The Portland City Council will take up next year’s budget in a lengthy series of hearings on Wednesday, May 21. The meeting is scheduled for 12 hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The budget must be balancedand approved by Thursday, but can be revised as late as June 11 before taking effect on July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.

The council will face many challenges during the meeting, especially since it will be the first time the new 12-member body approved by city voters in November 2022 must approved a balnaced budget. All bureaus are now being managed by a city administrator and Mayor Keith Wilson can only vote to break a tie.

Among other things, the council must close a projected $93 million general fund shortfall. Wilson has proposed a balanced budget that accomplishes that through a series of fee increases, spending cuts, layoffs, and one-time fundings. Most councilors have opposed at least some parts of Wilson’s proposed budget, and several members have said they will submit alternatives in the form of amendments.

Major alternatives that have been publicly discussed include:

• Using the voter-approved Portland Clean Energy Fund which is collecting more than originally estimated through a 1% tax on large retailers to support unrelated programs.
• Reducing Wilson’s proposed Portland Police Bureau funding intended to fill 90 current vacant positions.
• Reducing general fund support of Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency, and much of the authority of its appointed citizen commission to the council.
• Reducing cuts to the maintenance of Portland parks by cutting unrelated employees and closing community center.
• Increasing golf course, rideshare, and other fee increases more than proposed by Wilson.
• Taking greater management of overtime paid by the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Fire & Rescue.
• Reducing the money Wilson wants to spend to provide overnight shelters for all homeless people in Portland by the end of the year, currently estimated at $29 million.

The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. The first budget-related agenda item concerns adopting new water, sewer, and stormwater management rates and fees, followed by revising transportation fees and rates, and then amending the Portland Permitting & Development fee schedule.

The council is then scheduled to convene as the Budget Committee to consider the overall Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget at 11:45 a.m. after that, the council will convene as the Prosper Portland Budget Committee to consider the Prosper Portland budget.

Public testimony will be allowed at all hearings. The full May 21 agenda can be found on the council’s website here.