Should Portland use clean energy fund to hire more police? Petition gets one step closer to ballot
PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – Supporters of a controversial ballot measure to divert 25% of Portland's clean energy funding to police say they have enough signatures to get it on the ballot this November.
Voters approved the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) in 2018 to raise about $200 million every year for climate programs. Now, supporters of a new measure want to divert some of those funds over to the Portland Police Bureau.
The Portland Police Association (PPA) , which made more than half a million dollars in donations in support of the Enhanced Community Safety Initiative just last month, said the 1PDX2026 petition gathered roughly 62,000 signatures.
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Supporters say the money redirected from PCEF would go toward adding more staff at PPB with the hope of improving emergency response times without raising taxes.
"Today, too many Portlanders wait 20 minutes or more for an officer to respond in an emergency, and the city's own report found that approximately 80% of child abuse tips don't even receive an assigned investigator because there aren't enough officers," said chief petitioner Bob Simril. "This initiative gives Portland voters the opportunity to choose a safer future for our city and children."
But Hands Off PCEF , a coalition opposing the measure backed by the ACLU of Oregon and the Sierra Club , claims the redirecting of PCEF funding would undermine government accountability.
"The measure would fund police staffing only, with no funding for 911 dispatchers, emergency medical responders, or Portland Street Response. It just creates a slush fund for the police association with no safeguards, no spending caps, and no oversight from the community," Hands Off PCEF said in a statement.
The opposition coalition also called the initiative a "power grab straight out of Trump's playbook," adding that, "just as the Trump administration rolls back protections for clean air and water and reverses progress on climate change, the Portland Police Association's flawed measure targets Portland's biggest tool to secure clean air, affordable energy, and livable neighborhoods in the face of a hostile federal administration."
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A city initiative petition requires 40,437 valid signatures from registered voters in order to qualify for the upcoming ballot. Portland City Elections is working with Multnomah County Elections to determine whether the submitted signatures meet these criteria.
The city will announce the results by Aug. 5 ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.
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