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The Portland City Council is getting closer to agreeing on what size Parks Levy to refer to the November ballot.
The current Parks Levy is set to expire in 2026, and voters will be asked this fall to approve another five-year levy—likely at a higher rate than the current levy.
As WW has reported, Portland Parks and Recreation leaders have warned the new City Council that without a near-doubling of the existing parks levy of 80 cents per $1,000 assessed property value, the parks bureau will have to make major cuts, as much as a quarter of its services and programming.
The council has had to confront in recent months three competing factors: a parks bureau that says a simple renewal of the existing levy rate will result in steep cuts to services; polling showing that a doubling of the existing levy has only tenuous support; and the Portland Metro Chamber’s threat to campaign against the levy if the council didn’t agree to its demands on police funding.
(The third problem has been somewhat resolved; after the council diverted $2 million in new police funding to backfill parks maintenance, the council voted to move $2.2 million in unused police funds to the city’s public safety service area. That vote pacified the Metro Chamber, which has since said it will work with the council to agree on a levy that will “shape a broadly supported levy dedicated to the maintenance, cleanliness, safety, and modernization of parks operations.“)
Councilors during a June 24 work session discussed what rate they’d be comfortable with referring to the November ballot. They also spoke about their desires for how the bureau uses those levy funds, and made clear the bureau should not expand the parks system if it can’t afford to maintain new assets.
The council appeared to tentatively agree on a levy referral somewhere between $1.35 and $1.50.
Councilor Candace Avalos said she was leaning towards the higher figure so that the city could advertise to voters a levy that would not just maintain services, but add them.
“I remain pretty steadfast that we need to add value,” Avalos said. “If we’re going to go to the voters and ask them to do anything, it needs to be worth it, and needs to be something they will see.”
Councilor Angelita Morillo, too, said she was leaning for a levy on the higher side. “Hopefully our business partners are going to be supportive of that, because we need them to be team players here for our city, and not do attack ads on the Parks Levy,” Morillo said. (She had taken particular exception earlier this month when the Metro Chamber threatened an opposition campaign.)
The council also discussed on June 24 where they wanted levy dollars directed, should it pass. Resoundingly, councilors expressed their desire that current parks assets be maintained, and implored the parks bureau to not spend any more money on new parks or expanded facilities that it doesn’t have the money to maintain.
“My priority right now is in embodying some way to maintain what we have,” said Councilor Jamie Dunphy, “or else it will simply just get more and more expensive.”
The council is set to refer a final proposal to the fall ballot next month.
