Budget Explorer · City of Portland

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Portland, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Portland's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 635K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$2.81B

$4,429 per resident

Total spending

$2.59B

$4,074 per resident

Spending per resident

$4,074

54th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$3.12B

$4,916 per resident · 62nd percentile of 70

Own-source share

86%

71st percentile of 71

Capital share

21%

65th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$2.81B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$697M25%
Selective sales taxes$397M14%
License & other taxes$264M9%
Federal aid$173M6%
State & local aid$189M7%
Charges & fees$636M23%
Interest, fines, other$188M7%
Utility revenue$268M10%

Own-source share of general revenue 86% · federal aid 7% · property tax is 51% of taxes

Where it goes

$2.59B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Environment & housing$694M27%
Public safety$498M19%
General government$414M16%
Transportation$286M11%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$283M11%
Culture & recreation$251M10%
Interest on debt$155M6%
Health & hospitals$5.9M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$222M	$290M	$512M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$126M	$153M	$280M
Police protection	Public safety	$275M	$1.3M	$277M
Highways	Transportation	$235M	$36M	$271M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$200M	$51M	$251M
General (unallocable)	General government	$164M	$17M	$181M
Fire protection	Public safety	$180M	$465K	$181M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$173M	$25K	$173M
Financial administration	General government	$128M	$1.9M	$130M
Central staff services	General government	$72M	—	$72M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$41M	—	$41M
Judicial & legal	General government	$20M	—	$20M
Parking	Transportation	$16M	$283K	$16M
General public buildings	General government	$9.2M	$1.4M	$11M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+7% over 2 yrs

$2.62B → $2.81B

Spending

+21% over 2 yrs

$2.14B → $2.59B

Debt outstanding

+1% over 2 yrs

$3.10B → $3.12B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Portland	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$4,074	$3,741	54th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$4,429	$3,548	61st	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$2,139	$1,328	78th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$4,916	$3,865	62nd	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	86%	81%	71st	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	7%	7%	50th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	21%	18%	65th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	6%	4%	80th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.11×	1.05×	55th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 412051211254 (Portland City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2027

City of Portland's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 34 departments.

$8.16B total

Water Bureau$1.84B22%
Environmental Services$1.55B19%
Bureau of Planning & Sustainability$747M9%
Portland Bureau of Transportation$586M7%
Portland Parks & Recreation$494M6%
Fire & Police Disability & Retirement$373M5%
Portland Police Bureau$320M4%
Fund and Debt Management$305M4%
Bureau of Fleet & Facilities$286M4%
Portland Housing Bureau$276M3%
Bureau of Human Resources$254M3%
Portland Fire & Rescue$219M3%
All other (22)$916M11%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 66-73) — all bureaus and funds — program expenses, contingency, debt service and interfund transfers.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Portland's ordinance and its summary table state two further totals that differ from the appropriation schedule; the schedule's own total is used.
Rows are bureau totals across every fund, including contingency and interfund transfers, so they are larger than operating spending alone.
Source: FY2026-27 Adopted Budget, Volume 1 (Appropriation Schedule) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Portland's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Portland capacity assessment.