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The backers of a ballot initiative that seeks to bring participatory budgeting to Portland—whereby community members get to direct a small percentage of the city’s $7 billion annual budget—have begun collecting signatures.
Proponents of the initiative, which include the progressive nonprofits NextUp, East County Rising and Participatory Budgeting Oregon, must gather 40,748 voter signatures by July 5 to place the initiative on the November 2024 ballot. The initiative, first filed with the City Elections Office in November, seeks to allow Portlanders to determine where 2% of the city’s annual budget goes. In 2026, the first year such budgeting would take place if the ballot measure succeeds, that amounts to a projected $15 million.
Cities such as New York, Boston and Seattle already use participatory budgeting to direct small portions of their budget to community-selected projects. In participatory budgeting, community-designed projects are submitted for consideration and then voted on by the community via ballot. Whichever projects prevail from the community-led process are funded by the 2% of the city’s budget that’s subject to the will of voters.
NextUp and East County Rising were both heavily involved with the charter reform campaign to transform the city’s governance structure in 2022, a victory they secured when 57% of Portland voters approved the measure. The overhaul of the government kicks in on Jan. 1, 2025.
The political action committee set up to carry the participatory budgeting initiative to victory has so far raised $23,000 in contributions. Two donors have written $10,000 checks so far, including Portland visual journalist and educator Rita Sabler and Mahlon Gudebski, a landscape contractor from Piedmont, Calif. Ted Labbe, co-director of the environmental nonprofit Depave, wrote a $2,000 check. Jim Labbe, the internal operations director for Participatory Budgeting Oregon, contributed $5,000.