Nearing the finish line, the Portland City Council held its penultimate budget session Tuesday on its way to adopting an $8.6 billion final budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Two hours of community testimony focused on several key issues, including urban forestry, parks maintenance, police and public safety, homeless shelters and services, and rideshare fees.
Working from the preliminary budget approved last month, the 12 councilors had submitted 74 pages of amendments for consideration, but discussed only a handful Tuesday.
They approved a pair of amendments proposed by Councilor Eric Zimmerman. The first cuts $2.1 million from the city’s tree regulation program, currently managed by Portland’s Parks & Recreation’s urban forestry division, and transfers it to parks maintenance to restore proposed cuts. The second amendment transfers oversight of tree regulations from Parks to Portland Permitting & Development.
The council also approved a wide-ranging amendment proposed by Councilor Mitch Green to fund a variety of councilor priorities by cutting 2 percent from most bureaus’ external materials and services budgets, which pay for contracts, equipment and other spending. This would free up an estimated $2 million, which would support several amendments proposed by other councilors – including a program evaluation for Portland Street Response, a grant to Portland Center Stage, staffing for the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub, arts economic development, maintaining hours at community centers and other parks facilities, restoring one parks service dispatcher, and restoring analyst positions in the City Budget Office.
The council also approved an amendment proposed by Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney to carry over $408,000 in unspent funds from council operations to support various services such as debt management and parks maintenance.
The council is slated to consider more amendments June 11 and to vote on formal adoption June 18. Adoption makes the appropriations in the budget legally binding and is the final step in the budget process.
Facing an historic funding gap of roughly $150 million, Mayor Keith Wilson proposed a “back to basics” budget in May focused on curbing homelessness, increasing funding for Portland Street Response, strengthening public safety, and keeping parks and community centers open. To balance the budget, Wilson proposed a net reduction of 82 positions from the City’s workforce.
The budget shortfall in the General Fund was estimated at $93 million in February. Shortfalls in other funds have pushed the overall gap to roughly $150 million.