The document provides a critique of the City of Portland, Oregon's FY 2014-2015 adopted budget. It finds that the budget follows best practices recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), including establishing broad goals, developing financial plans to achieve goals, developing a budget consistent with plans, and monitoring performance. The budget is highly transparent, defines terms, and clearly shows funding allocations with graphs. It adheres to GFOA's four-part budget process and monitors goals quantitatively. The only minor critique is a suggestion to provide more project-level details.

1. Eric Schlimgen
POLS 722--Budgetary and Fiscal Management, Smith
City of Portland, Oregon—FY 2014-2015 Adopted Budget Critique
May, 7, 2015

2. City of Portland, Oregon Budget Critique
The City of Portland, Oregon was awarded the Distinguished Budget Presentation award
from the Government Finance Officers Association in 2013, and has received the award for the
past sixteen years. This honor, the utilization of technology to incorporate stakeholders in the
budget process, the ease of access for users and my personal experience in Portland led me to
select the City of Portland, Oregon for my critique. This budgetary critique will identify the best
budgetary practices generally, application of those practices in the City of Portland’s budget,
identify areas of the budget that are weaker and offer critiques for improving weaknesses in the
Portland budget.
The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has recommended basic
principles of the budget process; (1) Establish broad goals to guide government decisions, (2)
Develop policies and financial plans to achieve these goals, (3) Develop a budget consistent with
policies and plans, (4) Monitor, measure, and evaluate program performance. (GFOA)
Characteristics of a strong budget include; incorporation of a long term perspective, linkages to
broad organizational goals, focuses budget decisions on results and outcomes, involves and
promotes effective communication with stakeholders, and provides incentives to government
management and employees. (GFOA) The mission of the budget process is to help decision
makers make informed choices about the provision of services and capital assets and to promote
stakeholder participation. (GFOA) The City of Portland incorporates the best practices into the
budget process and has a highly transparent, mission oriented budget that looks to the future with
the guidance of the stakeholders.
One reason why I selected the City of Portland’s budget is the high degree of
transparency on the City’s website but especially in the budget. The budget beyond the expected

3. table of content is equipped with a user guide identifying relevant terms for laymen to better
digest the information presented. The Financial Overview section also defines and explains the
basis of accounting and accounting structures such as the types of funds, budget forecasting and
financial planning process. See Budget pages 43-53. Additionally the inclusion of the Five-Year
Financial Plan is exceptionally informative listing the uncertainties and forecast risks as well as
the forecasting methodology. Another user friendly feature is the graphs associated with data
associated with city changes (Ie. growth, unemployment) as well as pie graphs detailing the
allocation of funds and expenditures. See Figure 13: General Fund—Resources by Major
Category, Page 34.The underlying theme of this budget is transparency, and allowing the citizens
to understand the budget that affects their citizen, that is a hallmark of a quality budget.
In accordance with the recommendations of the GFOA the City of Portland in the Budget
Overview identifies Strategic Goals and Strategies. (Page 29) The Vision, Mission and Values
are broad and identify the priorities of the City as a basis for decision making. The Goals which
reflect the Mayor and City Council in coming years are SMART goals for example, improve the
quality of life in neighborhoods; provide access to transportation and recreation services. This is
a broad goal to guide government decisions and further has policies consistent with the plan of
improving neighborhood quality of life. The City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation has
initiated a new PDX Reporter app that allows citizens—the stakeholders—the ability to instantly
report poorly maintained infrastructure.1 Each entry made is then documented as a report and
users can see the status of the report as well as the last time the status updated giving real time
feedback and accountability to the goals of the city.
The budget in accordance with the GFOA principals should be developed in accordance
with the Cities goals. With the goal of transportation and improving access to transportation
1 https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/405043

4. Mayor Hale said the general fund investment for the Portland Bureau of Transportation has
increased 141 percent in the last year. (Rafanelli) Furthermore the pothole app allows citizens to
engage in the larger picture of the 12.4% of the General Fund Budget that Transportation and
Parking accounts for. (Budget Page 33) Mayor Hale in an interview in regard to the $20 Million
that would be used to pave and repair city streets, "Portlanders asked us to focus on fixing our
streets. I listened. This budget does that." (Rafanelli) This is why the budget is strong, the broad
guiding principles2 are narrowed, applied in accordance with values3 and funds are allocated in
accordance with the goals of the City.
The GFOA listed as best budget practices to monitor, measure and evaluate program
performance. (GFOA) This app is an ingenious commingling of technology and municipality
engaging maintenance creates buy in from stakeholders and can validate accountability on the
half of the city. The stakeholder does not need to attend a City Council meeting to report a
problem or find out the status of the resolution but if the citizen chooses to attend is now armed
with data detailing the City’s action or inaction. Richard Greene, a nationally recognized expert
on performance measures stated, “performance-informed budgeting implies that money is
allocated to places where it will be used in the most effective way to improve results” and the
City of Portland’s budget allocations are in accordance with seeking results. (Burnett) The
Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBT) section of the budget displays in graph form the
percentage of the City budget as well as the Bureaus program budget. See Budget page 457. The
Bureau defines its goals and mission and has its own capital budget which lists the top five goals
which organize the decision making and next includes the funding sources. Every budget and
2 Strategic Goals and Strategies: Mission.We provide urban services to meet the public health and safety,
transportation,environmental, recreational, planning, and neighborhood livability needs of our citizens and visitors.
See Budget page 29.
3 Values: Innovation. We apply creative and cost-effective solutions when delivering services to our community
with a goal of continuously improving the quality of life. See Budget page 30.

5. every bureau within the City needs to identify the funding sources; that cannot be overstated!
The funding sources additionally bolster the overall robust nature of the budget as funding
sources are diverse, innovative and include; State and Federal Grants, Interagency funds, Local
Improvement Districts4, System Development Charges and general transportation revenue. The
City has a AAA bond rating as well as self-imposed 3% debt limit which would allow bonds to
be used safely but the LID method is an innovate budgeting strategy that involves stakeholders to
improve the community. The PBT Maintenance section describes the programs duty as well as
driving goings: (1) Improve transportation safety…. See Budget page 473. The Strategic Actions
are measurable for example; provide 100 miles of street preservation, implement GPS systems.
The Performance of maintenance achievements is then listed and includes specific, verifiable
achievements; maintenance increased preventative maintenance rates on all equipment to 95 to
98% every month, resulting in savings in equipment and repair costs. See Budget page 474.
Further the effectiveness and efficiency of the goals are listed in percentages under each FY
adding credence to the practice of budgeting in accordance with goals that are outcome based
and verifiable. Above and beyond my expectations a line graph is included detailing the
percentages in fair or better condition due to maintenance over the past five years. See Budget
page 479, Performance Measures.
Critiques of the budget are deservedly elusive; the City of Portland follows the guidelines
issued by the GFOA and is highly transparent as well as user friendly. Even within the PBT
section the street intersections are named as well as the amount allocated to those projects. One
suggestion would be the ability to click the individual project, see where the funds specifically
came from for that project, the time that individual project took. Although, this suggestion might
4 Property owners can join togetherto form an LID as a means of sharing in the cost of building needed
transportation infrastructure. LIDs make local street improvements possible that promote public safety,community
livability, and enhance property values. See Budget page 466.

6. be more applicable for a grant writer or overcomplicate the succinct 700 page document. The
Mayors Message addressing a potential suggestion for improvement before it can even be
addressed stating, “[t]he budget further reduces the number of projects that have been funded on
a “one-time” basis…they were not a good budget practice, and have made it difficult for citizens
to see what was in the City’s base budget year after year.” See Budget page 10. A potential
suggestion would be offering a bare-bones budget only showing the hard numbers of each
organizations budget but negating the mission and goals that drive decisions is potentially a poor
practice.
The City of Portland, Oregon FY 2014-15 Adopted Budget is a hallmark of budgeting
best practices recommended by the GFOA. The City adheres to the recommendations of the
budget process: (1) Establish broad goals to guide government decisions; the Mayors Message,
City Overview and each individual bureau define their broad goals, (2) Develop policies and
financial plans to achieve these goals; the City has adopted unique programs such as LID and the
PDX pothole app to further the goals of the PBT (3) Develop a budget consistent with policies
and plans; budget increases were made in accordance with the stakeholders request to increase
funds for transportation (4) Monitor, measure, and evaluate program performance; the City lists
specific, quantifiable goals and then graphs the effectiveness and efficiency of those goals under
the appropriate fiscal year. (GFOA) The adherence to the GFOA recommendations as well as the
user friendly format that defines the types of funds, goals of each organization and clearly
display allocation of funds in multiple sources such as pie graphs and organizational charts
hallmark the budget as an esteemed beacon of the City’s missions and values memorialized in
the allocation of funds in accordance with those principals.

7. References
Burnett, Jennifer. "Eye On The Prize: States Looking at Goals, Outcomes for Budget Decisions."
Capitol Ideas: The Council of State Governments Spring (2013): 12-15. Mar.-Apr. 2013.
Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
City of Portland, Oregon—FY 2014-2015 Adopted Budget
http://www.portlandoregon.gov/cbo/article/502726
Government Finance Officers Association, National Advisory Council on State and Local
Budgeting. (1998). Recommended Budget Practices: A Framework for Improved State
and Local Government Budgeting. (pp. 1-87). Chicago, IL: Government Finance Officers
Association.
Rafanelli, Rachael, and Jeff Thompson. "Portland Budget with $49M Surplus Has Millions for
Street Repairs." KGW. N.p., 06 May 2015. Web. 06 May 2015.