Multnomah County, OR. — The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on June 5 to adopt a $4 billion Fiscal Year 2027 budget that closes major funding gaps through reductions while restoring select services via dozens of amendments. The process was guided in part by the county’s official FY 2027 Budget Equity Tool, which mandates that departments apply a detailed racial equity lens to program design, data, narratives, and performance measures.
The Office of Diversity and Equity document states that “systemic and institutional inequities are the result of intentional choices and practices” and frames the budget as a tool to close “pervasive and persistent disparities.” It builds on the Board’s 2021 declaration of racism as a public health crisis and requires Equity Managers’ involvement in budget development for all departments.
Three Required Focus Areas Embed Racial Metrics
The tool outlines three key areas. At the program level, staff must use the Equity and Empowerment Lens and answer specific questions for each program offer:
- What are the demographics of program participants by race, ethnicity, income, geography, and other factors?
- Is the burden of the problem experienced equally across groups?
- Who primarily benefits, and who may be unintentionally burdened by funding models or service delivery?
- Is there a “specific, measurable change this program will achieve in reducing a documented disparity for the target population”?
Additional questions cover intake processes, eligibility, client influence on design, and location patterns.
At the division level, all divisions, including administrative ones, must submit one to four outcome statements measured by one to four Key Performance Indicators. Program offers generally focus on outputs, but data must be disaggregated by race and other demographics to reveal whether services are delivered equitably. Gaps in data collection must be identified and addressed.
At the department level, transmittal letters, narratives, and budget decisions must describe how allocations advance equity. Decision processes, Equity Manager involvement, and impacts of reductions or increases on specific demographic groups must be documented. Questions explicitly reference frameworks from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and ask whether shifts in spending disproportionately benefit or harm groups or perpetuate existing racial inequities.
A companion Budget Equity Tool Worksheet requires written responses to these questions for each program offer.
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Scale of Race-Conscious Elements in Proposed Budget
Analyses of the Chair’s proposed budget from the Free Beacon identified 58 program offers totaling approximately $298 million with explicit race-conscious components. These included targeted services, contracting preferences, hiring and retention metrics for employees of color, and performance measures tracking BIPOC participation rates relative to population or need benchmarks. Examples encompassed culturally specific domestic violence and mental health services, supportive housing prioritized for specific racial and ethnic groups, supplier diversity programs, and construction workforce initiatives aimed at people of color. One example was the PEL Early Educator Workforce Development program with a proposed $7,247,072 and includes the language “[i]nvestments in programs that support ethnic and diverse educators help to build a representative, culturally responsive workforce.”
Many program offers include equity statements committing to “inclusively lead with race” or ending disparate rates of outcomes such as homelessness. Some KPIs use one-sided benchmarks that register success when certain BIPOC groups are overrepresented in services relative to their share of the relevant population.
Adopted Budget Shows Tradeoffs Despite Framework
The final budget reportedly preserves core safety net and public safety functions, maintains jail capacity, funds construction of a 24/7 sobering center, and supports transitions out of shelter with added one-time funding. Amendments restored full funding for SUN Community Schools, the Marie Equi Center (culturally specific services), immigrant resilience and Bienestar de la Familia programs, and certain employment and hygiene services for people experiencing homelessness.
However, the budget still eliminates at least 158 full-time positions and phases out 605 adult shelter units plus 90 scattered-site family vouchers, reductions driven by a $67 million gap in Homeless Services and an $11 million structural gap in the General Fund. Revenue constraints include slowed property tax growth from downtown Portland’s struggling real estate market, federal and state funding clawbacks, and personnel costs rising faster than revenues.
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards cast the lone dissenting vote, stating the budget “leaves too many gaps and will not reduce homelessness or deliver the level of change our community is asking for.” She cited a missed “opportunity for course correction – to reduce outgrown layers of administrative leadership and prioritize investments in direct services and programs that demonstrate improved outcomes and show real results.”
Effectiveness and Fiscal Context
The equity framework has been in place since FY 2022 and requires departments to demonstrate how investments target and close racial disparities with measurable changes. Yet the adopted budget reflects difficult tradeoffs and position reductions even in areas the tool directs departments to protect through disparity analysis. The news release emphasizes preservation of services for thousands of residents but does not detail specific, achieved racial equity outcome improvements tied to the mandated KPIs.
Broader economic pressures, particularly the downtown real estate market’s impact on the property tax base that funds discretionary General Fund spending, constrain resources regardless of analytical frameworks. The county’s approach prioritizes race-conscious targeting and culturally specific strategies alongside universal safety net functions, while fiscal realities force prioritization and cuts.
Program offers and related documents are available on the county’s FY 2027 budget site, along with the full Equity Tool and worksheet. The process illustrates how Multnomah County has embedded racial equity requirements into routine budgeting, even as commissioners navigate structural deficits and competing demands for direct services.
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