The ordinance sets water system rates, charges, and fees for retail and wholesale customers of the Portland Water Bureau for FY 2026-27.
Official proposal and impact statementOrdinance2026-162
Should Portland adopt rates, charges, and fees for water and water-related services for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027 (amend…
The ordinance sets water system rates, charges, and fees for retail and wholesale customers of the Portland Water Bureau for FY 2026-27.
Official impact statementSee the official legal title
Adopt rates, charges, and fees for water and water-related services for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027 (amend ADM-14.07)
Next appearanceFinal action is posted; watch for implementation updates.
Follow this matterWhat this proposal would actually do.
Plain-language orientation first. Every substantive statement below links to its official basis.
The reviewed sources do not clearly identify every existing policy, service, contract, or obligation that would remain unchanged.
Official matter recordThis proposal concerns transportation & public works and requires action through Portland’s public legislative process.
Official matter classification and recordThis ordinance will increase charges to all customers. The water utility rates and charges are designed to generate revenue to cover the cost of providing water service. The costs are determined by the budget which was reviewed by the Portland Utility Board (PUB), an eleven-member citizen body created to strengthen oversight functions for the City's water, sewer and stormwater services. PUB provided input for the FY 2026-27 budget and rate proposal. Their feedback was considered in creation of the FY 2026-27 budget. Additionally, all relevant documents were provided to the public on the Water Bureau website and information was shared through social media platforms.
Official community impact statementWhat the record establishes and what it does not.
Votes show choices. They do not, by themselves, prove why a member made that choice.
Final Council action
Passed · 8–4
Read the exact motion or vote question
Final action on 2026-162: Adopt rates, charges, and fees for water and water-related services for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027 (amend ADM-14.07)
Rationale review not yet published
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The vote above establishes who supported or opposed that exact motion. A source-validated account of the competing reasons will appear only after human review of the meeting transcript and documents.
Water sales revenues are expected to generate approximately $284.4 million which includes $274.6 million in retail revenues and $9.8 million in wholesale revenues in FY 2026-27. Retail customers are also expected to pay $2.0 million in customer late charges.In addition to the water sales revenue, $9.3 million is expected to be generated by water-related services including system development charges, new service installations, customer requested new main connections, engineering permit fees, hydrant installation and usage, and miscellaneous utility charges.The proposed overall average effective retail rate increase is 8.1 percent in FY 2026-27. With a retail rate increase of 8.1 percent, the retail commodity rate will increase from $8.171 to $8.833, and the base charge will increase from $74.14 to $80.15 per bill (the billed base charge varies depending on the number of days in the billing period). The "typical" residential water customer using 5 hundred cubic feet (ccf) per month will now pay $70.89, up 8.1 percent from the FY 2025-26 "typical" bill of $65.57. The "medium" commercial customer using 100 ccf per month will see a water bill increase from $891.24 to $963.45; an increase of $72.21 or 8.1 percent.Two tiers of fixed low-income discount for qualified single-family residents that are billed quarterly are included in the ordinance. The tier I discount is 50% of the typical usage of 5 ccf for qualified low-income customers. The tier II discount is 80% of the typical usage of 5 ccf for qualified extremely low-income customers. Also included in the rate ordinance is the Regulated Affordable Multifamily Assistance Program (RAMP), which offers discounts for residents in multi-family dwellings.All revenues and expenses are included in the FY 2026-27 Water Bureau Proposed Budget.
Official financial impact statement- The source-linked record has not yet received a human review of competing arguments. A yes or no vote alone does not establish a Councilor’s rationale.
- What implementation evidence will show whether the intended result occurred?
Can residents still participate?
Official testimony on this decision has closed. Residents can still contact their district Councilors about implementation and follow-up.
Official Council agendaInspect the complete research record.
Official text, source files, exact motions, roll calls, provenance, and the technical completeness check remain available without crowding the explanation above.
Official documents1 sources
Final legal actionOrdinance 192183
The operative official record after Council action.
Open at Portland.govRead the full official text
The City of Portland ordains.Section 1. The Council finds:Pursuant to Section 11-105 of the City Charter, the Council has determined revenues are needed to cover Portland Water Bureau costs.The Portland Water Bureau has recommended rates, charges, and fees sufficient to meet the Bureau's revenue requirements for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026.This ordinance has been approved by the Office of the City Attorney.NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:That the rates and charges in Exhibit A for use of water and water-related services during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027, are hereby adopted.That this ordinance is binding City policy, as that term is defined in Code Section 1.07.020.That all water rate ordinances now in effect conflicting in any manner with the provisions of this ordinance are hereby repealed on and after July 1, 2026.
Meetings, motions, amendments, and votes4 meetings · 1 votes
PassedAgenda item 14
Passed to second readingAgenda item 22
ContinuedAgenda item 14
ContinuedAgenda item 6
Final Council action · May 27, 20268 yes · 4 no
Final action on 2026-162: Adopt rates, charges, and fees for water and water-related services for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027 (amend ADM-14.07)
Data quality, timeline, and provenanceRules v2
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Unreviewed keyword matches and machine-extracted fragments are not presented as authoritative findings. Only 0 human-reviewed findings are available for this matter.
Technical information-completeness check · Ready With Caveats
This checks whether decision-relevant categories appear in the published packet. It does not recommend approval or opposition.
Decision definition
CompleteThe official title and operative text identify the requested action.
Official legal text
CompleteOfficial text was found. This check does not certify that every referenced exhibit is complete.
Financial impact
CompleteThe official impact statement includes financial information.
Funding source
CompleteThe impact statement identifies funding information without an explicit unresolved-source qualifier.
Supporting documents
UnknownNo linked attachments were found on the official page.
Referenced exhibit integrity
UnknownThe text references exhibits. This guide has not yet automatically verified that each referenced exhibit is present, populated, and internally consistent.
Counterparty acceptance
Not ApplicableThe reviewed action is not expressly identified as a non-binding agreement.
Implementation
CompleteA direction, reporting requirement, or deadline appears in the official text.
Document stability
UnknownStability requires at least two observed snapshots; the system will update this after another ingestion.
- First discovered
- Aug 13, 2026, 1:05 PM PDT
- Last checked
- Sep 13, 2026, 2:23 AM PDT
- Evidence hash
- 7f0e1724a56028ca
- Guide status
- Deterministic baseline
- SOURCE UPDATED
Passed
- DOCUMENT PUBLISHED
Observed in the official source.
- Council Action
Passed
- Council Action
Passed to second reading
- Council Action
Continued
- Council Action
Continued