The Portland City Council will get its first look departmental budget requests at a March 13 workshop.
Interim City Manager Danielle West said at a March 2 Finance Committee meeting that she wanted the Council to advise her in crafting a budget proposal. Specifically, she wants to get a sense from councilors what an acceptable tax-rate increase would be for them.
Councilors will weigh in on requests from the whole city, rather than West’s final budget proposal. The move would get individual councilors on the record about discrete budgetary matters rather than the city manager alone.
The March 13 meeting will also include a presentation from city finance director Brendan O’Connell about what different tax-rate increases mean in dollar amounts to both the city’s bill and the average property tax bill.