City of Portland Budget Survey  

Opportunity

In the Spring of 2025, Portland’s City Council faced a $93 million budget shortfall, putting essential services at risk, including police, fire, parks and recreation, and housing and homelessness support. With tough cuts on the table, city leaders wanted to ensure that residents’ values and priorities were included in the process. Rather than relying solely on advocacy, departmental input, or political pressure, the Council emphasized public engagement to ensure the budget process was grounded in community input. DHM designed a survey that complemented other outreach efforts, providing essential snapshots of how Portlanders weighed competing priorities.

Approach 

To reach a broad cross-section of the city and reflect Portland’s diverse perspectives, DHM surveyed 600 residents using both phone and text-to-online formats offered in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. With real-life consequences on the table, the survey laid out real choices for Portlanders to consider: Which services should be protected or reduced? How should specific tradeoff programs be handled? What new revenue options were preferable to cuts? Every question was framed around practical, relatable decisions to help residents engage meaningfully and the Council better understand how public values played out under constraint.

Outcome 

The survey analyzed areas of alignment and disagreement across neighborhoods, income levels, and demographics, providing the city with actionable insights to make adjustments and advance proposals that were rooted in the values and voices of those who call Portland home.