Budget Summary

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City of Portland Fiscal Year 2026-27 Proposed Budget Budget Summary Total City Budget State of Oregon Local Budget Law requires the City to report its total legal budget. This is defined to include total operating costs and the internal transactions between funds. The total Proposed Budget for FY 2026-27 is $8.5 billion, which reflects a $379.7 million (4.0%) decrease from the FY 2025-26 Revised Budget. Total Net Budget Although state budget law requires that all expenditures within and between funds are documented in the legal budget, this overstates actual expenditures for programs because it double counts internal transactions (internal materials and services and fund-level cash transfers). Such transactions occur between City funds, when one City agency provides services to another. Because this technically inflates the budget, the City usually references a net budget. After eliminating the intracity transfers, the City’s net Proposed Budget in FY 2026-27 is $6.6 billion. Table 1 of the Financial Summaries provides greater detail of the total and net City budget figures. General Fund Budget General Fund resources are categorized as either discretionary or nondiscretionary. Discretionary resources are those the City Council can allocate to programs and services in any area. In other words, these resources have few restrictions on how they can be allocated. General Fund discretionary resources are typically used to support such basic City services as police, fire, and parks. Discretionary revenue in FY 2026-27 totals $742.5 million and include property taxes, utility license fees, business license fees, transient lodging taxes, state shared revenues (from cigarette taxes and liquor sales), interest income, miscellaneous revenues, and cash transfers into the General Fund. Non-discretionary resources include interagency revenues, service charges, permits and fees, and other revenues specifically dedicated to a particular purpose. All General Fund resources are also categorized as either one-time or ongoing. An example of a one-time resource is an increase in beginning fund balance. While available in the specific year, it is not a resource that can be relied on in future years. An example of an ongoing resource is an increase in property tax revenues that would be sustained over time. The City budget uses a combination of one-time and ongoing resources to fund programs and services. City financial policies state that one-time resources may not be used to fund ongoing expenses. 24

Parent: Budget Overview · PDF: p. 24 ↗