Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has proposed a $6.7 billion dollar budget that attempts to tackle several of the basic quality of life issues that have many of his constituents furious with the city and worried about its direction: homelessness, crime and trash.
The mayor’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which he sent to the press Wednesday, covers the period from July 1 through the end of June 2023. The mayor had $621 million in discretionary, general fund money — that’s the pot of funding on which there are few spending restrictions.
The budget, which the city will officially release to the public Thursday morning, designates $85 million for homeless services, $37 million in new investments in public safety, and $20 million for street clean up and repair efforts.
On top of the money the city expects each year from taxes, bonds and revenue fees, the mayor had a new bucket of dollars to work with this year. Portland received $104 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act as well as a surprise $34.8 million from higher-than-expected revenue from the business license tax. The city’s budget office says large businesses did unexpectedly well during the pandemic, blessing the city with a surprise bump. City rules dictate half of license tax funding should go towards major maintenance projects.
File photo of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.
Kaylee Domzalski / OPB
The mayor plans to use a portion to expand the city’s number of public safety support specialists, unarmed police staff who respond to low-level calls. His proposed budget includes $3.9 million to hire 28 new people for the program, bringing the total number of positions to 70. He also wants to add nearly $850,000 to bring on more 911 operators as call volumes have risen sharply and $1 million to expand the city’s trash and graffiti clean up program. The city had previously allocated $3.4 million to remove graffiti across the city.
File photo of Portland City Hall.
Amanda Troxler / OPB
Among other notable investments:
- $11.5 million to make the Portland Street Response 24-hours-a-day. The unarmed emergency response program is intended to reduce the workload of the city’s first responders by sending a team of health workers and a paramedic on 911 calls that involve people experiencing mental illness or homelessness. The money will bring the number of program staff to over 50.
-$4 million in climate change-related funding. That includes $250,000 for the city to begin developing a policy to improve air quality and the implementation of a new parking fee to discourage driving. It is not immediately clear if the fee will be implemented citywide or only in certain districts. The mayor’s proposed budget says the revenue from the fee will go to “climate and equity issues,” such as making busy routes safer for pedestrians.
-$5.5 million to acquire land for future affordable housing. The proposal states the housing bureau will use the money to buy land for 200 to 400 units of permanent affordable housing in East Portland.
-$2.9 million to bring on more 911 operators and expand the 311 phone service, which is meant to act as an easy point of contact to access government services. The mayor’s budget adds 10 full time employees to make the system operational 24/7. The mayor expects 311 to handle 180,000 non-emergency calls with the new staffing capacity.
-$13 million total for gun violence prevention. The proposal puts $1.8 million towards the Portland Parks Bureau to have more park rangers on patrol in the city’s parks, and $10.2 million to the city’s Office of Violence Prevention for initiatives to reduce gun violence.
The mayor’s budget announcement is the start of a process that will include public hearings and input and a final vote by the entire City Council.