What is Budget Mapping?
Budget mapping is one way for policy makers and community members to better understand the distribution of spending and the delivery of service throughout Portland.
The City is divided into eight areas: the seven neighborhood coalitions plus the Central City.
Spending and Service Provision
There is no universal cost for providing a City service to the “average” resident.
Each City bureau has unique service standards to which it is held accountable. For instance, Police strives to respond to all 911 calls, regardless of location, within five minutes. Budget mapping is a geographic approach to looking at the budget and displays what bureaus intend to spend throughout the City. The budget maps have been paired with “level of service” maps in order to geographically represent how bureaus are performing with at least one service-level metric.
For most bureaus, the cost of providing a particular project or service to any given neighborhood will vary depending upon many factors. Among the most important are:
• Geography / topography (hilly vs. flat; urban vs. sparsely populated)
• Asset characteristics (old vs. new; many assets vs. few assets; type of construction material originally used)
Equity
Budget mapping tracks the flow of money for the current fiscal year within eight areas of Portland. By itself, money does not describe the level of service provided or needed within an area.
Maps of service level measures are provided for bureaus to accompany budget maps. The City’s Portland Plan addresses broad service issues and explores how to make services reliable and affordable with equitable access. The Portland Plan defines equity as the right of every person to have access to opportunities necessary to satisfy essential needs, advance their well-being, and achieve their full potential.
Spending Per Person
The eight areas used to describe the City vary significantly in size, number of residents, and many other characteristics. In order to increase comparability between the areas, spending has been described in terms of spending per ‘user’ (residents + employees).
Capital Investments: Multi-year Versus Single Year
Capital maps illustrate the City’s Adopted Budget and provide a narrow slice (one year only) of capital spending within a larger capital plan that spans several years and rotates its geographic focus. Capital spending refers to facility projects with a cost of more than $10,000 or equipment with a cost of more than $50,000 and a useful life of more than 10 years. Drivers for capital spending include: regulatory mandates; breakage/emergency repair; level of service targets; plans and studies; asset condition; scheduled maintenance; public interest; availability of external revenues.