Almost. (the Portland Press Herald is from Portland Main).

It's not the property taxes that are driving up rents. The quality of life that all these amenities provide have made this a desirable place to live, so lots of people are moving here. Because of a complicated constitutional amendment property taxes can (mostly/usually) only go up 2.5% a year (funding for parks and stuff is on top of this increase but it's a minor part). There is an urban growth boundary which limits sprawl but also constrains (it might constrain it a lot or not at all depending on who you ask) home building.

So prices in my neighborhood have roughly gone up 30% in three years due to limited supply and increasing demand (rents, which poor people pay have gone up more). property taxes have one gone up 7.5 percent in most cases.

The Urban Growth Boundary is county wide and voted on by ballot initiative. The 2.5% property tax increase limit is State wide and was voted in by ballot initiative, the funding for parks and libraries is city wide and voted in by ballot initiative. All these various initiatives have costs and benefits, each one could be the basis for a doctoral dissertation. The growth boundary and funding for amenities both drive up home prices.

It's interesting that as quality of life gets better overall things generally get worse for those at the bottom. The same thing is usually true when things get worse overall, things will get much more worse for those at the bottom. It's also interesting that it's not our city councilors or State Reps that have driven most of these changes, it's we the people, acting by ballot initiative. To the extent that people keep wanting to move here, it's seems that the people make pretty good choices about where to spend a little bit of extra money.

There are a bunch of things that are getting rapidly worse here. Traffic, homeless, rents and laundry list of other things. The city council has been pretty dysfunctional, to some extent corrupt, and late to the game dealing with a few important issues.

When the last car parts store closes it's door to make way for an artisanal ice cream, scented candle and dog cloathing super store I think I might start looking for the exit.