Suggestion Box

The city has created an electronic "Suggestion Box" to solicit ideas for the budget.

The form can be found by clicking here.

Budget Forums Slated

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 2013 -- The city of Portland will hold three forums to hear citizens’ input on city spending in May, before the City Council adopts the 2013-14 budget.

Mayor Charlie Hales, city commissioners and city staff will listen to residents’ ideas on potential budget cuts and spending increases.

Those will be:

• Thursday, May 16, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Council Chambers, City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave.

• Saturday, May 18, 3 to 5 p.m., Warner Pacific College, 2219 S.E. 68th Ave.

• Thursday, May 23, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Jackson Middle School, 10625 S.W. 35th Ave.

To review budgets requested by city bureaus: www.portlandoregon.gov/cbo/article/437463

Budget Help: Input sought on ways to save or generate money

MONDAY, FEB. 25 -- The city is looking at a shortfall of at least $25 million. Want to help?

Suggestions are needed on ways to trim money or to generate more revenue. Send suggestions to:

Address: budget.help@portlandoregon.gov

Subject Line: Budget Help

Copies of the proposed budgets are in the link below. The budget calendar can be found by clicking here.

Budget Details Available

THURSDAY, FEB. 28 -- The city has posted information regarding the 2013-14 budget online.

The information includes calendars for budget work sessions as well as the entire budget cycle through the end of the fiscal year. The requested budget for each bureau also is available.

The Portland City Council is beginning the weeks-long process of evaluating the requests and crafting a budget for the new year, which begins July 1.

Bureau changes

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6 – Mayor Charlie Hales officially became the commissioner in charge of all Portland Bureaus. For about 90 days, anyway.

And now, the requested budgets for all city bureaus have been released.

“Each bureau crafts its own budgets,” Hales said. “And each bureau has been asked to present a budget at 90 percent of their current funding levels. Next, the City Council comes together to hash out these proposals. Our goal is to find a way out of a $25 million shortfall in the general fund. In that effort: We’re all in this together.”

The proposed budgets for all bureaus now are available online.  

The City Council will spend the next few months debating the budgets and looking to close a budget shortfall that could exceed initial estimates of $25 million.

Portland has an unusual governance system, in which each member of the City Council directly overseas bureaus. But starting this week, and extending for approximately three months, the council members, will focus on the city budget as a whole, not on selected portions of the city budget.

“We’re going to try this while we craft the next year’s budget,” Hales said. “I want the City Council members sitting together as a ‘board of directors,’ each equally vested in each bureau.”

Bureaus include: Planning and Sustainability; Development Services; Emergency Communications; Parks and Recreation; Police; Fire; and more.

Mayors Vera Katz and Tom Potter also adopted the all-bureaus-under-one-roof approach, at the start of their budget seasons.

“We are facing a general fund shortfall that could be much worse than $25 million,” Hales said. “We have to get our financial house in order.”