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Council debates whether to use Prosper Portland's Strategic Investment Fund to backfill general-fund cuts
Summary
Councilors and Prosper Portland leaders debated using the agency's Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) to offset general-fund reductions to Prosper programs. Prosper leaders defended SIF as a revolving loan corpus intended to generate returns; some councilors proposed targeted transfers to preserve small-business and district programs.
Prosper Portland staff and City Councilors engaged in an extended budget discussion about the agency's financial posture and whether the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) should be used to replace general-fund reductions to economic-development programs.
Shay Flerty Bettine, interim executive director of Prosper Portland, said the agency has used an arm's-length structure to deliver real estate and lending tools, and that SIF is intended as a revolving loan corpus to create citywide capital that TIF can't. "One of the benefits of having a quasi governmental agency... is that we do manage our own systems, which means having our own procurement, our own specialized legal team that specializes in real…
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