South Portland residents will vote in November on an $88.6 million bond to replace police and fire stations that city government let rot for decades — and the price tag falls squarely on homeowners who had no say in the neglect.
This is what it looks like when the people who run a city fail at the one job they actually owe you: keeping the public safe. The police station was built in 1967. The fire station dates to 1955. Neither meets current building codes. The HVAC systems are shot. The evidence room and the emergency operations center in the basement flood regularly, according to the Portland Press Herald. Body cameras can't dock properly. Cruiser data can't link to station infrastructure. Modern law enforcement lockers are twice the size of what the station has. Police Chief Dan Ahern and Fire Chief Phil Selberg have both said their departments are in desperate need of new facilities.
So after years of deferred maintenance and institutional neglect, the bill comes due — to the taxpayer. A median-priced single-family home valued at $514,000 would pay an additional $255 in property taxes starting in fiscal year 2028, then another $244 when the second phase kicks in, bringing the total hit to roughly $500 by fiscal year 2030. The average annual tax impact stretches through 2059 at about $345 per year. That's three decades of payments for buildings that should have been maintained all along.
The bond would allocate $44.35 million for a new police station on the vacant Walgreens parcel at Cash Corner that the city already acquired, and $44.25 million for a new central fire station on the footprint of the existing building. Construction would happen in two phases, police first.
It's not just South Portland. Irving ISD in Texas is asking voters for a $952 million bond package this November to replace schools built in the 1950s and 60s — four campuses overdue for reconstruction — plus technology and security upgrades, the Dallas Morning News reported. That package would cost $20.83 per month on a median $340,000 home. And Irving's enrollment has dropped 16% over the past decade. More money, fewer students, same broken infrastructure.
Meanwhile, in Alabama, two high schools — Dora and Loachapoka — are competing in a T-Mobile corporate contest for a $1 million football field upgrade, according to AL.com. When corporate PR budgets replace local government as the path to decent facilities, something has broken in the basic compact between the governed and the people who spend their tax dollars.
South Portland's city government is now hosting station tours and coffee chats to sell the public on a bond they should never have needed. No one disputes the stations are failing. The question is why it took a referendum and $88.6 million in new debt for anyone in charge to notice.
