By Mark Kirchmeier
Citywide budgets cuts may be coming that will affect North/Northeast Potland, Mayor Keith Wilson warned more than 60 people at a March 14 budget hearing.
“We’ll protect all Parks programs, but need to ‘skinny down’ some of them,” Wilson told the audience Double Tree Hilton near Lloyd Center. The mayor emphasized that Parks & Recreation programs that serve at-risk youth would be the highest priority.
“Nobody wants to talk about budget cuts, but we — have to talk about budgets cuts — without causing harm,” Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney said. Her fellow District 2 councilors Sameer Kanal and Dan Ryan, also participated in the hearing, the first this year for the proposed 2026/27 budget.
Ryan pointed out that budget bloat in city government helps explain why Portland’s taxes are so high, while city services struggle. “How did we end up with so many bureaus and offices,” Ryan said, to the applause of the audience. He said that the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has created such a huge maintenance backlog, that it “needs a big scrub” before getting more fee revenue.
Kanal praised Wilson for directing more homeless people into night shelters and cutting Portland Police Bureau (PPB) overtime cost. He also supports the mayor’s call to hire 14 detective investigators. Kanal explained that more investigators will save costs because it will lead to the arrests of more repeat offenders whose crimes, when unchecked, greatly add to the work volume of patrol officers.
The mayor is scheduled to release his proposed budget in April.