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Home > News
May 20,2010
Port Plans Push for Industrial Land
by Kathy Ursprung of The Chronicle
The Port of The Dalles plans to devote most of its resources — and a few resources they don’t yet have — toward acquiring and developing new industrial land in the coming fiscal year.
“The commission believes there are going to be some pretty favorable conditions this year to do some projects and development,” said Mike Courtney, Port Commission President.
The Port’s budget committee unanimously passed a budget Wednesday evening that included about $9 million for land acquisition and development and $2.5 million for partnership projects out of more than $13 million in the Port Development Fund. That’s the money the Port dips into in pursuit of its primary function to generate new jobs and promote economic growth.
“In the Port Development Fund everything, in my opinion, meets our primary mission,” said Port Commissioner Kristi McCavic.
The fund starts out with a beginning balance of $3.8 million. This is revenue garnered from the sale of land developed in the Port of The Dalles Industrial Park under a mid-1980s bond.
Port Executive Director Andrea Klaas explained that the Port Commission hopes to leverage that money with an additional $3 million in matching grants, $3 million in loans and $2.5 million in federal appropriations.
“We have applied for an appropriation for industrial development,” Klaas said. “It’s very broad and vague, but if we get the money, we have to have a place to put it.”
The $3 million in grants would largely come from the state’s public works fund.
About $1 million of the figure would be a pass-through to the NORCOR regional jail authority. The jail and the Port are negotiating an intergovernmental agreement to that effect that would help the jail authority develop land adjacent to its facility as a way to create an ongoing revenue stream. The land was originally part of the former Northwest Aluminum site.
The grant would provide funding to help with development.
The budget committee also debated not levying property taxes this year, but ultimately decided against the gesture.
The Port’s general fund, which is used for administrative functions and day-to-day operations, included a beginning fund balance of $586,309 on a total budget that include expenditures of only $311,368.
Proponents of the tax break argued that the levy was unnecessary, given the Port’s large beginning fund balance, and thought it would be nice to give taxpayers a break for the year. The move would have cut property taxes on a $100,000 home by about $20.
However, opponents argued successfully that the large cash balance meant that the Port hadn’t initially put enough money into the Port Development Fund.
The division of funds between the three functions: general fund, development fund and marina fund is a relatively recent change. While the marina fund’s revenues come largely from slip rent, the development fund was carved away from the general fund somewhat arbitrarily.
As the budgeting process has been refined over the last couple of years, Port officials have streamlined the operating budget.
So, instead of giving taxpayers a small and temporary tax break similar to the federal stimulus payments of last year, the budget committee opted to carve away another $300,000 to add to the Port Development Fund. They argued that the move would give the Port more money to leverage in pursuit of their central mission.
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PeopleSpeak
"Growing Oregon's economy is the top priority of my administration."
Govenor Ted Kulongoski
State of Oregon
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