ABOUT
PDX Spend
A tool for showing what seven Portland-area voter funds could pay for, and the named rule that purports to stop them.
What this is
PDX Spend is a single-issue tool. It documents seven public funds in one region. For each one it shows three things: what the fund could pay for at its current balance, what’s blocking that, and who controls the lever.
It’s a static, citable site. Every chart downloads. The dashboard embeds. Each fund’s memo ships with the page, prerendered alongside the interactive charts.
Who built it
Reporting and design by Ron Bronson, working under Public Capacity Lab and State Capacity AI.
Editorial reference: The Pudding (chart-led longform), the Financial Times visual desk (chart language, restraint), Reveal and ProPublica (structural framing of public-money stories), plainlanguage.gov (writing standards).
How to use it
Pick a fund. Read what it could pay for. Read who controls the blocker. Send the page to that office. Every chart has download buttons for PNG and CSV.
Status of the figures
Every figure on this site is modeled until audited records replace it. As audited documents become available, the modeled series get swapped out and the chart loses its MODELED badge. See the methodology.