The Portland Metro Chamber on Thursday afternoon added pressure to a volatile budget season by sending a research paper it funded to the Portland City Council and Mayor Keith Wilson, claiming that the council does not possess the authority to raise taxes without voter approval.

The Chamber’s email—which serves as a thinly veiled threat to the council to not attempt to raise taxes—comes as some of the council’s more progressive members are floating various tax increases, including raising the Portland Clean Energy Fund corporate tax rate and hiking the tax on large CEO salaries.

The Metro Chamber, the regional chamber of commerce whose membership includes many of Portland’s largest boardrooms, dislikes both of those proposals, taking the position that any increase in taxes will drive comp

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