Proposed budget would make Portland less safe

People who answered my call may have been cut

By Bob Weinstein

My initial review of the mayor’s proposed FY 2026-27 budget raises serious and immediate concerns: It asks Portlanders to accept significant reductions in the frontline core services that keep them safe, while leaving an inflated bureaucracy in place at City Hall. That shifts the burden onto the very people Portland relies on in emergencies, while shielding functions that are far less essential. That is the wrong set of priorities, and we should not support this budget as proposed.

Across multiple core functions, this proposal reduces capacity where seconds matter. It cuts Portland Street Response, reduces 911 operations, scales back overtime and trims staffing for two-person medical teams, the Community Health Assessment Team, Public Safety Support Specialists, administrative support and victim services. These are not marginal adjustments. They represent a real contraction in the system Portland relies on in moments of crisis.

The consequence is straightforward: fewer responders available, less flexibility in the system and longer response times.

Let me start with what’s at stake: As I recently witnessed recently, it’s about whether someone in crisis gets help in time or is left to suffer on a sidewalk.

Monday night, I was walking on Northwest 21st at Hoyt when a man ahead of me stopped to check on two people lying at the corner. One said his friend had been stabbed but claimed they didn’t need help. When I reached them, there was a visible rivulet of blood running across the sidewalk. I immediately called 911.

Because our emergency infrastructure was functioning, I was connected instantly. Within minutes, Portland Police, an ambulance and Fire & Rescue were all on the scene, providing the critical, lifesaving care the victim needed. That response was fast, coordinated and professional, and is exactly what a city owes its residents. That response reflected a basic promise we make to one another as a community: When something goes wrong, you are not alone. Help will come.

This is the gold standard of municipal service. This is the level of responsiveness that the mayor’s proposed budget puts at risk.

I do not want to see that kind of response time, or that level of coordinated care, diminished. But that is exactly what the cuts would do.

Each of the proposed reductions would warrant serious scrutiny on its own. Together, they represent a fundamental weakening of the city’s ability to protect its residents. Response times will increase, a predictable consequence of cutting capacity across every link in the public safety chain. The man on Northwest 21st got the help he needed. Under a diminished system, the outcome could well have been different.

What makes these choices even harder to justify is what the budget does not cut.

The proposal retreats from frontline services while shielding bureaucratic bloat at City Hall, including its massive public relations apparatus.

Despite the city now having only four service areas, and despite advances in technology and centralization of functions, the budget retains 57 communications staff, roughly double the number from 2011. Equity and engagement positions—37 of each—appear to see no meaningful reductions.

At the same time, the budget document warns that reduced training and operational support in the police bureau may limit its ability to carry out equity-related initiatives. That contradiction is hard to ignore: The administration cannot simultaneously claim equity as a priority while proposing a budget that, by its own admission, undermines the bureau’s capacity to deliver on it.

I am not opposed to communications or equity work. But a fair budget does not ask first responders and victims to absorb cuts while administrative layers are left largely intact. It is impossible to justify a budget that asks police officers, 911 dispatchers, Portland Street Response, firefighters and victim advocates to do more with less, while leaving these functions protected.

This is a test of responsible leadership. The first duty of city government is to ensure public safety. Everything else comes after that.

Portlanders expect and deserve a budget that protects 911 response, medical response, crisis response and victim services before preserving layers of administrative expansion. If reductions are necessary, they should begin with nonessential overhead, not the people who show up when someone’s life is at risk on a sidewalk.

The system worked Monday night on Northwest 21st. It needs to keep working.

Start with what matters most: Fully fund the services that save lives and protect victims. Then make the hard choices elsewhere.