PORTLAND, OR — In the latest episode of How Can We Tax This Next, Portland leaders have reportedly discovered an exciting new revenue stream: your Netflix account.
Portland City Council President John Dunphy is floating a proposal to tack on a small monthly fee to streaming services in order to help fund the city’s arts scene. And by “small,” he means something Portland officials are hoping you won’t notice between your seven streaming subscriptions and your monthly existential dread.
“I imagine it not being more than a quarter, maybe 50 cents per streaming service,” Dunphy said.
Because when Portlanders look around at the empty storefronts, rising crime, and struggling downtown economy, the obvious conclusion is clearly that the real missing ingredient is a slightly more expensive Netflix subscription.
According to Dunphy, the goal is to revive Portland’s cultural heartbeat by using streaming fees to fund arts programs that will supposedly get people out of their homes again.
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“Portland’s biggest challenge is that people have not felt safe, and the economy is struggling because of it,” Dunphy said. “We’re a huge arts and music city, and we have a naturally existing resource sitting right there.”
Translation: if Portland can just squeeze a few extra coins out of every person watching Stranger Things, it might finally convince residents that walking downtown after dark is a totally normal activity again.
The idea isn’t entirely new. Dunphy says he’s modeling the plan after Chicago, which has been taxing streaming services for years. The Windy City’s version reportedly generates tens of millions of dollars annually.
Of course, Portland is not Chicago, but officials seem optimistic that even a modest fee on services like Netflix or Spotify could still bring in a decent chunk of change.
Critics might ask whether adding yet another fee is the best way to solve Portland’s economic woes, but city leaders appear unfazed.
When asked about the possibility of streaming companies challenging the tax in court, Dunphy reassured residents that Portland is already extremely familiar with lawsuits.
“We have a robust legal department of really skilled attorneys who are fighting lawsuits every day,” he said. “The city gets sued hundreds of times every year. One additional lawsuit over this would not be particularly bad for our budget.”
In other words, if the plan sparks yet another legal battle, Portland officials seem confident they can simply add it to the city’s already impressive collection of court appearances.
Meanwhile, residents are reportedly waiting to see whether the next phase of the city’s economic strategy will involve a podcast tax, a TikTok surcharge, or possibly a small fee every time someone streams a sad indie song while staring out the window wondering what happened to downtown Portland.
