Why Consolidate?

If you live in Portland, you’re paying for two separate governments that spend more time fighting each other than solving your problems.

The City-County Act of 1971 (ORS § 199.715) gives us a legal path to consolidate Portland and Multnomah County into one government that residents can actually hold accountable.

Other cities in the US have unified city-county governments, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, Honolulu, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville.

It’s time Portland stopped paying for dysfunction and started demanding results.

Two Governments, Zero Accountability

When you need something fixed, nobody wants to take responsibility. When something goes wrong, everyone points fingers while residents suffer the consequences.

The ongoing Central Library safety crisis perfectly illustrates this dysfunction. On July 1, 2025, Douglas Ivers was shot and killed outside Portland’s Central Library. Immediately after, County Commissioner Meghan Moyer wrote that the incident happened “on the city’s sidewalk” and that county staff “do not have the authority or resources to police sidewalks and streets that belong to the city.” The county complained that their requests for help “go unanswered” by Portland Police.¹ Mayor Wilson fired back that “restoring safety to Multnomah County Central Library is within the power of Multnomah County leadership.”²

On August 25, a man named Zebulin Hannon was stabbed multiple times and assaulted with skateboards mere steps from where the fatal shooting happened just 55 days earlier.³ Once again, County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson deflected responsibility: “Librarians cannot stop crime on city streets.”⁴ The city stayed silent. The victim himself summed up the failure: “They did nothing, they stood there and watched while I defended myself against knife-wielding crazy people with my damn belt,” he told reporters about the library security response. “They literally just stood there and watched.”⁵

While these two governments argued about whose fault it was to keep people safe, two violent attacks happened in as many months.

The Joint Office of Homeless Services represents the most expensive failure of city-county “cooperation” in Portland history. This agency was supposed to coordinate homeless services between the city and county. Instead, it has consumed $1.3 billion while homeless deaths quadrupled from 113 in 2019 to over 450 in 2023.^{6 7} Despite spending more money than ever before, Portland now has the highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in city history: 5,398 people living on the streets.⁸

An investigation by ProPublica revealed how city-county dysfunction directly makes the crisis worse: the city focuses on clearing camps while the county controls housing services, creating a system where people get displaced with nowhere to go. More people left county-funded shelters to return to the streets than moved into permanent housing. The system literally makes homelessness worse. The county auditor couldn’t even get basic data from the Joint Office about how many people they’d actually housed. When Commissioner Mingus Mapps tried to discuss coordination problems, he described it as “being at a dysfunctional family dinner” where “we can’t talk about our respective responsibilities.”⁹

In October 2024, three city commissioners moved to terminate Portland’s participation in the Joint Office entirely, in a move that blindsided county leaders. After years of supposed partnership, the relationship collapsed so completely that elected officials were sabotaging each other in public.

This is what happens when you have two governments trying to manage the same problems with no clear chain of command. Nobody’s really in charge, so nobody can be held accountable when things go wrong. Residents get stuck with the bill and the consequences.

Residents Have Had Enough

Only 25% of residents trust local elected officials, down from 63% in 2019 — a 60% collapse in public confidence in just five years.¹⁰ The Portland Metro Chamber found that 79% of Multnomah County voters are “particularly dissatisfied” with how the county manages homeless funds, while 70% think taxes are too high for the services they receive.¹¹

When 68% of residents say Portland is “losing what made it special” and 56% would leave if they could afford to, you’re looking at a community in crisis.¹²

These aren’t the numbers of a government that’s serving its people well.

The Solution Already Exists in Oregon Law

This isn’t some untested experiment. This is settled law that other localities just like Portland have used successfully to solve exactly the problems we’re facing:

• Jacksonville, Florida consolidated with Duval County in 1968, after years of government corruption and service failures. The result? Streamlined fire and emergency services, unified law enforcement, and elimination of duplicate administrative costs. Homeowner insurance rates actually went down because fire response got more efficient. Voters approved consolidation with 65% support because they could see concrete benefits.^{13 14}
• Louisville, Kentucky consolidated with Jefferson County in 2003, eliminating administrative duplication while maintaining service quality. The unified government could tackle regional economic development projects that neither jurisdiction could handle alone.^{15 16}
• Nashville, Tennessee tried consolidation with Davidson County in 1958 and failed, then learned from their mistakes and succeeded in 1962. The key was designing a system that addressed both urban and rural concerns— urban areas got city-level services, rural areas kept their lower tax rates and service levels. Both sides got what they needed instead of fighting over one-size-fits-all solutions.^{17 18} Academic studies confirm Nashville’s success.^{19 20}
• St. Louis, Missouri shows the costs of avoiding consolidation. The 1876 “Great Divorce” created 88 separate county municipalities that now spend 75% more per capita than consolidated Louisville ($1,919 vs $1,095 per person for comparable services). ^{21 22}

What makes Oregon’s law particularly smart is that it’s flexible.

Other Multnomah County cities like Gresham and Troutdale can choose whether to join or stay separate. Rural unincorporated areas get special protections if they opt out, including guaranteed service levels and voting rights on any tax increases that affect them.

The City-County Act of 1971 is designed to bring together the jurisdictions that benefit from coordination while protecting those that prefer independence.

Let’s Talk Numbers

Four out of every five people in Multnomah County live in Portland.²³ Portland residents make up 79.9% of the county’s population — 635,750 out of 795,897 people.²⁴

Portland residents and businesses contribute hundreds of millions of dollars annually to Multnomah County.²⁵ Portland maintains significantly higher property tax rates ($7.27 per $1,000 assessed value) compared to other county cities like Gresham ($4.53) or Wood Village ($2.78).²⁶ The city serves as the county’s economic anchor, housing the vast majority of major employers, office buildings, retail centers, and industrial facilities that generate the tax base supporting county operations.²⁷

This isn’t a partnership between equals. Portland is Multnomah County in everything but name.

And yet, Portland residents pay for a separate county government that exists primarily to serve them. Both governments maintain separate everything: HR departments, IT systems, legal teams, planning departments, communications offices… Portland has 7,000+ employees handling city business.²⁸ The county has about 5,600 handling county business.²⁹ But when 80% of county residents are Portland residents, we’re essentially paying twice for the same administrative overhead.

We’re ~80% of the population, 70–80% of the tax base, and 100% tired of paying for two governments that can’t coordinate essential services.

Stop Paying for Failure

Portland residents deserve government that works. Not government that spends more money every year while problems get worse. Not government where officials blame each other instead of taking responsibility. Not government that requires residents to navigate multiple bureaucracies just to get a permit or report a problem.

ORS 199.715 provides the legal framework to create accountable, unified government that other cities have used successfully. Jacksonville eliminated waste and corruption. Nashville managed rapid growth through coordinated planning. Louisville achieved regional competitiveness through unified leadership.

The process is straightforward: charter commission design, voter approval, implementation with built-in protections. The benefits are concrete: single-point accountability, eliminated duplication, regional coordination that actually works.

When only 25% of residents trust their local government, when basic services fail due to jurisdictional confusion, and when record spending produces record failures, incremental change isn’t enough.

Portland has outgrown the county structure. The numbers prove it. The failures demand it. And Oregon law allows it.

The only question is how much more money we’re willing to waste before we admit the obvious: One community needs one government.