Portland area friends, please share this, and look into it, and act on it if you are so inclined. Another attack on our city water by business interests. Just read Depaves position on Measure 26-156. This is an important one. Read up! .............. Across Portland, people are standing up to a risky and dangerous corporate takeover, and pledging to vote NO on Measure 26-156. This May, Portland voters will vote on the Portland Water District Initiative that would strip the Bureau of Environmental Services and the Water Bureau from the City of Portland and place them under a new water board. Depave and a diverse coalition of community groups oppose this measure and urge you to support the NO Campaign by helping to spread the word. Initiative backers would like you to believe that the initiative is a grassroots populist revolt. It is not. Their leaders include powerful interests associated with big polluters and industrial water users. More than 90% of their funding comes from five large corporate entities, with less than 1% from grassroots contributions of under $100. Not a single community group has endorsed the initiative; in contrast to the diverse coalition of community, labor, and environmental organizations opposing it. Please join us! The Portland Water District Initiative would transfer control of more than $15 billion in public assets including control of our precious Bull Run watershed to a new unproven board, that would exclude people with water and sewer experience and be susceptible to corporate influence. Bizarre conflict of interest provisions would prohibit thousands of Portlanders from serving on the new board, and the board districts exclude all of east Portland (about 20% of the population) so people there would have no representation. The initiative is underpinned by a strong anti-environment agenda. Initiative backers recently sued the City, arguing that core environmental programs like tree planting, Superfund clean-up, and watershed protection are all illegal. A judge shrugged off these claims. Meanwhile, initiative backers have stepped up their attacks in the press, even taking aim at Depaves work and other urban re-greening efforts as examples of misspending of City dollars! Community greening efforts like tree planting, rain gardens, green space preservation, and removal of under-utilized pavement safeguard clean water, revitalize our communities, and protect public investments in our storm drain network. Initiative proponents have mistakenly characterized these efforts as examples of “pet projects” and government waste. Numerous studies confirm the cost- and environmental-effectiveness of these green solutions, which save water ratepayers money over the long-term. For most community greening projects, each ratepayer dollar is matched with $2-4 of nonprofit and volunteer resources, stretching our public dollars farther. Initiative backers want you to believe their proposal will lower rates. It wont. But it will: eliminate all oversight by the City Auditor, create a new layer of government, jeopardize the Citys outstanding bond rating, and distract us from meaningful City budget reform.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 21:22:39 +0000
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