Mayor Sam Adams and the Portland City Council are not going to wait for Congress to decide whether or not to send federal stimulus money to Oregon. They have moved forward with planned transportation spending, a half-billion in planned construction — and borrowing — that will now begin this year rather than down the road:

The Portland City Council will create 5,000 new construction jobs this year by speeding up the schedule on $500 million worth of city housing, sewer, water, park and road projects.

The city's "first ever" economic stimulus package, Mayor Sam Adams said Tuesday, is an aggressive strategy to inject new money into the local economy. Job creation means paycheck creation, and the council hopes the money the city spends will flow through workers to the city's small businesses, which make up 85 percent of jobs inside city limits.

In addition to construction spending, Adams said his administration will work to attract new companies and their family-wage jobs to Portland, push locally made goods into foreign markets and reduce home foreclosures while getting more qualified homebuyers into the market. And he said the city plans to expand loan assistance programs to small businesses.

The article in the Oregonian notes that this work was going to happen anyway, and would be funded by borrowing: "Borrowing is the normal way that cities build such projects." The downside? Cuts of up to 5% in the City's 2009-10 budget. However, if the program is successful in generating local spending and taxing, and if stimulus develops additional, permanent economic development, the City may be able to reverse those cuts. This is what the Council is counting on, just as the Congress and President-elect are moving forward on a national stimulus package.

Perhaps the best part is that Adams and the Council are not sitting still and hoping for a federal rescue. Doing nothing out of fear that accelerated borrowing is risky is the other option. We know how that works: Nothing happens. Let's move forward boldly. It worked to end the Great Depression.