The city of Portland faces a $13.6 million budget shortfall in the current fiscal year, a number likely to grow as staff gets a clearer picture of overspending by city bureaus.
The Portland City Council must decide in coming months how to close that gap, which is primarily due to projected tax revenues built into the budget last year that have not materialized. The deficit comes just four months after the council filled an $11.4 million budget deficit in the fall for the same fiscal year.
City budget director Ruth Levine told the council she did not yet know how much the $13.6 million gap might grow in the next few months. “I really want to vet that data to make sure what we’re seeing is accurate before I report that out,” Levine explained to the council during a Jan. 22 work session…