Numbers tell stories. Turn to any page in Multnomah County’s three-volume adopted budget and you’ll find a tale—about the rise of fentanyl, the condition of libraries, the tug of war between labor and management, the mood of voters and, most of all, the poverty that local officials seem powerless to alleviate. Last week, WW staff writer Anthony Effinger played storyteller, weaving an account of the county’s accounting (“What’s in Our Wallet?” March 18). He annotated some key numbers in the county budget to highlight how taxing and spending have changed over the past decade. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Harley Leiber, via wweek.com: “Anthony, thank you for this much needed analysis. It clearly lays out how much money there is flowing into the annual county budget and generally what it’s for. And where the constraints on spending are, i.e., a petting zoo on Waterfront Park would either come out of the general fund or Phil Knight would need to set up a 100-year grant.
“With federal cuts in the pipeline for homeless services we will most certainly see more late-stage chronically homeless in tarp, tent, pallet, and cardboard structures dotting the city. How the city/county addresses this increase will be very challenging. One thing is certain; there aren’t enough cans lying around for people to collect for redemption to offset the problem. Something in the general fund will need to be cut.”…