The Oregonian/OregonLive · on Measure 26-267, the participatory budgeting ballot measure
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on Measure 26-267, the sole city measure on Portland's November 3 ballot, which would create a participatory budgeting program letting residents propose and vote on projects. The measure would set aside an amount equal to at least 2 percent of the city's general fund budget each year — about $16 million — for the program.
The initiative was referred to the county elections division on August 28, 2026, and numbered Measure 26-267.
The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development projected its annual capacity dropping from roughly $330 million supporting 20 projects this fiscal year to about $130 million supporting seven projects in 2027–28, with the next housing bond not scheduled until 2034. Proposition C on the November ballot would raise the Affordable Housing Trust Fund's $50 million annual cap to about $125 million, and Proposition I would dedicate $125 million in taxes on high-end property sales to non-market housing. 48 Hills reported more than 12,000 affordable homes are in the pipeline awaiting funding.
More than $1 billion in affordable-housing bond money approved over the past ten years built almost 5,000 units and funded roughly 2,000 more now coming online.
Portland Ballot Measure 26-267, which would let Portlanders decide how 2% of the city's general fund is spent every year, drew organized opposition from Mayor Keith Wilson and the Northwest Oregon Labor Council through a new PAC called Protect Our City Services. Wilson said the measure would pull "at least $16 million a year from the fund that pays for shelter beds, park maintenance, and investigators." Backers qualified the measure for the November ballot after submitting 78,000 signatures.
The PAC, Protect Our City Services, had not yet appeared on the Oregon secretary of state's campaign finance database as of publication.
The bipartisan California Big City Mayors coalition — including the mayors of San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Long Beach — voted unanimously Wednesday to endorse Proposition 1, the Veteran and Housing Assistance Programs Bond Measure on the November ballot. Officials said the bond could enable 40,000 new affordable homes, preserve more than 5,500 existing affordable residences and create over 53,000 construction jobs.
The measure goes before voters in the November 2026 election alongside the gubernatorial and congressional midterms.
Proponents of a ballot measure to reserve a quarter of the Santa Monica Airport's 192 acres for up to 3,000 units of income-restricted housing missed the signature deadline to qualify for the November 2028 ballot, after previously missing a June deadline for the November 2026 ballot. Supporters said they will drop signature gathering and instead lobby the City Council directly once the next council is seated.
The Santa Monica Airport is slated to close at the end of 2028.
The Examiner reported that the San Francisco DSA chapter is the group behind Proposition I, which would dedicate the city's transfer tax on property sales of $10 million or more to a House SF Fund — a shift the City Controller put at nearly $120 million a year. Mayor Daniel Lurie and the city's police and firefighter unions said the measure would create "an unaccountable slush fund." The chapter's dues-paying membership rose more than 28 percent this year to 1,506, and the national organization said in July it had reached 120,000 members.
The transfer tax had raised $504.6 million by February, about $200 million of which initially went to housing-related programs.