Portland’s general fund budget, which is expected to spend about $179 million in fiscal year 2016, is the portion of the city budget under the City Council’s direct control. It does not include the city’s schools budget, which is governed by the School Committee, or so-called “enterprise funds,” which include the Jetport, the city stormwater utility and other programs that operate with slightly more financial autonomy.
In the city manager’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 (which begins on July 1), total general fund spending would increase to roughly $186 million dollars, with substantial budget increases for police and public works.
But the proposed budget’s most controversial element is a roughly $1 million reduction of spending on public health programs, the majority of which would come from the closure of the city’s India Street Clinic:
Note: “Administration” includes the Executive Department, City Council, City Clerk, Treasury, Assessor, Human Resources and Information Technology.
In the bigger picture, the city’s public health programs take up a relatively small portion of the city’s general fund budget:
General Fund expenditures
As proposed in the city manager’s 2017 budget:
Note: A substantial portion of “debt service” costs are reimbursed by other entities (see below).
Much of the money to pay for these programs comes from city property taxes. But, as the chart below demonstrates, more than half of the city’s budget comes from fees, fines and grants collected from the city departments themselves.
Sources of General Fund revenues
As forecast in the city manager’s 2017 budget:
Note: “Debt service reimbursements” include funds from other government entities to reimburse capital costs borne by the City of Portland. An example: if the City of Portland issues debt to build or renovate a school, the state of Maine will often reimburse the city for part of that debt. Other major sources of debt reimbursements come from the Jetport and sewer projects.
The public health budget in detail
In 2016, about 75% of the city’s public health funding (about $2.9 million) came from grants and health insurance reimbursements, and the remaining $1 million came from other local revenues, including property taxes.
The impact of these public health programs on local property taxpayers is significantly smaller than that of other public safety programs: by way of comparison, fines, fees and grants collected by the police department only contributed about 17% ($2.5 million) of the police department’s total budget, the remainder of which required $12.2 million from property taxes and other local funds.
In 2017, though, the city’s Public Health programs are losing two significant revenue sources from the state: a $516,000 reduction in “Healthy Maine Partnerships” grants and a $140,000 reduction in grants for substance use prevention programs. These grants are shaded in dark red in the revenue columns in the chart at left.
Should the city close the India Street Clinic, as proposed, then the city’s expenditures on public health programs will decline by approximately $556,000 in the 2017 budget. But revenues will also go down, since patients of the India Street Clinic, and their insurance companies, pay the city for medical services.
One bright spot in the budget for social services comes from Governor LePage’s failed “pocket veto” of a 2015 law to preserve General Assistance payments for asylum seekers. Portland expects to receive a slightly higher amount of reimbursement revenue for asylum seekers in 2017 thanks to the passage of that bill.
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