Portland’s City Council and School Board are considering increasing taxes at two to four times the rate of inflation.
How can this be when both bodies claim equity as their No. 1 goal? Property tax is inherently regressive, directly creating disproportionate harm against vulnerable populations regardless of how it’s later spent.
Many programs attempt to mitigate this reality by targeting relief to the most needy, but those living at the edge of poverty remain in much worse shape than before the pandemic. The council recently acknowledged this by reallocating one-time federal COVID-19 funds from future low-income development to more immediate outreach to unsheltered folks.
The school department has recently become the more regressive taxing body. My calculations show that between 2016-2024, the school budget grew at over three times the average rate of inflation, while the budget governing 20 other city departments rose only 20% slower than inflation.
The recent revaluation shifted relative tax burden to people living in areas where housing sale prices have skyrocketed, thus further increasing the cost of living on the peninsula, which forces workers to commute in from elsewhere (undermining another council goal of positive climate action), prevents longtime residents from being able to age in place, and likely sent some formerly housed people into last year’s encampments.
In such a precarious environment, we must demand our elected officials do all they can to keep taxes low.
Jim Hall
Portland
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