Should Portland homeowners pay, on average, $130 more a year to keep the city’s parks operational? That’s the question Portland city councilors will consider sending to voters in the fall.

The stakes are high. If the proposal fails to pass, the parks bureau’s already bare-bones budget would be cut in half. If voters adopt the tax hike, it will largely be used to sustain current parks operations and programming — not increase any services.

The current five-year parks levy, approved in 2020, taxes property owners $0.80 per $1,000 assessed value of a property annually.

That means the owner of a house with an assessed value of $228,000 — the median for a Multnomah County home — pays $182 per year. The median commercial property owner pays about $251 per year.

That money goes toward community centers, pools, recreational classes, trash cleanup, minor maintenance projects and offering parks discounts to low-income households, among other programs. The levy expires next year.

On July 16, City Council will consider asking voters to renew the levy for five more years and raising the rate from $0.80 to $1.40. The median homeowner would pay about $310 a year and the median commercial property owner would pay around $440 annually. The city estimates this tax would raise more than $456 million by 2031.

City staff landed on the higher tax rate after months of negotiations with business groups, labor unions, parks advocates and city councilors. While members of the public gave input along the way, the business and labor lobbyists whose support could make or break a successful ballot measure campaign were prioritized in shaping the end result.

The decision comes at a financially precarious time, as the city grapples with declining revenues. The parks bureau has faced budget cuts year after year due to declining revenue and increasing costs.

Annually, the bureau is $55 million short of funds needed to cover basic maintenance. The bureau faces $615 million in deferred maintenance costs for major backlogged repairs and construction projects.

The parks levy historically has focused on programs over maintenance costs. To ensure the tax helps chip away at the maintenance backlog, the ballot proposal would ensure that roughly 2% of levy revenue goes to maintenance costs. That would raise about $2 million annually.

Some advocates had hoped the levy would go further to cover maintenance. The Portland Parks Alliance, a volunteer-led coalition of more than a dozen different park advocacy groups in the city, sent a letter to city councilors in May, urging that at least 10% of future parks levy revenue go toward major maintenance projects.

Suzanne Bishop, a representative of the Parks Alliance, said the group is disappointed with where the proposal has landed, due to the limited maintenance costs.

“Having said that, we are pleased at the difference our efforts have made to elevate attention to different maintenance in parks,” Bishop added. “The fact we got some money set aside is a start. We can always do better.”

The push to extend and expand this levy comes at a time when there’s little public appetite for increased taxes in Portland. An April poll found that roughly 54% of Portland voters would be willing to pay the $1.40 tax to maintain park services.

Portland councilors fret over fate of parks levy

At a June council meeting, District 4 Councilor Mitch Green said that polling tells him the city will have to work hard to sell the levy increase to voters. To him, that means not promising new projects, but committing to keeping parks facilities and programs running smoothly.

“If we can go to voters and say, ‘Let’s just fix what’s broken’ and stretch our dollars, then we can sell this thing in a much easier way that puts us on a financially sustainable path for the next five years,” Green said. “I think we should have world-class offerings, but we don’t have a bottomless well of money.”

The proposed ballot measure includes a plan to find new sources of revenue. If referred to the ballot and passed by voters, the levy would pay for one full-time employee who is focused on finding new financial partnerships in the private sector.

District 2 Councilor Dan Ryan said that creating these kinds of partnerships could be “transformational,” and would signal to voters that the city is looking for ways to ease the tax burden.

“We need to be more creative,” Ryan said at a Thursday council meeting.

Councilors will vote on whether to refer the proposal to a Nov. 4 ballot next week.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/11/portland-voters-parks-levy-fall-ballot/