Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling outlined an ambitious policy agenda in his annual state of the city address Monday night.
Strimling put the renovation of aging city schools at the top of his agenda, saying that passage of a $60 million-$70 million school bond was his first priority for 2017. But he also floated a raft of other proposals, including doubling the amount of affordable units housing developers must include in their plans, requiring city employers to allow workers to earn paid sick time, re-instituting evening hours at City Hall and establishing a gender-neutral bathroom in the building.
And he called for Portland to follow the example of other Maine municipalities by providing property tax relief for their senior citizens.
“No group is feeling the pinch of a rising tax rate than our senior citizens — our senior citizens on fixed incomes,” he said. “Our elders, many of whom literally built our city, are seeing increases in costs without an accompanying increase in their pocketbooks.”
Strimling, who frequently battled with City Manager Jon Jennings last year, said Monday that he supports the manager’s goal of keeping property tax hikes to 2.5 percent or lower. It’s a goal that would be made more difficult if the proposed school bond is approved, and Jennings has called for a more modest school renovation plan.
Jennings says he does supports many of Strimling’s goals, although he noted that his No. 1 priority — repairing failed city streets and other basic infrastructure — received scant attention in the mayor’s speech.