PDX SPEND · ISSUE 01 · MODELED FIGURES
Seven voter-passed funds in Portland and Multnomah County have quietly been redrawn around their balances.
Arts, climate, housing, preschool, homelessness. Each was sold as a fix to a specific civic problem. Each now carries a multi-million-dollar surplus. This is what that pattern looks like, drawn — and what those balances could pay for at today’s unit costs.
Modeled year-end balance, all seven funds
MODELEDEach bar is one fund. The orange caps are the share that has been reclassified, swept, or otherwise moved off the original voter mandate.
Data table for Modeled year-end balance, all seven funds
| Fund | Balance | Restricted | Movable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arts Tax | 24919549 | 18440466 | 6479083 |
| PCEF | 506636840 | 207721104 | 298915736 |
| Housing Investment | 120127225 | 74478880 | 45648346 |
| Rental Services | 15723911 | 7547477 | 8176434 |
| Affordable Housing Bond | 436573096 | 362355670 | 74217426 |
| Preschool For All | 873910171 | 716606340 | 157303831 |
| SHS | 637810606 | 471979848 | 165830758 |
What you are looking at
Public funding measures in Portland and Multnomah County share a recurring shape: a measure passes with a clear, narrow charge; collections come in faster than the standing-up of the program; balances accumulate; and within four to seven years, ordinances and resolutions begin to broaden what those dollars are allowed to do.
The seven funds on this page span fifteen years of measures, three jurisdictions, and almost every revenue instrument the city uses — flat per-adult tax, gross-receipts surcharge, real-estate excise, dedicated property levy, county-wide marginal income tax. They behave the same way.
What is modeled
Cash positions, audit annotations, and disposition curves on this site are modeled. They are constructed to illustrate a structural pattern documented across audits, council actions, and reporting on these funds. They are not a live ledger and should not be cited as such.
SUMMARY · SEVEN FUNDS
$5.31B
Modeled cumulative collected, all funds
$2.62B
Modeled balance sitting today
$1.86B
Still tied to original voter intent
$756.6M
Reclassified, swept, or made movable
ISSUE INDEX · BEGIN HERE
The seven funds
Arts Education and Access Fund
Collections lag, administrative overhead is structurally high, and the Council periodically authorizes carve-outs to "support arts ecosystem" outside the schools-and-grants frame.
Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund
Collections vastly outran original projections; the Council subsequently authorized broader uses including general transportation, parks, and sewer maintenance — items not contemplated in the ballot text.
Housing Investment Fund (TIF Set-Aside)
Set-aside percentages have been honored in headline reporting but partially offset by reclassifying eligible projects, swapping districts, and converting "obligations" into deferred allocations.
Rental Services / Tenant Protections Fund
Fee revenue is routinely under-deployed against the program lines it was created for; balances have been periodically swept toward general housing administration.
Metro Affordable Housing Bond
Unit counts have been adjusted downward relative to original targets; per-unit costs have grown well above the projection range; "preserved" vs "built" classification has shifted to maintain headline numbers.
Preschool For All
Collections sharply outran ramp-up capacity, producing a multi-hundred-million accumulated balance even as enrollment lagged the implementation plan.
Supportive Housing Services Measure
Counties have collected far more than they could disburse against contracted capacity; carryover balances are being reframed as "long-term reserves" without clear voter mandate.
How to read this
Each fund page opens with what the measure was sold as, in plain words. Then a single chart, scrolled — annotated with the audits and council actions that produced its current shape. Then a visual of what that balance could pay for now, at published unit costs. At the bottom of each page is the agent’s memo: the kind of document a public-finance officer would write if they were asked to inventory the fund honestly.
The dashboard view pulls all seven into one frame. The methodology and implications pages explain how this site was constructed, and what it suggests about how restricted funds are governed in this jurisdiction.