Background: Portland's FDPR pension system for firefighters and police comes straight from property taxes (not a standard practice). Newer hires have been transitioned to the state PERS system (for all Oregon public employees). One perspective here:

I also oppose most regressive new revenue structures, while I support exploring revenues like: - Package Delivery Fees - Residential Long-Term Vacancy Fees - Commercial Long-Term Vacancy Fees - FPDR Reform (without cutting ANY benefits) - Cost Recovery (like the forthcoming road repair fee) 7/

It would be funny if this all ended up with Novick as the President.

It's FPDR Friday, so please watch Kevin Machiz's testimony to City Council yesterday, December 18, 2025, where he addresses Item 10 (Document number 2025-501). Present audit of the financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025 and related communications www.youtube.com/live/65dmW8y...

Portland: “Auditors, however, are anticipated to find material weaknesses in the internal controls over financial reporting that will be detailed in Baker Tilly's letter to you, called Communications with Those Charged with Governance.” www.portland.gov/council/docu...

How to radicalize your child against Project 2025’s proposal to return to the gold standard. nwcts.org/shows/wizard...

We're in a climate emergency, our DOTs are out of $, we need affordable transportation. People have to bike. We need accountability from engineers, police, courts, each other. Not this: 𝙈𝙨. 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 & 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙙. 𝙄 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡

On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, City Council will "Reappoint Catherine MacLeod to the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Board of Trustees for term to expire December 31, 2028" as part of the Consent Agenda unless someone pulls the item for discussion. www.portland.gov/council/docu...

"Our budget is growing exponentially as we get through these two generations." - Stacy Jones, Deputy Director and Finance and Pension Manager www.youtube.com/live/xOJ7tmp...

It's FPDR Friday, and if you've got a spare 13 minutes, start here and watch the Board approve budget amendments totaling $3,341,053 at the November 18, 2025 Board meeting. www.youtube.com/live/xOJ7tmp...

“Within the City, the largest share of property taxes goes to the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund.” content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORP...

Port of Portland is talking about building 11,000 new car parking spaces. They have a survey where you can tell them this is a bad idea. Or maybe they should try increasing the number of TriMet bus lines to the airport (currently 0), or make biking to the airport safe: app.maptionnaire.com/q/oh2

Seems like Mayor Wilson forgot to mention that he doesn’t have the money to pay for this stuff. Contingency isn’t revenue, it’s just a rainy day fund. The best case scenario is that it delays cuts that need to be made later. In this case, from the Fall to the Spring...

One property tax levy in all of Oregon is held harmless from these dynamics. A special exception is written into state law and the City Charter allowing the police/fire pension levy rate to increase as needed to meet rising costs every year. efiles.portlandoregon.gov/record/17165...

Thank you to everyone who has reached out with concern. Late last night, I woke up to my car, car port, and home engulfed in flames. I'm grateful for the quick response from Portland firefighters who prevented the fire from spreading even further.

Hot dog urbanism across the street from City Hall today @councilorgreen.bsky.social

if you’re a visual learner i made you some maps of where the people quoted in this article as supporting portland being occupied by troops live

Yep

Next week is Week Without Driving, but internationally, it was Car-Free Day today. I took the morning MAX to my in-district meetings, took a Biketown home, & had a blast doing it (other than biking through Lombard/Interstate). If you always drive, try another way at least once. It's worth it.

Imagine if Prosper Portland gave this to us at the Amtrak station.

The Wheeler Doctrine.

Reducing property vacancy and traffic congestion as part of a plan to reduce unfunded pension liabilities. Imagine if Portland had that level of creativity, let alone could agree that reducing the City-run pension plan’s unfunded liability was an admirable goal. www.plansponsor.com/ncpers-annou...

The Tax Advisory Group of the Portland Central City Task Force endorses reforming the funding policy of the Portland FPDR pension plan: cdn.orbusinesscouncil.org/docs/policy/...

Helsinki (pop 657,000) has not had a single traffic death during the last twelve months. poliisi.fi/-/helsingin-...

Ride to PDX and demand safer biking to the airport on 7/15 at 4pm. www.shift2bikes.org/calendar/eve...

But there’s much better ways to “help” the tax base if that’s really your goal. Kicker reform and property tax reform are obvious ones. Funding Portland’s pension is the one that doesn’t get attention. Or if disincentives for people to live in WA was the goal, then start tolling cars.

FPDR LOAN DISCUSSION: Speaking on the $50M loan from Parks to Fire & Police retirement fund. This funding crisis has been on my radar since 2020. Today's loan is another Band-Aid on a fundamentally broken system.

Watch the testimony from @kmachiz.bsky.social at yesterday's June 10, 2025 Portland City Council Special Session where he explains the "interfund transfer" aspect where FPDR sends $ to PPB and Fire for City + Employee PERS contributions. www.youtube.com/live/Hj_Yt_M...

The author doesn’t know what they’re talking about. 100% of PPB’s PERS contributions are reimbursed by FPDR. @councilorkanal.bsky.social @councilorgreen.bsky.social

They will discuss the $50 million interfund loan from Parks to FPDR at today's Fire and Police Disability and Retirement (FPDR) Board Meeting. bsky.app/profile/marc...

While you are staying busy not asking questions about FPDR please remember to also not ask questions about PPB's Retire Rehire program. DON'T ASK! Chief Day mentions "some of the funding for our retire rehire etcetera" here. (Don't try to figure out the etcetera.) youtu.be/1HumoylIB9s?...

UR operates by taking AV away from all districts, which actually pulls AV (and revenue) out of education and into general government (which Prosper Portland gets to use). Although UR is oft described as being designed to not impact total property taxes (just reallocate them), that’s not true.

Ride to PDX & Demand Safer Biking to the Airport 5/19, 4:15 pm from Cully Park to PDX shift2bikes.org/calendar/eve...

Imagine if someone time travelled from the future to deliver a message to City of Portland. marylandmatters.org/2025/05/14/m...

I feel like if I published garbage like this on my website, I would not want people looking that closely at how I spend taxpayer money! @tonyjordan.bsky.social

continues to be insane that a significant number of police and fire employees in this city have a pension where their benefits are paid directly from property taxes before any other budget priority, without any kind of set-aside or pension fund in between

Move along folks, nothing to see here…

In the FY2025-26 Proposed Budget, one Bureau will consume 34% of all property tax revenue collected by the City of Portland. It’s the Fire & Police Disability & Retirement Bureau. $227.4 million.

FPDR Board of Trustees is considering a $3M COLA for 1,974 members. Thats $1,545/member this year. The sole funding source for this COLA is property taxes and the Board has the authority to raise property taxes without ever consulting voters or City Council. efiles.portlandoregon.gov/record/17198...

Both the pay-as-you-go contributions into the City-run plan and the contributions being forwarded along to OR PERS are projected to rise dramatically. efiles.portlandoregon.gov/record/17165...

Channeling @kmachiz.bsky.social thought in the Budget / Finance Work Session today. It's time to reup a conversation on how to address the opportunity cost of not dealing with FPDR reform. For those unfamiliar, here is an article from last year: www.wweek.com/news/2023/10...

FPDR actuary: "FPDR has a funding structure... that is unique. And I don't mean unique in a fun or particularly positive kind of way. FPDR 2 Benefits are funded on a pay as you go basis each year by the levy. www.youtube.com/live/Fz4apJR...

A 165-page Board Materials document? *CLICK* The Board is reviewing the finances and the levy, and setting the budget for next year.

I keep hearing Portlanders ask why they pay so much in taxes and see so little in return from the City of Portland. Right now, it costs them over $300,000 to pay for a single police officer’s salary and pension on average (before overtime).

There are 2 good reasons to join #BikeLoud 1️⃣By giving, you show you value safe streets. In the very contested arena of street use, our leaders take note. We want to be a formidable force for streets that function well for all of us 2️⃣We sponsor lots of fun events secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/...

It’s times like these that it might be helpful to have a CFO solely focused on being the CFO rather than doing double-duty as a Deputy City Administrator overseeing a portfolio of bureaus. @trryjhrrs.bsky.social www.portland.gov/council-cler...