MaineHealth’s not for profit, except when they are.

   MaineHealth gave me a great idea today.

           

   I own a two family home here in town. With the costs associated with owning a 100 year old home, taxes, the ever increasing cost to heat the place, and the “mysterious” increase in the power bill since the switch to the new meters, I’ve been operating at a break even point for the last year or so.

           

   Now, with acting city manager Pat Finnigan’s budget that after a token cut by the council imposes a two percent tax increase for Portlanders who have the audacity to own an eighth of an acre in the middle of the city, I’ve been put over the edge – I’ll no longer make a profit on my little apartment house.

           

   So, the logical next step is to file my 501-3c papers and become a non-profit organization.

           

   I’ll immediately turn the house over to my new non-profit. It will get the car too. If I could sign myself over to it, I would as well because it seems that’s the only way to get tax relief in Portland.

           

   MaineHealth just finished making over the old Sears Roebuck building down on Free Street. They did such a great job that the refurbishing increased the tax value of the building. It looks so fabulous and we should all be thankful that they have taken an old blighted building and given it a sprucing-up. So thankful, in fact, that we should all do something for them. How about giving them one hundred thousand dollars! They deserve it, and after all, they’re not for profit.

           

   Well, at least they’re not making a profit on ALL the floors of the building. See, the new MaineHealth building has a few floors within that are their profit centers. They’ll have us believe that these subsidiaries have nothing to do with the company’s main focus, the profit areas are walled off and the workers are levitated to the second floor profit center on their way to work and sent down exterior chutes at the end of the day. This way, profit types have no contact with the not-for-profit do-gooders on the first floor.

           

   So MaineHealth wants a tax break on the parts of the building where non-profit work is being performed and it looks like they’ll get it, too. See, the laws over the years have migrated from wording to protect “us,” to wording that benefits “them.” So now we’re to the point that when a corporation (them) wants to grab a little more profit, ahem, I mean, more money to pay their executives millions, they’re probably going to get it.

           

   John Anton, the only person on the city council that speaks and votes for the “us” crowd gets it right when he says it’s not right and the law should be changed. But it won’t be. They have a lot more money left over from all that profit they’re not making to pay people to camp out in Augusta and make sure of it. The last check I wrote to my lobbyist bounced.

           

   And there will be no cut in services to MaineHealth or their precious Medical Center in the West End. We’ll still plow the roads around it in the winter and repair them in the warmer months. Maybe we’ll use a little less salt on the ice, but I doubt it.

           

   MaineHealth claims the service they provide to the community more than makes up for the tax cut they’ll receive for their headquarters. Perhaps, but it seems to me that a Portlander pays the same for a hospitalization as does a person from Gorham. The only difference is the guy from Gorham isn’t sweeping the street outside the hospital. That’s why they should pay up.

           

   But instead they are going to take advantage of a law they probably helped pen and take just a little bit more from you and I. So join me at a law office near you and file for non-profit status. This way we can ask for OUR tax break. You might even consider using Pierce Atwood after their move down to Merrill’s Wharf.

   That way you can enjoy the view of Casco Bay we paid for while you’re filling out the paperwork.

(Jeffrey S. Spofford is the circulation manager for The Portland Daily Sun. His column appears Fridays.)

Camden Pierce Hughes

   The last two weeks have been especially hard ones news-wise for people who have dedicated their lives to loving and protecting their children above all else. Two weeks ago, we learned about a young mother who selfishly placed her daughter in her car late at night in order so that she could allegedly conduct a drug transaction more than an hour away from the child’s home.

   Krista Dittmeyer was tragically murdered during the alleged drug deal. That sad outcome doesn’t change the fact that she placed her 14-month-old daughter in complete danger in a way most parents are unable to comprehend. It’s even sadder to think that with the drug problem we are facing as a society, thousands of children are victims of this type of behavior every day.

   Just as I was coming to terms with the danger little Aliyah was placed in, helped largely in part by the knowledge that she was in the good hands of Ms. Dittmeyer’s family, we learned of the boy found dead on the side of a dirt road in South Berwick, who we now know and love as Camden Pierce Hughes.

   For four long days, Camden remained unidentified. Even when the case drew national media attention, no grandparent, aunt, uncle or neighbor came forward to say that they knew and loved this precious little boy.

   The heartbreak for the people of South Berwick and, indeed, the whole state was then and continues to be huge. My personal breaking point was at the release of the little “Lightening McQueen” shoes Camden was wearing when he was killed. I know how much my son loves particular characters on items of clothing he owns. It broke my heart to know that the little boy we all came to love, once so full of life, would look down at his little shoes on his tiny little feet and be so excited to see “Lightening McQueen” looking back up at him.

   When we learned of Camden’s identity, we were able to find videos of the little angel laughing, joyfully playing on his tricycle and being as cute as any other child in our lives. We will never know if Camden was ever able to comprehend just how crazy his own mother was or would turn out to be before he was murdered. I cry at the thought of how scared he must have been when he found out for sure.

   McCrery is now reportedly telling her attorney that she wants to “be in Heaven with her son.” She has the right idea in that Heaven implies an end to her life on earth. She is wrong to assume Heaven is her destination. I know in my adult mind that if my own mother had murdered me, and if there is an afterlife from which I would be able to observe the aftermath of the crime, I would want nothing short of the ultimate justice brought upon her. In most cases, the mind of a child lacks a cause and effect clarity, and in a supposed afterlife, Camden may simply be asking “Why did mommy hurt me?”

   So it will be up to a jury in New Hampshire to seek justice for little Camden. Tragically, the same messed-up court system that we’ve witnessed turning a blind eye to elite white collar criminals over recent years, also protects murderous lunatics who kill their own children. McCrery will most certainly plead “not guilty by reason of insanity.” Because there is no other explanation but insanity to explain such a heinous act, a jury may indeed award that verdict. A lifetime spent in a psychiatric facility doesn’t feel like justice for Camden to me. I can only hope little Camden, with his loving heart, is a more forgiving person than I.

   Camden Pierce Hughes. May you rest in peace.

(Jeffrey S. Spofford is the circulation manager for The Portland Daily Sun. His column appears Fridays.)

Forest Avenue’s future may even include a tree or two

   When Joe Gray retired early this year, he listed to reporters as one of his accomplishments early on the purchase of land for and construction of the Reiche School in the West End. The school sits in the middle of what were multiple historic housing units between Brackett and Clark streets.
   At the time, back in the late '60s, cities across the nation were going through the process of “Urban Renewal,” which sought to level entire neighborhoods viewed as run-down, and in their place build the 1970 version of a mini-urban oasis. To the 1970 eye, the Reiche School may have been viewed as a building of great architectural accomplishment. To the modern eye, the building is a prime example of the blight it was supposed to replace.
   Not only was the Reiche School an architectural failure, but Portland suffered at the hand of federal thinking in many areas during this short-sighted time. Bayside was split in half when its heart was sliced in two by the Franklin Arterial, Union Station was bulldozed in favor of a strip mall and horrible looking and out of place buildings like the Maine School of Law on Deering Avenue were constructed without regard to their surroundings.
   But the absolute worst thing to happen to the city during Urban Renewal was the severing of the city in half by Interstate 295. In the late 1960s, the only highway available to the supercharged 440-cubic-inched, four barrel carb-ed public was the Maine Turnpike, which only grazed the city at its outer reaches. These folks, obviously inconvenienced by the mere thought of having to see our scenic neighborhoods and frightened at the prospect of having to travel only 35 miles per hour down Brighton Avenue to get to the heart of the city, were part of the driving force behind the federal government’s push, and the state’s backing, to construct a highway that would get you to Porteous five minutes faster.
   The ironic thing that happened as a result of the interstate is that instead of bringing people into the city, it enabled Portlanders a quicker escape. The road sprouted large-scale, development on the city’s outskirts that were more attractive to the 1970 shopaholic and shuttered our downtown department stores.
   Even without the acknowledgment of state and federal leadership that we are facing an energy crisis coming at us like a semi nearly side-swiping you as you attempt to merge on to 295 at exit 6, Portlanders on their own are coming to terms with the problem and realizing that better pedestrian access, safer biking right of ways, more green space and efficient public transportation are our generations version of Urban Renewal.
   Thankfully there is an effort underway to take a quantum leap and “make right what once went wrong.” In case you missed it, last night a discussion was held at USM’s Abramson Center to discuss the Forest Avenue corridor and the effects the last 50 years of motoring has had on the neighborhoods that border it. Courtesy of a generous grant, a study is being conducted to determine how to best reconnect Forest Avenue not only with the rest of the city, but back to nature to better blend in with its surroundings.
   These types of discussions are going to become more commonplace as the everyday motoring we have taken for granted comes to an abrupt end when the cost of energy makes it unattainable to you and me. It’s time for Portland to reinvent itself from a time of misguided thinking to a modern era that will be largely self-sufficient. A discussion to cut back the twenty acres of cloverleaf highway ramps that connect 295 to Forest Avenue at exit 6 to two small intersections that enable the expansion of Deering Oaks Park and provides for better pedestrian and bicyclist access is a great start.
   As a nod to the past, maybe the plans could include an oil shrine.

Portland's Budget Forecast: Mostly Sunny

The city’s Finance Committee last week gave us their two cents, or rather, two tenths of a percent when they trimmed the budget to lower the proposed 2.2% tax increase city manager Pat Finnigan submitted to a much more palatable 2.0%. The cut was heralded by all involved in the process as a victory, as not only would the tax increase be lower, but that no city services would be cut and for the first time in three years, there would be no layoffs of city employees.

Good so far.

It is really quite amazing that with a large unionized staff, the rising cost of healthcare and the skyrocketing price of fuel, the finance folks were able to keep the tax rate lower than one might expect during the inflationary times in which we live. The most amazing part is how they did it.

In case you didn’t get the memo, the good times are just ahead. The real story here isn’t the budget and the resultant low-to-them-but-not-to-us tax increase. The real story is the Picassos behind the curtain that forecast revenue.

In good times, forecasting revenue is an easy task. One only has to take a look at year-over-year, month-over-month or even week-over-week trends, find an appropriate percentage, plug that into an Excel workbook and watch the numbers increase in each column. In good times, some forecasters will even knowingly nudge down the percentage, to make things look really great when a month comes and goes, and turns out better than expected. That’s when governments have surpluses and businesses have profits.

In bad times, forecasting is an art. It’s the art of pleasing your boss. A person in charge of making forecasts always has a boss. The boss of the forecaster has the ability to do the forecast and, in many cases, has a better understanding of what the forecasted numbers should be. But because the boss needs plausible deniability when explaining any shortfall to the ownership, or in this case, the taxpayers, the stop-gap forecasting position lives on.

I was in just such a position. I used to forecast circulation revenue at a certain 75 cent newspaper here in town. Times were (and are) tough for the paid newspaper business. All trends were pointing down – way down. I knew it, my boss knew it. But it didn’t matter. The expectation was that my forecasts were to be flat, or show modest growth. The decline became so rapid, and the meetings so vicious when my forecasts were inevitably off, that I would produce two forecasts – one that reflected the true trend and a second oil-on-canvas masterpiece that made everyone rejoice. The first month the true forecast came out dead-on, I was relieved of my forecasting duties.

See, as a forecasting artist, I wasn’t paid to be right. I was paid to be wildly optimistic. It looks to me that the revenue forecast we got from the city must have come from just such an artist.

The city’s revenue forecast is based on the assumption that the good times are literally just around the corner. It’s based on more people paying taxes on new cars, paying more for services, real estate values going up and etcetera. Basically, the optimism we are only going to have to contribute an additional 2.0% to, is based on the concept of continuous, sustained growth. But wouldn’t it be the fiscally responsible thing to cut services, eliminate positions, consolidate offices and perform other cost cutting measures until such a time that there is some evidence of it? No need, says the city, the 365-day forecast reads “clear skies.”

So here we are. Citizens of Portland in the know standing open-jawed in awe as the city heralds the fact that they “only” had to increase taxes by 2% and “expects” an increase in revenue when in reality, based on flat, or more than likely, lower revenue, the increase in taxes should probably be in the “mostly cloudy” 4-5% range.

Meteorologists rejoice! The weather forecast never looked so accurate.

(Jeffrey S. Spofford, the circulation manager for The Portland Daily Sun, lives in the Oakdale neighborhood and can be reached at jspofford@maine.rr.com.)