Multnomah County presents FY2026 capital plan, warns available one‑time funds will fall short

Multnomah County officials presented a draft fiscal‑year 2026 capital plan on the record and told the Board of Commissioners that the list of proposed projects exceeds the county’s near‑term funding capacity, creating potential trade‑offs for services and future budgets.

The county’s interim chief operating officer, Travis Graves, and Department of County Assets Director and Chief Information Officer Tracy Massey described a prioritization process (CAP‑1) that gathers major facilities, transportation and IT projects for county‑wide review. Chief Financial Officer Eric Arellano presented a five‑year funding analysis showing that the combination of projects in the draft plan would require some mix of debt financing, outside grants, or other resources to complete.

Staff said the county historically used a combination of “pay‑as‑you‑go” funding (including internal service fees and one‑time general fund allocations) and targeted financing. Arellano told the board “we cannot finance operations,” emphasizing that debt is appropriate only for long‑lived capital items and that the county has historically mixed outside funds to limit general‑fund exposure. His modeling showed that under current county policy — which limits general‑fund‑supported debt service to…