Portland: $66M Climate Tax increase

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

With the many budget shortfalls this year, Portland is again considering increasing the tax on remaining businesses. The Oregonian reported that Portland is “exploring a potential increase of a tax on large retailers that currently bankroll the city’s lucrative clean energy program to plug an estimated $93 million budget gap in the city’s general fund.”

The Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) is a voter-approved tax that is 1% surcharge on the sales of large retailers with $1 billion in national revenue and $500,000 in local revenue. The fund’s goal is to promote green projects to combat climate change, focusing on the program’s “priority populations,” which include people with low incomes, minorities, and other communities that are “under-resourced.”

These grants seem to be running out soon, as the Portland City Council is strapped for cash and needs to fill some budget gaps. However, does the council even have the right to take these funds directly? Doing so would go against the intent of the tax that 65% of voters approved back in 2018. This approach could lead to even more problems and increased taxes in the future, as these grant programs are being viewed as a reserve system to fund the city. Additionally, how much carbon will be generated by a program whose sole purpose is to decarbonize?

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