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The only ballot measure Portlanders will decide this November is facing organized opposition, and it’s coming from the city’s top elected official and some of the region’s most powerful labor unions.
Ballot Measure 26-267 seeks to let Portlanders decide how 2% of the city’s general fund is spent every year, a technique that’s called “participatory budgeting.” Under that program, city residents would suggest ideas for how to spend 2% of the city budget (about $16 million annually), citizen delegates would shape those ideas into project proposals, and the concepts would receive a citywide vote.
Backers sent the measure to the ballot after submitting a whopping 78,000 signatures to elections officials in July for verification, of which 41,860 were verified—enough to place the measure on the ballot.
Now, as the election approaches, organized opposition from heavy hitters has emerged.
The opposition campaign includes Mayor Keith Wilson and Laurie Wimmer, the executive secretary-treasure of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council. Wimmer is chairing the political action committee opposing the measure, says Swift Public Affairs political consultant Tony Morse, the firm that’s running the ‘no’ campaign.
The PAC, called Protect Our City Services, has not yet appeared on the Secretary of State’s campaign finance database. Morse declined to say who the campaign’s financial backers are, or if any yet exist.
Wilson in a statement said that the measure “writes a permanent budget set-aside into our city charter—something no city in America has ever done—pulling at least $16 million a year from the fund that pays for shelter beds, park maintenance, and investigators, and handing it to a process the measure doesn’t even define. No future mayor or council could adjust it. Portland can’t afford it.”
Wimmer wrote that the measure would “take millions away from parks, community centers, Portland Street Response, firefighting, and other essential services”, and result in “even more city workers who deliver the basic services we all count on” to “lose their jobs.”
The PAC backing the ballot measure, meanwhile, raised around $554,000 from primarily Participatory Budgeting Oregon, East County Rising and Next Up Action Fund to pay for signature-gathering efforts and campaign consulting. (Backers had initially sought to get a near-identical measure on the ballot in November 2024, but delayed their efforts until 2026.)
Devin Ruiz, NextUp Action Fund’s deputy director, said in a statement in response to Wilson and Wimmer’s comments that “powerful opponents are fear mongering because they want to continue to call 100 percent of the shots.”
“At a time when powerful interests are pushing to cut city jobs and services in order to finance corporate handouts,” Ruiz said in a statement, “Your 2 Cents gives Portlanders a direct way to push back and ensure public dollars are spent responsibly.”
