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Confronted with the largest shortfall in a decade, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson unveiled a proposed budget today that eliminates 102 positions across the county, makes cuts to homeless services and communicable-disease tracking, and eliminates a program that assigns nurses to first-time mothers.
Other goners: the county’s campaign finance program (new in the current fiscal year), its passport and ID service, and a joint city-county program aimed at phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers by 2028.
In total, Vega Pederson’s operating budget, what the county needs for day-to-day operations, is $3 billion for the year beginning July 1, down $77.3 million, or 3.23% from the year ending June 30. (The county’s total budget is $4 billion. That budget includes capital projects and debt service.)
The county’s general fund, its largest pot of unrestricted dollars, is taking a hit because slumping Portland real estate values mean lower property tax collections. Though general fund revenues are expected to rise 1% to $897.4 million, they won’t cover current needs because of rising costs. The shortfall is $15.5 million.
The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners must approve the budget. Recipients of county money began howling soon after Vega Pederson released her budget, and none louder than Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, who held a press conference afterward to voice his concerns.
“This budget doesn’t match our community’s values,” Vasquez told reporters. “This office is going to lose critical services.”
Vega Pederson and Vasquez don’t even agree on the size of the cuts to public safety, with Vasquez calling the budget a “shell game.”
In a press release, Vega Pederson said her budget “stabilizes” the DA’s office by providing $2.3 million in ongoing funding for 11 prosecutor positions that currently rely on temporary funding.
Vasquez says his office would take a 5% cut under Vega Pederson’s budget, paring it to $51.3 million from $54 million, at a time when public safety is among Portlanders’ top concerns. Included in that 5% is one-time funding this year to prosecute car and retail theft that wouldn’t be renewed. Vasquez says he’d have to cut 10 people from his office if the cuts go through.
Responding to Vasquez’s criticism, Vega Pederson stressed that everyone must make sacrifices in a year with tax revenue slumping and costs rising.
“The DA’s budget has seen a 57% increase since 2019,” Vega Pederson said in a statement. “The numbers in my budget speak for themselves. Public safety is prioritized with no cuts to the sheriff’s office, jails, and some of the smallest reductions in the county to the DA and Department of Community Justice. To imply otherwise is disingenuous. No one jumps the line and gets special treatment because they go on TV and talk loudly.”
Vega Pederson’s budget would cut the budget for the Department of Homeless Services by $38.3 million, or 11%, to $304.2 million. About half of the department’s budget comes from Metro’s supportive housing services tax.
In a move that irked Vasquez, Vega Pederson chose to backfill an even larger loss at the Homeless Services Department by adding a one-time $26.7 million contribution from the general fund. That money, Vasquez said, would be better spent on public safety, which doesn’t have a special tax supporting it.
“That budget has grown tremendously over the years,” Vasquez said. “We are currently well over $300 million being pumped into that.”
Commissioner Shannon Singleton said she was puzzled because money from the supportive housing services tax would be used in departments other than Homeless Services, as they were this year.
“There is still $30 million of SHS in other departments,” Singleton said in an interview. Why not direct all of that to homeless services, which needs money from the general fund to meet its budget, she asked.
The Preschool for All program, another lightning rod, would add 1,575 new students next year under Vega Pederson’s budget. The program is currently immune to budget cuts because the special tax that funds it has raised money faster than the program can spend it, at least for now.
The Preschool for All tax is expected to raise $175 million in fiscal 2026. It will start the year with $535 million left over from last year. That money is expected to throw off $5.3 million in interest in the next fiscal year.
The Oregon Nurses Association weighed in on cuts to public health, including the communicable disease prevention program and the nurses for pregnant mothers program, both of which save money in the long run, ONA said.
“Slashing public health programs isn’t a cost savings,” ONA said. “It’s a disastrous, expensive gamble that puts people’s lives on the line. These cuts could end up costing our community millions of dollars and countless lives.”
Vega Pederson said no shelter beds would be eliminated under her plan, and no health clinics would be closed.
“Any budget built when resources are constrained requires tough trade-offs, and we’ve had to make many of those,” Vega Pederson told county commissioners today. “We’ve taken staff reductions across all departments. We’ve also cut programs we love that are much more difficult to sustain at this challenging moment when we must continue to fund so many other services that people need to stay healthy and thriving.”