Councilor Dan Ryan Says He’ll Vote Against the Parks Levy

Portland City Councilor Dan Ryan announced Oct. 31 that he is voting against the five-year Parks Levy appearing on the November ballot.

“I love our parks, but this levy asks Portlanders to pay for inefficiencies the bureau hasn’t fixed,” Ryan wrote on Oct. 31. “The parks bureau can and should generate more of its own revenue instead of relying again on taxpayers. Until we see real institutional change, it’s not fair to keep coming back to voters for another tax increase. I’m voting no.”

Ryan is the only person on the 12-member council to publicly oppose the measure, which the entire council—including Ryan—sent to the November ballot in a unanimous vote this summer. The five-year renewal of an existing property tax levy increases the rate of taxation from 80 cents to $1.40 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Supporters of the levy have warned that without the extra money, the parks bureau would be forced to drastically cut its programming and risk falling even further behind on maintaining the city’s parks. The bureau has struggled for years to stanch a quickly-increasing deferred maintenance problem, which the city auditor just recently said had amounted to somewhere between $550 million and $800 million.

Critics of the measure have pointed out that for years the bureau and past city councils have opted to open new parks and assets, even as the city knew it couldn’t even maintain its existing ones—demonstrating a lack of fiscal responsibility.

Ryan served as commissioner in charge of parks for all of 2023 and the first half of 2024. The recent audit of the parks bureau noted that in 2023, the commissioner that led the parks bureau—presumably Ryan—directed staff to invest in University Park, “even though staff had not identified it for investment consideration.”

City Councilor Steve Novick offered a scathing rebuke to Ryan’s opposition.

“As commissioner in charge, literally could have fired the parks director and hired a new person with a mandate to seek out more public-private partnerships,” Novick tells WW. “He did no such thing. I give him one thing—at least he’s demonstrating that the Portland political disease of performative self-righteousness isn’t limited to the left.”

Ballots must be mailed or dropped off by 8 pm Tuesday, Nov. 4.