After scaling back a utility rate hike that will kick in July 1, the Portland City Council decided to bump it back up a notch, saying it wants to preserve a new program designed to assist low-income renters.
Water and sewer rates will increase 5.65% under the rule adopted Wednesday, up from the 4.85% city leaders approved just a week prior.
Mayor Ted Wheeler had initially included a 6.6% increase requested by the city’s water and environmental services bureaus in the proposed budget he released earlier this month.
The last-minute fine-tuning means that residential ratepayers will now see an average annual utility bill increase of about $90, up from $80 though still less than an original $107 hike, budget documents show.
It also means that city officials will have an additional $4.4 million in ratepayer revenue to launch a three-year pilot billed as the Regulated Affordable Multifamily Program, or RAMP.
The program, which is different than existing utility assistance efforts offered by the city of Portland, aims to reduce water and sewer bills for residents at low-income apartment complexes.
Officials estimate the program will reach 15,000 households, saving each about $325 a year on their bills.
Michelle Rodriguez, a senior adviser to Commissioner Mapps, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday that launch of the pilot has been contingent on the city’s planned utility rate hikes.
The water and environmental services bureaus that Mapps oversees were not prepared or willing to reduce existing staff or programs to come up with the money had council not moved to adjust the rates a second time, she said.
“Welcome to bureaucratic budget making,” Rodriguez.
Wheeler, who cast the lone vote against the rate hike Wednesday, made it known he was nonplussed about the partial flip-flop.
“It shouldn’t be an act of courage for me to hold the line on rate increases,” Wheeler said. “I vote no because I don’t want to keep raising the rates and have more and more people being unable to afford the rates with the assumption that we’ll create special programs that allow people to barely pay the rates. That makes no sense to me over the long term.”
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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