Eliminating the middleman

Here's an interesting story out of the Weed. Portland's "prosperity" agency is planning to stop handing out money to an outfit called Venture Portland, which supports business districts around the city.  Until I read this story, I had never heard of Venture Portland. But it's part of the vast shadow government in Portland, the nonprofit industrial complex. As much as a million dollars a year funnels through Venture Portland, the overwhelming majority of which goes to payroll. It's not clear to me how much of that comes from the city, but the amount must run in the hundreds of thousands annually.

Prosper Portland says it may still help the business districts, but with its own in-house staff rather than routing the dough through the nonprofit. Which sounds like an idea that's overdue. Maybe next they could figure out a way to have the work done out of the mayor's office, so as to eliminate the Prosper Portland overhead, too. For the government to get anything done in Portland, it seems it has to spend the money for it two or three times at a minimum. Mortgages get paid at every stop along the way.

Meanwhile, I suggest they rebrand the development agency to identify it more clearly as a government bureau. How about "the Department of Prosperity, Entrepreneurship and Success"? 

Speaking of layers of bureaucracy, the Weed also tells how Multnomah County is going to pass $15 million of the "homeless tax" slush fund amassed by the redundant regional Metro government directly to the city for use in fighting homelessness, rather than have the county hold it for a while and dither about it. Given how badly the county has handled, and continues to handle, the tragedy on Portland's streets, the less hands-on the county is, the better. But $15 million is chump change. The homeless tax has brought in about a billion dollars. Where did it all go?