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Portland council asks for tally of new fees as budget shows just shy of $1 million in contingency
Summary
Councilors pressed administration for a running total of new revenue from fee increases and a verification of general-fund contingency, after Director Levine said the contingency was just under $1 million and staff provided preliminary figures for TNC and golf fee revenue.
Councilor Sam Zimmerman asked the Portland City Council for a running total of the new revenue embedded in the approved budget, saying he wanted to verify how fee increases and other changes interact with the contingency the council created during prior budget action.
The question matters because Director Levine said the general‑fund contingency held "just shy of a million dollars," and councilors are weighing whether to reallocate other funds into new programs or rely on that contingency instead. "Just shy of a million dollars," Director Levine said in the meeting, giving the contingency figure as roughly $999,340.
Director Levine also provided preliminary tallies for two fee categories that councilors had amended during budget committee work. For Transportation Network Company (TNC) fees, Levine said the proposed budget initially included about $5.1 million (a raise to $1.30 per ride) and the council's later actions added roughly $5.0 million more, yielding a combined estimate of about $10.1 million. For the city's golf fees, Levine said the proposed increase was roughly $250,000 and the approved changes added about $1.0 million, for a total of about $1.25 million.
Councilor Zimmerman told colleagues he wanted the budget office to return with a consolidated accounting of new taxes and fees in the current version of the budget and to confirm the exact contingency amount the council left in place after the earlier vote. He said he was reluctant to support proposals that would pull more money from other parts of the budget "when I think there's already additional money sitting in contingency."
Director Levine said staff would follow up with the broader running total that Zimmerman requested. The director cautioned that the contingency figure Levine cited represents the general fund only and does not include fees that flow to specialized funds or bureaus.
Councilors also discussed how the composition of contingency and one‑time versus ongoing revenue affects whether amendments should draw on fee increases or on contingency. Several councilors asked for clarity about which revenue streams were restricted and which could be used for discretionary purposes.
The administration committed to return with a single accounting of new fee revenues, the contingency calculation, and a breakdown of which revenues are restricted to overhead or special funds and which are available for discretionary allocation.
