Northwest Examiner: Follow the money on Portland’s participatory budgeting push

The latest reporting from The Oregonian/OregonLive raises serious questions about the transparency and accountability of the campaign behind Portland’s proposed “participatory budgeting” initiative. And about the initiative itself.

Much of the money supporting this measure appears to be flowing through nonprofit organizations that do not have to disclose their donors. One political action committee backing the initiative initially reported receiving $270,000 from an organization that, on paper, appeared to have only about $7,000 available to spend. Following inquiries from The Oregonian, the campaign amended its filings, blaming a campaign finance software “autofill” error and saying the money actually came from a related nonprofit action fund. Campaign representatives have still declined to name the original sources of the funding.

Read the rest at nwexaminer.com.