Why we’re voting
no on #1PDX2026

This November, Portlanders are coming together to defeat the Portland Police Association’s flawed and wholly unaccountable ballot measure.

Below are just some of the top reasons to OPPOSE the controversial so-called Portland Enhanced Community Safety initiative.

  • In 2018, voters created the Portland Clean Energy Fund, which is playing a transformative role in supporting climate action and resilience in our communities. The Portland Police Association’s controversial ballot measure could jeopardize projects across the city, including middle-income housing and downtown revitalization in the Broadway Corridor, replacing heating and cooling units in public schools, replacing air filters in apartment buildings, planting trees to mitigate rising temperatures in East County and neighborhoods across the city, and improving transportation safety on 82nd Ave.

  • Every dollar paid by billion-dollar corporations into the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund has already been allocated through the City Council-approved Climate Investment Plan. But just as the Trump administration rolls back environmental protections and snatches tax dollars away from climate projects,the Portland Police Association is taking a page from the same Trump playbook. This flawed ballot measure targets Portland’s biggest tool against Trump to secure clean air, affordable energy, and livable neighborhoods for our communities.

  • PCEF is lowering families' energy bills through energy-efficiency upgrades, increasing tree cover, improving air quality in schools, and helping people stay safe during extreme heat and cold. This ballot measure would jeopardize programs designed to combat rising energy costs, increase access to affordable transportation options, create more affordable homes, and more. 

  • This measure would permanently diminish the power of the democratically elected Portland City Council to set the budget. The police union will have a seat at the table, but the community won't. 

  • In addition to raiding PCEF, the Portland Police Association measure would undermine government accountability and is inadequate to meet our community safety needs. These funds cannot be used to hire other critical public safety personnel like firefighters, Portland Street Response, or 911 call dispatchers.

  • If the measure passes, there’s no way to estimate the cost of defending the city from a potential flurry of costly lawsuits to follow. The measure means taxpayers could be on the hook paying for high-paid lawyers. The measure also fails to account for the increased cost of providing pensions to newly hired officers.

  • The Portland Police Association has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to put this flawed measure on the ballot. Wealthy special interests are also pouring money into this measure. If it passes, the Portland Police Association stands to take control of the slush fund while Portland families lose meaningful oversight of public tax dollars. 

  • This measure could divert thousands, millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars to what amounts to a Portland Police Association slush fund. There’s no safeguard or spending cap written into the measure to protect the public’s interest in responsible spending of taxpayer dollars.

  • According to local reporters, “the Oregon Secretary of State has received 28 complaints alleging campaign petitioners are misleading the public about the proposal.”

    Additionally, “Workers gathering signatures for the effort to divert clean energy funds to Portland police are using talking points that don’t line up with the petition’s actual text.”