Portland City Councilor Belinda Ray said on Monday that she will look to eliminate funding for Mayor Ethan Strimling’s special assistant when the council votes on the budget next week.
The position would cost $69,000 in next year’s budget and is being targeted as a potential funding source to hire a waterfront manager to oversee and help maintain the city’s waterfront properties, which are seeing a boost in development, and cruise ship and concert activities.
The council did not discuss whether it would include up to $950,000 in the budget to continue providing General Assistance to as many as 180 asylum seekers who could be affected by a 24-month cap enacted by the state in 2015.
Combined, the proposed $345 million municipal and school budgets, which also include county taxes, would increase property taxes by about 2.6 percent, according to Jessica Grondin, the city’s communications director.
That would increase the city’s tax rate of $21.11 per $1,000 of assessed value by about 55 cents, adding an estimated $165 a year to the annual tax bill of a home with an assessed value of $300,000.
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