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One of the problems in our democracy is that people tend not to know where their tax dollars go. For example, many polls have shown that, on average, people think that 25% of the Federal budget goes to foreign aid, when in fact, it’s less than 1%.
It’s not surprising that people don’t have good information, because politicians have never made a point of bringing those facts to people. You might expect that Federal and State leaders would make a point every April 15 of letting people know that most of the Federal budget goes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the military and interest on the debt, and that the vast majority of the State General Fund budget goes to education, health care and prisons. But they don’t.
We, as local elected officials, want to do our part by letting you know where your local tax dollars go. One major source of revenue for your city, county and school district is property taxes. Although it doesn’t get the kind of attention April 15 does, there is a due date for property taxes. This year the due date is November 17.
The chart below shows how the City divides its share of property taxes between different bureaus and programs. For example, within the City, the largest share of property taxes goes to the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund.
 Here's a full breakdown:
- Fire & Police Disability Fund -- $229.89 M
- Police -- $119.57 M
- Fire -- $72.87 M
- Other Public Safety (BOEC, PSR, OVP, etc.) $17.73 M
- Parks (Parks Levy) -- $44.61 M
- Parks (General Fund) -- $36.23 M
- Housing and Homelessness -- $23.21 M
- Urban Renewal Areas (TIF Districts) -- $43.60 M
- GO Bond Debt Service -- $31.87 M
- Children's Levy -- $22.62 M
- General Fund Contingency -- $12.45 M
- Other Important Stuff -- $70.24 M
It is important to know that property taxes are only ONE source of revenue for the City, so how property taxes are spent doesn’t exactly line up with how overall dollars are spent. For example, the City of Portland spends over $300 million on the police bureau’s operations, only $119 million of which comes from property taxes; meanwhile, the entire budget of the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund comes from property taxes. So, even though the City spends more money overall on police operations than on the disability and retirement fund, the disability and retirement fund takes up a larger share of property taxes.
However, this chart represents just one piece of the total property tax. The rest is divided between the county, Portland Public Schools (which spends all of its tax revenue on one thing -- schools!), and a few small entities.
Til next time!
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