Call it Portland Confidential: The Arts Tax Edition.
City officials no longer want the public to know who pays the much-maligned arts tax and have proposed changes that may keep taxpayers' identities secret. Although Portland has released taxpayers' names since implementing the tax in 2012, officials now say such disclosures are unreasonable.
The proposal heads to the City Council for consideration Wednesday. It's not slated for any public discussion.
That's because the change -- from Mayor Charlie Hales' Office of Management & Finance -- has been placed on the City Council's "consent agenda," which is supposed to include only routine, non-controversial matters.
UPDATE: Commissioner Nick Fish on Monday requested that the City Council discuss the change as part of the regular agenda.
The arts tax has been anything but.
The $35 tax, approved by voters in 2012, has been plagued by problems. Most notably, it's failed to generate the expected revenue, in large part because tens of thousands of Portlanders haven't paid, according to a 2015 city audit. What's more, administrative expenses have been higher than expected - and city officials aren't even tracking full costs.
The rules for the tax, as currently written, require the city to release the names and addresses for any person who has paid the tax. Last year, the city released such information, and Willamette Week published the list online.
The Oregonian/OregonLive later requested a full database including not only taxpayers who paid the tax but also those who received arts-tax notices from the city or who had been assessed a late fee.
The city refused to release the records, arguing that disclosing names in the database would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy. The Oregonian/OregonLive appealed to the Multnomah County District Attorney, who ordered release of the database.
"As the city has already released the names and addresses of those Portland residents who paid the Arts Tax, it would be logically incongruous to conclude that disclosure of names and addresses in themselves is an unreasonable invasion of privacy," District Attorney Rod Underhill ruled.
The city never provided the records. Instead, officials said providing the database would require 20 hours of work that would only be completed if The Oregonian/OregonLive paid an estimated $1,208.
And now, more than three years after the City Council required that names and addresses of taxpayers should be publicly disclosed, officials want to keep that information secret.
"In the case of an income tax, releasing names and addresses of taxpayers is not a reasonable expectation that taxpayers have," the City Council ordinance reads. "As such, names and addresses of taxpayers who have paid the Arts Tax should remain confidential to the extent the law allows."
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the change March 2. Officials are also being asked to rewrite rules to ensure two charter schools receive money from the arts tax.
-- Brad Schmidt
503-294-7628
@cityhallwatch