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Portland Mayor Keith Wilson released a proposed city budget of $8.5 billion on Monday afternoon, with the city’s parks system and permitting bureau shouldering the brunt of personnel and program cuts.
Importantly, Wilson’s proposed budget is only balanced if certain things happen that are mostly out of the mayor‘s control: He’s banking on the City Council to increase parking fees and a host of parks-related fees. Wilson does not have a say in setting fees, so he is relying on the council to achieve his budget aims.
The mayor’s proposed budget represents $26 million in cuts to the general fund. To whittle down the initial estimated $93 million hole in the general fund, the mayor is relying on a substantial amount of unspent funds from the current year, one-time contingency dollars, and significant financial help from other government agencies. (Some of those outside funds haven’t been secured, making Wilson’s budget even more tenuous.)
Yet the undercurrent of Wilson’s proposed budget is clear: He wants to protect public safety bureaus from cuts, and is willing to sacrifice some parks maintenance and programming to protect other city services from the ax. Services he’s willing to trim include deep cuts to the city’s permitting staff (51 total positions), 32 positions from the Water Bureau, and modest cuts to the city’s administration across various offices.
Documents provided by the mayor’s office show he’s seeking to cut a net 15 positions from Portland Parks & Recreation and to ax some maintenance of outdoor parks by reducing restroom cleanings, turf maintenance and facility repairs. He also seeks to shorten operating hours at some community centers. (He proposes adding other positions to the parks bureau, however, using interest from the Portland Clean Energy Fund.)
Wilson’s proposed budget seeks to avoid the shuttering of any community centers and protects the city’s beloved SUN after-school program.
Wilson emphasized in a statement that his proposed budget does not call for levying any new taxes. “But it does propose increases in fees for parking, parks, permitting, water/sewer/stormwater utility, rideshare and short-term rentals in line with peer cities,” the mayor’s office acknowledged in its proposed budget.
The proposed budget shows Wilson also plans to reduce internal services like equity, communications and human resources by $9.5 million in the coming fiscal year, primarily through layoffs.
Documents provided by the mayor say he wants to “double investment in pothole repair” at the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and a line-item document shows the mayor wants to increase staffing at the bureau for street sweeping, graffiti removal, and the abandoned vehicle program.
The mayor’s aspirations to avoid transportation cuts rely on the City Council to reinstate and increase a host of fees at PBOT for things like like leaf cleanup, parking and ride-share. The bureau is funded primarily from nongeneral fund sources, but its bottom line has struggled as both parking fee and gas tax revenues have steadily declined.
On the flip side, public safety bureaus are shielded from cuts in the mayor’s proposed budget, and in fact the mayor wants to increase their funding. Wilson hopes to hire another 10 employees at Portland Fire & Rescue and another 14 to expand Portland Street Response. He also wants to use $12 million in one-time funds to bolster the Portland Police Bureau and hire additional officers. (Wilson seeks to cap the budget for police overtime.)
Under Wilson’s proposed budget, Portland Solutions, the new city office that oversees all the city’s homelessness and livability programs, would see a staff increase of 11.
The budget released Monday is far less dismal than many expected, after months of city officials saying core services would be slashed as the city faced what was then labeled a $93 million general fund deficit. (One big caveat: The mayor’s $28 million shelter initiative, which doesn’t yet exist, was included in that estimate. The mayor found external sources of funding for his plan, including from Metro and Multnomah County.)
City officials have been sounding the alarm on a mounting budget deficit since the fall, with city administrator Mike Jordan saying it was the worst budget crisis he’d seen in decades. But Wilson’s proposed budget, dropped Monday, doesn’t reflect the dire warnings shared with the public for months leading up to it.
In comments to press on Monday afternoon, Wilson harped on the fact that his proposed budget used a number of stop-gap measures and external funds that aren’t guaranteed in later fiscal years. “What are we going to do about the revenue side of it?” Wilson offered rhetorically.
The 12 members of the City Council will soon begin proposing amendments to Wilson’s budget—a process that may be cumbersome with an expanded council and still-unclear procedures for how amendments move through the council.