Just months into the job, Portland’s brand-new elected leaders have found themselves in the middle of a brutal budget battle, where a $93 million deficit makes layoffs and program closures feel inevitable. Last week, they got their first earful of what the public wants preserved — and deprioritized — in the first spending plan under the city’s new form of government.

“If it’s not broke, don’t get rid of it,” said Melissa Fritz, a Portland Parks & Recreation employee testifying to protect parks programs at a Tuesday budget listening session in District 3. Fritz held back tears as she urged councilors and Mayor Keith Wilson to preserve city youth sports programs, which city administrators have suggested slashing.

“I’m thinking about these kids and what this means to them,” she added.

Saving programs that serve Portland kids has been a central theme in the first two public budget sessions, held in Southeast Portland’s District 3 and East Portland’s District 1 last week.

Others spoke out against cuts to neighborhood association grants, a Fire Bureau medical response program, and street maintenance. Notably, in a city where homelessness ranks the highest concern, no one advocated for Wilson’s $28 million shelter plan, which accounts for 30% of the general fund shortfall. But cuts to parks took center stage.

“I think the majority of people sitting or standing around this room have been in middle school,” said Eva, a sixth grader at Centennial Middle School, who urged the city to keep funding SUN Community Schools, a youth program within the Parks Bureau. “If so, you know that having an actual real community that you can be yourself with is insanely uncommon. I sincerely hope that SUN will stick around.”

The fear of deep cuts to parks youth programs is not coming out of the blue. Budget recommendations released by the city last month listed cuts to several youth programs as potential ways to balance the budget. That includes closing the citywide youth basketball league (and laying off referees), defunding afterschool programs, cutting summer camps, and potentially closing a community center.

But none of these threatened cuts are certain.

Last month’s recommendations came from the city administrator’s office, as a way to give the public a sense of what kinds of trade-offs may be on the table due to the $93 million deficit. But it won’t be until May 5, when Mayor Keith Wilson releases his proposed budget, that Portlanders will truly know what’s on the chopping block. The public listening sessions are meant to inform Wilson’s budget writing.

Some members of the public criticized the process so far.

“I would really appreciate this listening session to be taking place after the mayor’s budget is issued,” said Lin Felton, a District 1 resident, at the Thursday meeting. “That way we’re talking about real numbers and not narratives.”

Yet dozens still took the opportunity to speak up against the recommended Portland Parks & Recreation cuts floated by City Administrator Michael Jordan.

The Parks Bureau gets its funding from the city’s general fund, which is the pot of money facing the $93 million deficit due to declining property taxes, expiring temporary revenue streams such as federal pandemic assistance, declining business tax revenues, and new proposed spending, like Mayor Wilson’s homeless shelter plan. The general fund is largely split between paying for police, fire, homeless services, and parks.

About 40% of the Parks Bureau operating costs also come from the city’s Parks Levy, which requires property owners to pay $0.80 per $1,000 assessed value of a property annually. But officials say it’s not going far enough to keep the bureau afloat – and is set to expire next year. Last year, parks officials said they would need voters to increase that tax to maintain current services – and if the levy isn’t renewed when it’s expected to go to voters this fall, funding for parks services could be cut in half.

Because of these dual declining revenues, PP&R is facing at least $23 million in budget cuts.

This is the first budget cycle under a new form of city government, where the newly expanded 12-person council is elected to represent geographic districts. District 1, which includes most neighborhoods east of Interstate 205, has a long history of no investment. With many unpaved roads, high rates of gun violence, and scant parks and community centers, District 1 neighbors said this budget process offers a chance to change course.

“Any cuts to parks programming will disproportionately affect the residents of our district,” said Jed Arkley, a parks employee who testified at the public meeting last week. “Now that East Portland finally has direct representation, we have a chance to supercharge this investment and continue to repair decades of disinvestment.”

Along with proposed cuts to youth sports and community centers, the city is eyeing cutting at least 50 park maintenance and recreation jobs. In all, the city administrator’s office expects to eliminate around 300 jobs citywide, spurring around 130 layoffs (the other eliminated positions are currently vacant).

“I just feel like you all need to understand that if you cut parks maintenance, you are going to see what happens,” said Rita Alves-Stone, a parks bureau maintenance worker, whose job may be eliminated under bureau cuts. “People don’t understand how much we do before the sun rises in the morning.”

Jamie Doscher, a parks employee and president of Laborers’ Local 483, a union that represents about 1,600 city staff, said the potential cuts will “devastate” the city’s workforce. At the District 1 meeting, Doscher pointed out that the majority of potential layoffs are of union-represented workers

“That means that the majority of these budget savings are in the backs of frontline represented labor,” said Doscher.

City labor representatives have banded together this budget cycle to present their own set of budget recommendations to Mayor Wilson, which include cutting the city’s reliance on costly contract employees and tapping into city reserves.

At last week’s budget hearings, members of the public proposed other ways to balance the city’s checkbook, such as trimming the police bureau’s budget, reducing salaries and staff in the city administrator’s office, and cutting budgets for city councilor staff and offices. Several pointed to one revenue source to fill the budget gaps: the Portland Clean Energy Fund. This is a voter-approved tax on large retailers meant to fund renewable energy projects in Portland, which has brought in higher-than-anticipated revenue. While all of the revenue has been assigned to specific programs and services over the next five years, the city is still considering tapping into the fund’s accrued interest of around $19 million.

It’s a divisive issue in City Hall. Some councilors have said all PCEF funding should be reserved solely for green energy programs, while others see a fund that could save the city at a time of financial crisis. Both perspectives were reflected in the community meetings.

“How can we be expected to build green infrastructure if we can’t afford to fund the permitting department?” asked Eric Esqueda, president of the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association, who testified to use PCEF more broadly on Tuesday. “And how can we possibly say that we’re advancing climate equity if our parks department can’t afford to maintain our public green spaces and community centers?”

The city will hold two more budget listening sessions the first week of April.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/24/portlanders-defend-youth-programs-parks-jobs-at-city-budget-sessions/