PRESS: Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approves $4 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2026
Multnomah County, Ore. (June 12, 2025) — The Board of County Commissioners today approved a $4 billion balanced budget that makes painful tradeoffs to preserve core health, homelessness and public safety programs in the face of Multnomah County’s largest spending gap in a decade.
The adopted Fiscal Year 2026 budget ensures an increase in shelter beds and maintains housing and case management services to help people leave homelessness. It supports community safety by fully funding the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, and adult parole and probation programs. It funds work to tackle our community’s substance use crisis. And it invests in the strategic rebuilding of Multnomah County Animal Services.
“Our County must continue to be a safe haven for our values of democracy, equity, accountability, kindness, and support for one another,” said Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. “Following months of public deliberations, I believe the budget we adopt today reflects the priorities of our board and the needs our community has shared. People can trust that Multnomah County will continue to serve our community with life-changing, life-saving care and support.”
“I would have preferred to be passing my first Multnomah County budget with a better revenue forecast,” said Commissioner Meghan Moyer. “However, I'm proud that I did everything I could possibly do to preserve jobs and services. That included finding cost savings in county internal services and vacancies and using those savings to fund things that would have been cut.”
“There are no ‘good cuts’ in a County budget. There are simply policy decisions. Our work ensures there is a safety net for our most vulnerable friends, family and neighbors,” said Commissioner Shannon Singleton. “This is not about pitting homelessness against sustainability against food security against healthcare. What I presented in my amendments are policy decisions to ensure that we move forward on housing justice, access to critical services that the federal government has divested in, and making sure that we are protecting our most vulnerable community members who are often the first hit during economic downturns.”
“Throughout the budget process, I remained grounded in and focused on the priorities that are most important to residents of Multnomah County and in my district of East Portland: addressing homelessness, expanding access to mental health and substance use services, improving public safety, and championing economic growth and employment opportunities,” said Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards. “The Commission improved and built on the budget proposed by the Chair. We were able to make key investments in homelessness services that move people off the streets, into shelter and on a path to housing, and we are expanding sobering, addiction treatment and recovery services. Additionally, I led efforts with my fellow Commissioners to restore essential public safety services, including the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit, Treatment Court, and the Auto and Organized Retail Theft Task Forces that help to improve community safety, livability and access to justice.”
“Balancing this budget has been a difficult exercise to say the least. Cutting and prioritizing critical programs that impact our region’s safety and livability is not a task I take lightly,” said Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon. “This challenge has required debate and disagreement, and I am encouraged by how my colleagues remained congenial and constructive as we conducted this work in public and on behalf of the public.”
Read the full press release You can watch a video of the Board's deliberations and meetings here.
FY 2026 Adopted Program Offers
FY 2026 Adopted Program Offers