be approved by a few local voters.

Of course officials would be challenged to convince county voters to approve a $150 million county plan. It would have be one heck of a plan.

This UR plan and MLR is not and would never get passed voters. .

The conniving to avoid voters is official malfeasance.

The legal counsel comparing their scheme to Measures 47 and 50 and suggesting their UR scam vote would “work better in practice” is beyond insulting.

Really? “Work better in practice”? Work better? Allowing the borrowing of countless millions without money to pay for it is works better than not borrowing the money?

Adding insult to injury is this notion of “no new taxes imposed after a URA is approved”. How dishonest. All that means is there will have to be sweeping service cuts because of the lost revenue and no replacement funding. Where does counsel and the commissioners think the funding will come from? The tooth fairy?

“Requiring that the life of an urban renewal plan be linked to the completion of projects” is ludicrous. UR- Tax Increment Financing doesn’t work that way. The plan lasts until the debt is paid and the diverted taxes are returned to the taxing jurisdictions. And often officials addicted to this ponzie scheme extend districts to spend millions more. Just as they are considering borrowing the $25 million through the Clackamas Town Center UR district that would other wise soon be retired.

There is nothing but dishonesty that be in the any “final measure brought before the board of commissioners”.