The Portland City Council has officially passed its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, a hefty $8.6 billion plan that aims to tackle pressing city issues head-on. After grappling with a challenging $150 million funding gap, council members hammered out a final budget that commits to delivering essential services and addresses areas like homelessness, public safety, and local parks and community centers. The council’s adopted budget prioritizes major investments such as fortifying the Portland Street Response and beefing up the ranks of Portland Fire & Rescue with 10 additional firefighters, as reported by the City of Portland.
In a bid to provide for the homeless population, Mayor Keith Wilson's plan, which is to open 1,500 overnight shelter beds and four day centers at a cost of $24.9 million, has been authorized, according to the City of Portland's announcement. Though not without controversy, the council opted to increase fees for rideshare services from 65 cents to $2 per ride, in an effort to generate an additional $10 million for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Other fee hikes will affect short-term rentals, city golf courses, and downtown parking. As per the finalized figures presented today, the budget authorizes a total expenditure of $8,638,585,121 for the upcoming fiscal year.
This first major financial blueprint is the brainchild of Portland’s new governance structure that came into effect earlier this year, featuring a larger 12-person council, along with the mayor and city administrator. Mayor Wilson expressed his pride in the outcome, saying, "We have a balanced, pragmatic budget that reflects our priorities and avoids the outcomes we were most concerned about," as stated by the City of Portland. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney communicated a more mixed sentiment, highlighting the necessary but difficult decisions that led to city employee layoffs.
Looming job cuts, however, were just a piece of the larger discussion, as the council tackled numerous amendments over extensive budget sessions. Following in-depth debates, notable amendments proposed included redirecting $2 million from the Portland Police Bureau to support parks maintenance and transferring $1 million from the bureau's asset forfeiture fund to back evidence-based crime prevention. An additional $1.4 million was snipped from councilors' personal budgets to rather strengthen shared council resources. In her reflections on the process, Pirtle-Guiney stated, "Despite the painful choices we have made, I am hopeful that the new budget will keep us strong as we move into the remaining half of this Council's first year in office and build towards Portland’s future." Her words come from the City of Portland's official statement.
Finally, in a detailed personnel shift, while some positions were created, others will end, resulting in an approximate net reduction of 50 positions from the city's workforce, which doesn't include seasonal roles like lifeguards. Prior to these changes, the city employed 6,990 individuals not counting those seasonal workers. These moves are part of the council's broader effort to manage the city's financial and operational strategy in the coming year, as per the City of Portland.
