On Wednesday, May 21, Council will convene as the Budget Committee to make our first decisions about next fiscal year’s City budget — how your tax dollars will be spent.
This is our first time under this new form of government conducting a budget approval process. That makes it historic, and uncharted territory for all of us.
As Council President, I am committed to running a respectful, fair, process. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be long, and include robust (and probably sometimes heated) conversation between Councilors. We’ll also hear from you, Portlanders — in fact, that’s one of the first things we’ll do.
We’re going to have to make tough choices, and at the end of the day there will be some painful cuts. Though we are not able to re-invest this year, I hope our decisions show our commitment to the programs and people that make Portland a great place for everyone who lives here.
Schedule
So here’s how Wednesday is going to go. Council is scheduled to be at the dais all day, beginning at 9 a.m. and remaining well into the night.
9 a.m. — We’ll convene our regular Council meeting, where we have 15 items on our regular agenda. All of these items are directly related to the budget, have looming deadlines, or are second readings — in other words, they have to happen now.
About half of the agenda items are fee ordinances. You’ll see us talk about them but not vote on all of them, because we might need to make additional amendments to some of the fees as we move through our budget negotiations.
About 11:45 a.m. — We’ll convene as the Budget Committee and hear public testimony on the budget and our proposed amendments. We’ll then open, discuss and vote on a package of amendments that I’m bringing forward. These are things my colleagues and I have proposed that, I hope, have broad support and will be able to move quickly.
Following voting on my amendment package, we will open, discuss and vote on additional amendments. These will be grouped by policy areas
About 4:00 p.m. — We’ll open the Prosper Portland meeting and once again hear public testimony, this time related to Prosper Portland budget, again timed at two minutes each.
We will then close public testimony on pre-filed amendments, and open, discuss and vote on amendments by topic.
Through the evening — We may reopen the Council meeting. At this point, we’ll address fees which have been increased in the remaining fee bills and pass the final fee bills.
We’ll gavel out of the Council meeting and once again reopen the Budget Committee meeting. If our budget is unbalanced in the negative we will address this. We may have additional amendments Councilors want to consider, and we will take final votes. Then we’ll take a final vote on the Prosper Budget. My goal is to gavel out by about 11pm.
Moving forward
This meeting is for Council to do the bulk of the work in approving the budget. But the final vote will take place on June 18.
By the time Wednesday’s meeting ends, I hope you’ll see a strong future in our budget — a commitment, not just to what will help us today, but to what will continue to build us up. This budget won’t be everything any of us want. But it will keep us strong until we can afford to reinvest.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you at the dais.