Finances

Browse our audit reports about finance topics. This includes audits about the City's budget, taxes, fees, other revenues, the City Budget Office and the Bureau of Revenue and Financial Services. The City's financial statement audits are here.

Recreational Cannabis Tax: Greater transparency and accountability needed

Portland voters approved a tax on recreational cannabis sales in 2016. Since that time, most of the taxes collected have been used for police and transportation programs. While the uses are allowed under the ballot measure, community members, cannabis businesses, or others impacted by past cannabis policies have not been involved in the overall budget decisions, and the City has not reported on how it’s used the tax revenues.

Highlights | Report | May 2019

Utility Payment Assistance: Program improvements would enable City to assist more customers

The Water Bureau has not used customer data to design their payment assistance program. Without data, it is unable to identify disparities, tailor assistance to meet customer needs, focus outreach or measure the impact of assistance. Payment assistance is not available to residents of multifamily housing since most residents of multifamily pay for their water, sewer and stormwater as part of their rent rather than directly to the Water Bureau. We recommend the Water Bureau strengthen payment assistance by collecting and using customer data and improving outreach and training.

Highlights | Report | October 2017

Portland's Financial Condition: Funding infrastructure should be high priority

The financial condition report focuses on the City’s financial trends over five years. The report helps decision makers to visualize the City’s course, to consider options, and make adjustments to improve the City’s long-term financial health. The audit found that Portland’s financial condition is currently stable, but there are long-term challenges to address, such as increased pension liabilities and some assets losing value faster than the City can make repairs.

Highlights | Report | April 2017

City Transaction Testing: Continuous monitoring revealed few issues

We reviewed procurement card transactions to look for prohibited or risky transactions. We did not find anything to indicate fraud, misuse or a general lack of oversight.