Love Portland parks? Say no to a broken system
Commentary: A case for voting against the levy tax
A massive tax hike won’t fix years of mismanagement. It’s time to demand real solutions.
Portlanders love our parks. They’re where we gather, play and breathe a little easier. But loving our parks means more than writing bigger checks every few years—it means demanding a plan that actually sustains them. That’s why I’m voting NO on the proposed 75% increase to the Parks Levy tax.
This measure asks residents to pay more into a system that is failing to deliver on its promises, while City Hall ignores years of warnings about unsustainable spending and ballooning maintenance needs.
Reckoning never came
Back in December 2023, The Oregonian editorial board warned:
“We don’t need just a moratorium. We need a financial reckoning… Our piecemeal approach to funding programs, often driven by ballot measures, has contributed to both sky-high taxes as well as underfunded government services. ‘Pay more, get less’ is not a winning formula.”
That reckoning never came. Instead, taxes and fees piled up. Water, sewer and stormwater rates just rose more than 9%—a 6.34 % rate increase combined with a 2.95 finance charge for ratepayers using credit or debit cards. Parking rates increased by 25%. Rideshare fees tripled. Multnomah County raised health inspection fees for restaurants and hotels by 33%, a move that the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association said was “a major financial blow that could jeopardize the fragile recovery of our local restaurants and lodging establishments.”
As I wrote in an Oregonian op-ed recently, affordability in Portland is facing “death by a thousand cuts.” This levy is yet another.
2020 levy failed to deliver
The 2020 Parks Levy, set at $0.80 per $1,000, promised to stabilize services. It raised more than $40 million in its first year—enough if managed responsibly. Instead, authorized staffing surged from 565 to 836 positions, new maintenance-intensive amenities were added and critical maintenance was deferred. The capital repair backlog ballooned from $450 million to $600 million.
The new levy locks In a broken model
The proposed levy would raise the rate to $1.40 per $1,000, a 75% hike. Yet just three cents—about $2 million annually—would go to major maintenance, barely denting the $600 million backlog. The rest, roughly $84 million per year, sustains the same spending patterns that created the crisis.
Supporters say the levy will “save” our parks. In reality, it locks us into a cycle where costs keep rising, services stagnate and one in five park assets is at risk of failure or closure within 15 years.
This isn’t a do-or-die vote. City Council has time to craft a better levy for May 2026. For example, a $1.00 rate with 20 cents dedicated to maintenance would yield $13 million for capital maintenance—about seven times more than this proposal.
Fiscal discipline matters
Consider the planned North Portland Aquatic Center — a needed project for sure. But the proposed budget is $91.5 million. Lake Oswego recently built a full aquatic complex—with a competition pool, recreation pool, gym, and fitness room for $47 million. Portland’s plan costs nearly twice as much. This is emblematic of the larger problem: no cost discipline, and taxpayers left holding the bag.
Budget warnings ignored
The City Budget Office (CBO) has been warning about this trajectory for more than a decade.
2013–2017: CBO urged Parks to define core services and warned that expanding programs without stable funding would force tradeoffs with public safety and housing.
2018: CBO called for a long-term financial plan to address system expansion and maintenance.
2020: CBO stressed that the levy should be a temporary bridge, not a permanent crutch.
2024–2025: CBO described current spending levels as “untenable” and said a long-term plan is “required.”
Despite these repeated red flags, the city expanded staffing and amenities without a maintenance strategy. Now, rather than reforming, it’s asking taxpayers to double down.
The City Auditor recently issued a strong indictment reaching the same conclusion.
Our parks deserve better
Portland’s parks deserve real stewardship, not just spending. They deserve a city government that follows a basic budgeting rule: don’t build what you can’t maintain. They deserve a management team held accountable for results. And they deserve leadership willing to make hard choices rather than passing the burden to residents already stretched thin.
Vote no on the 75% tax increase.
Bob Weinstein is a former mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska. He was a candidate for a District 4 City Council seat in 2024.
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I couldn’t agree more. I’m actually not against the tax increase BUT I’m staunchly against the proposed distribution of the taxes to be collected. Only three cents on the dollar going to major maintenance is an abdication of sustainability. Whether or not rejecting this levy results in a better proposal is up to the city council but we should demand it of them through the only means we have, a NO vote.
The Wallace Park project was presented to the NWDA Planning Committee which was skeptical about the design. In theory it was supposed to help drainage but in actuality widening the asphalt driveway would have accomplished the same thing. And far less expensively. Oh and the grant money that paid for it? It was merely a reallocation from the city’s DES department. Transferring money from one budget line to another is not a “grant.”