Apr 23, 2021
In the largest expansion of Multnomah County responsibilities in modern times, Chair Deborah Kafoury released her 2022 Executive Budget today, a $2.81 billion plan of action that tackles the immediate COVID-19 crisis and launches once-in-a generation efforts to end people’s homelessness and elevate libraries and early childhood education.
Released just two weeks after the Board of Commissioners declared racism a public health crisis, the Executive Budget reflects the principles that guided the County’s COVID-19 response: move upstream to prevent crisis and then co-create — with community — those interventions, policies and environments that promote health and safety equitably.
The Chair takes that same approach to funding across County services. But she also applies that lens to strategically deploying $78.8 million in the County’s first share of new American Rescue Plan federal recovery funds, from providing families enhanced summer programming through SUN schools, to serving people in a mental health crisis to developing strategies to reduce gun violence.