Oregonian Readers respond: Portland can’t afford participatory budgeting

There are 16 million reasons to vote no on Measure 26-267, the participatory budgeting proposal. The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board reached the same conclusion, and the reasons are compelling, (“Editorial endorsement November 2026: Vote ‘no’ on Portland’s pricey participatory budgeting measure,” Sept. 27).

The idea sounds appealing: let residents decide how public money is spent. But this measure would permanently write into Portland’s charter a program costing $16 million in its first year alone. This is money we don’t have. The city just cut community center hours, closed homeless shelters, drained savings and laid off 100 workers to close a $170 million budget gap.

Portland would become the only U.S. city with a mandatory set-aside for a participatory budgeting, and this program would be far larger per capita than those in Los Angeles, Boston, Denver or New York City.

Read the rest at oregonlive.com.