PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After making “painful tradeoffs” to establish the budget for the current fiscal year, Multnomah County is bracing for another shortfall.
The county is anticipating a $10.5 million loss starting in Fiscal Year 2027 due to an estimated $789 million in revenue and about $799.6 million in expenditures, Budget Office Economist Jeff Renfro has revealed.
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He told the board of commissioners that the expected deficit is due to factors like a decline in assessed property values and business income taxes, while the Cost-of-Living Adjustment is now projected at 3.3% instead of 2.75%.
“When you look at metro areas across the country, the Portland metro area is really underperforming a lot of the rest of our major metro areas,” Renfro said during Thursday’s meeting. “We’re one of five metro areas that are consistently losing jobs. Then, when you disaggregate the Portland metro area, Multnomah County and our job declines are really driving what’s going on in the metro area as a whole.”…