The record · Public money
Voter-Approved Taxes
What voters were promised, what's been collected, what's been spent, and what's been delivered — from official budget documents and program reports, updated quarterly.
Connect the dots
Where your taxes flow
Pick an income level, whether you own or rent, and your district. The diagram applies the programs' published rate schedules (each linked below) to that income — arithmetic on official numbers, an estimate for orientation, not tax advice. Ribbons from you are sized by dollars; pale ribbons show money that reaches a program without being billed to you.
Looks up the county's Measure-50 assessed value and your council district via PortlandMaps. Processed in memory, not stored — only anonymous counters (same policy as everything here).
Which district am I in? Click the map
- 1 — East Portland: east of I-205/82nd — Lents, Hazelwood, Parkrose, Centennial
- 2 — North / Northeast: St. Johns, Kenton, Alberta, Concordia
- 3 — Southeast + inner NE: Hawthorne, Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, Woodstock
- 4 — Westside + Sellwood: Downtown, NW, SW hills, Sellwood–Moreland
- Simplified map — boundaries approximate. confirm your district by address
Selections here are counted anonymously — one counter per option, never combined, no identifiers — so the editor can see who this tool serves. Do Not Track is honored.
your dollars now · passed change, takes effect on the date shown · not billed to you
Your councilors — the people who decide
Each district elects three councilors. Program referrals, budgets, and renewals run through their votes — follow each name to their recorded voting history, or email them directly.
Arts Tax — the published schedule
Portland City Council replaced the flat per-resident Arts Tax with a filing-status schedule (Ordinance 192185) and renamed it the Arts Education Tax. What you owe is set by the filing status on your Oregon return, and it is owed only where your Oregon taxable income — income after deductions, not gross pay — is above the threshold for that status. The estimate above applies these amounts to the income level you picked, so a household near a threshold may owe nothing.
| Filing status | Amount | Oregon taxable income threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Single or married filing separately | $50 | above $20,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $100 | above $40,000 |
Arts Education Tax owed for tax year 2026 (payable 2027), set by Portland City Council Ordinance 192185. The City's schedule: $50 for single, married filing separately, qualifying surviving spouse, or head of household; $100 for married filing jointly. Owed only where Oregon taxable income is above the threshold for that filing status; the permanent filing exemptions for low-income seniors and low-income individuals with permanent disabilities are no longer available. Beginning with the 2027 tax year the rate and the thresholds are adjusted each year for inflation. It replaces the flat per-resident charge that applied for tax years 2012 through 2025.
Oregon taxable income threshold for tax year 2026: a taxpayer at or below the threshold for their filing status owes no Arts Education Tax. The City states $20,000 filing single or married filing separately and $40,000 filing married filing jointly, qualifying surviving spouse, or head of household. These brackets are NOT the amount brackets: a qualifying surviving spouse or head of household uses the $40,000 threshold but owes the $50 amount. Oregon taxable income is income after deductions, not gross income. Beginning with the 2027 tax year the thresholds are adjusted each year for inflation.
Effective tax year 2026. Ordinance 192185, as published by the City's Revenue Division (as of 2026-09-04): Arts Education Tax
Proposed — before the Council now, not yet passed
Money measures on the City's current-and-upcoming list, classified automatically by the same rules as the fiscal ledger. Their amounts and effects come from each measure's own text only if adopted — nothing here changes the diagram unless it passes.
- budget Budget process discussion meeting 2026-09-03 official record
- appropriation Appropriate grant award of $35 million for Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program meeting 2026-09-09 official record
- fee Amend Fire Regulations Fee Schedule (amend Portland Policy Document FIR-12.01) unscheduled official record
- appropriation Appropriate grant award of $207,411 for speed racing street takeover unscheduled official record
- appropriation Appropriate grant award of $103,069 for expanded traffic enforcement unscheduled official record
- fee Adopt District Property Management License Code to create Parkrose Forward Enhanced Services District and establish property management license fees and district boundaries (add Code Sections 6.06.400 through 6.06.450) unscheduled official record
- budget Follow-up on FY 2025–26 Morillo 11 Budget Note: Transparency and Information Access Framework unscheduled official record
Sources for these schedules and parameters, each the administering government's own page (as of 2026-09-04): schedule 1 · schedule 2 · schedule 3 · schedule 4 · schedule 5 · schedule 6 · schedule 7 PFA is a Multnomah County tax; SHS is a Metro tax (its published base threshold is inflation-adjusted upward starting tax year 2026, so the actual amount may be slightly lower); the parks levy is a City property tax billed to property owners; the Arts Tax is a City tax on individual residents, on the schedule set out above; PCEF is a surcharge on large retailers, never billed to individuals.
The record · Where it actually goes
Collected vs. actually used
Collection is half the ledger. This panel puts each program's own published spending next to its collections — deltas are computed only between same-period figures, and where a program doesn't publish its use side in machine-readable form, that gap is stated rather than papered over.
The accountability page compares these figures against what the measures originally projected.
Parks Levy — FY2024-25
FY2024-25 spending exceeded that year's collections by $12,590,000.
Preschool for All — collected but not yet budgeted
Collections ran $213,000,000 over budget across FY22-FY24 , and the fund earned $20,000,000 in interest . The county's own report discusses this surplus alongside the program's expansion risks.
See also: High-earner population over time, Multnomah vs. peer counties on the Outcomes page.
Supportive Housing Services — follow the money (FY2023-24)
Per Metro's own annual report: of $335,136,020 collected, $309,800,000 went to the three counties, which spent $249,100,000 — leaving $364,800,000 in county ending balances.
| County | Budgeted | Spent | Ending balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multnomah | $190,100,000 | $143,500,000 (75%) | $128,000,000 |
| Clackamas | $92,700,000 | $54,400,000 (59%) | $107,600,000 |
| Washington | $96,200,000 | $96,200,000 (100%) | $129,200,000 |
The report also states that the scale of Multnomah County's year-two underspending led Metro to initiate a corrective action plan for distributing unspent funds.
See the Outcomes page for shelter capacity and homelessness counts beside these figures.
See also: High-earner population over time, Multnomah vs. peer counties.
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
- Clean Energy Fund: $1,600,000,000 committed under the CIP-2024 Climate Investment Plan — per-project disbursements are published only behind a Power BI dashboard, which we flag rather than scrape. source
- Arts Tax: $2,805,000 granted to 79 organizations (FY2025-26) ; $135,000,000 generated since 2012 . source
Preschool for All
In plain terms
Preschool for All is a Multnomah County program that pays for free preschool, funded by a personal income tax on higher earners. The tax uses marginal brackets, meaning each rate applies only to income above a set threshold: currently 1.5 percent on the first bracket and 3.0 percent cumulatively on the higher bracket. Effective January 1, 2027, those rates rise to 2.3 percent and 3.8 percent. As of November 2024 the program served about 2,000 children across 122 preschool sites, up from 48 participating sites in FY23 and 82 in FY24. Over its first three years (FY23 through FY25), the tax collected about $213 million more than budgeted and earned roughly $20 million in interest.
AI-drafted plain-language summary, reviewed by an editor — not the verbatim official record. See the sources for the exact wording.
Independent auditor finding
“The program is largely achieving its equity goals, but needs to address risks to expansion. The audit found Preschool for All is reaching its equity objectives but must improve provider support and outreach and spend more of its reserves to stay on track for universal preschool by 2030.”
— Preschool for All: The program is largely achieving its equity goals, but needs to address risks to expansion, April 2025 · report
Supportive Housing Services
In plain terms
Supportive Housing Services is a regional Metro program addressing homelessness, paid for by a 1 percent personal income tax. The program sets a 10-year goal of moving 5,000 households into permanent supportive housing, which combines a place to live with ongoing services, and stabilizing another 10,000 households. In its third year (fiscal year 2023-24), the tax brought in about $335.1 million in actual collections.
AI-drafted plain-language summary, reviewed by an editor — not the verbatim official record. See the sources for the exact wording.
Independent auditor finding
“"The Housing Department made progress implementing most of the recommendations from our January 2024 audit... Of the eighteen recommendations, nine were implemented, seven were in process, and two were not implemented. Some areas could benefit from continued improvement."”
— Supportive Housing Services Follow-Up Audit, November 2025 · report
Portland Clean Energy Fund
In plain terms
The Portland Clean Energy Fund pays for climate and clean-energy projects in Portland. Its money comes from a 1 percent surcharge on the Portland sales of large retailers, meaning those businesses pay an extra 1 percent on qualifying sales made in the city. The fund's 2024 Climate Investment Plan, which lays out how the money will be spent, totals approximately $1.6 billion.
AI-drafted plain-language summary, reviewed by an editor — not the verbatim official record. See the sources for the exact wording.
Independent auditor finding
“"We found that the program had made progress with some elements, but others were not yet fully implemented or needed direction from City Council." The audit concluded the program began developing accountability systems but needs timeframes for completion, needed guidance from its volunteer committee and Council on climate goals/capacity-building/oversight, and identified challenges managing the administrative cost limit due to unpredictable revenues; not addressing these elements could jeopardize the City's ability to meet the legislative intent of the voter-approved program.”
— Portland Clean Energy Fund: Additional steps needed to implement voter-approved program, 2022-03-10 · report
Parks Levy
In plain terms
The Parks Levy is a voter-approved property tax that funds Portland Parks and Recreation. A levy is a tax charged on property based on its assessed value, which is the county's taxable value of a home or building. The rate is $0.80 per $1,000 of assessed value, which works out to about $240 a year on a property assessed at $300,000. It is projected to raise about $47 million per year, and the auditor's crosscheck puts five-year revenue at roughly $239 million. In FY2024-25 the levy collected $51.18 million and spent $63.77 million, and its Access Discount program provided $4,699,217 in financial assistance to 18,844 users.
AI-drafted plain-language summary, reviewed by an editor — not the verbatim official record. See the sources for the exact wording.
Independent auditor finding
“"The audit found that Levy funds were used in compliance with voter-approved commitments, and that Levy dollars were clearly tracked using strong financial systems and tracking mechanisms to ensure transparent management of funds." There were no recommendations.”
— Performance Audit of the 2020 Parks Local Option Levy, December 2024 · report
Arts Tax
In plain terms
The Arts Tax is a flat $35 charged to most income-earning Portland residents each year, used to fund arts education and local arts groups. The money pays for arts teachers in schools, reaching about 28,000 children a year; the number of K-5 full-time-equivalent arts teachers grew from 31 before the Arts Access Fund to 113 in 2024-25. Since 2012 the tax has generated approximately $135 million total. In FY2025-26, Arts General Operating Support totaled $2,805,000 (combining the Arts Fund and General Fund), of which $1,823,250 came from the Arts Access Fund alone, and it funded 79 local organizations.
AI-drafted plain-language summary, reviewed by an editor — not the verbatim official record. See the sources for the exact wording.
Independent auditor finding
“The Arts Tax has expanded arts education and supports arts organizations, but the City has not consistently delivered on promises to voters.”
— Arts Tax: City needs to make improvements to deliver on voter approved arts education and grants commitments, 2026-03-18 · report