PDX · Spend

METHODOLOGY & GLOSSARY

How this site was built, in plain words

What the figures mean, where they come from, and what every term on the site stands for.

What the figures are

Every dollar amount on the site is modeled until audited records replace it. That means: the shape and order of magnitude come from real audits, ordinances, and bureau reports, but the exact year-end numbers were reconstructed.

Every chart on the site currently carries a MODELED badge. The methodology page defines the term once, and the badge handles the disclosure on the page. Each chart loses its badge as soon as audited figures replace the modeled ones.

Audited figures land as the underlying documents become available. Replacing a modeled series with an audited one is a one-file edit per fund, and the chart loses its badge on the next deploy.

Why model

The actual figures are not in one place. Each fund’s record is spread across an enabling code, a ballot pamphlet, an annual financial report, bureau memos, and council resolutions. No one dashboard shows all seven on the same axes. This site is that dashboard.

How the figures were constructed

  • Balance over time. Built from a starting inflow, a yearly inflow growth rate, and a spend ratio that ramps up after the fund passes. The unspent share each year is held at a fund-specific fraction.
  • Key events. Each annotated event maps to a real category of audit finding: collection-cost overrun, scope expansion, surplus carryover, compliance gap. Source lines name the institution rather than a specific document number.
  • Share still on-mission. A 0–100 score from reading post-enactment ordinances against the original ballot text. 100 means every dollar still maps to what voters passed. Each scope-broadening vote pulls the score down.
  • Promised vs. delivered. Promised dollars are what the bureau said it would spend in a published plan. Delivered dollars are what shipped. The gap becomes carryover.
  • Could-fund items. Unit counts × published unit costs (city grant scales, BPS retrofit cost, EnergyTrust HVAC cost, NABCEP tuition, federal HOME averages). The point is the order of magnitude — real procurement and ramp time would shape exact numbers.
  • Blockers. Each blocker is a mechanism in the statute or in bureau reporting practice. The defense paraphrases positions actually published in audit responses, council minutes, and bureau reports. The rebuttal is the site’s editorial position.

Glossary

Every term on the site, in plain words

Voter-restricted fund
Money collected from a specific tax or fee that voters approved for a specific purpose. The fund is supposed to spend on that purpose only.
Charter-restricted fund
Money collected under the city or county charter for a specific purpose. The charter, not a ballot measure, is the rule.
Statute-restricted (enabling-act-restricted) fund
Money collected under a state law or city ordinance for a specific purpose. The ordinance is the rule, and a council vote can change it.
Ordinance
A rule passed by a city council that has the force of law inside that city. Council can amend or repeal an ordinance with a later vote, which is how a fund’s eligible uses get widened.
Voter intent (voter mandate)
What the ballot text actually said the fund was for, when voters passed it. The site treats the ballot text as the binding mandate, and reads later changes against it.
Redirected
A dollar that was approved at the ballot for one purpose, then later spent on a different purpose. The redirection happens through a council vote, a budget rewrite, or a broadened eligible-uses list.
Sitting today / balance
The amount of money in the fund right now that hasn’t been spent yet.
Re-aimed / movable
The share of the fund that has been redirected away from what voters originally approved, through later council votes or rule changes.
Still on-mission / restricted
The share of the fund still aimed at what voters originally approved.
Money sitting unspent / unobligated reserve
Money in the fund that hasn’t been promised to a contract or grant yet. This is the pool any future scope-broadening vote draws on.
Promised vs. delivered
What a budget cycle planned to spend, against what actually shipped that year. The gap becomes next year’s carryover.
Carryover
Money left in the fund at the end of a year because it wasn’t spent. It rolls into next year’s balance and grows the headroom for redirection.
Eligible uses
The list of things the statute says the fund is allowed to pay for. Council can broaden this list with a vote.
Could fund
What the current balance could pay for, expressed as concrete units (homes weatherized, teachers funded, units built) at published unit costs.
Blocker
A specific mechanism — in statute, in budget process, or in reporting practice — that prevents the fund from spending against the original mandate.
Lever
The office, vote, or document change that would remove a blocker. Each blocker on this site names who controls its lever.
Ballot text
The official wording on the ballot when voters passed the measure. The site treats this as the binding voter mandate.
Modeled
A figure reconstructed from public reporting rather than pulled directly from an audited financial document. Charts carrying a MODELED badge use modeled figures.

Design choices

Charts are wide and prose is narrow on purpose. Margin notes carry the auxiliary read on desktop and tuck under the body on phones. Color is restrained — a single accent on the share that has been re-aimed.

Provenance

Charts carry a MODELED badge until the swap. When audited figures are wired in, the badge is removed and the figures point at the audited financial documents they come from.

Download and reuse

Each chart has download buttons for the rendered PNG and the underlying CSV. Code under MIT, prose under CC BY 4.0.