PDX Update

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Feb 10, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

SCHOOLS

Tax measure’s in limbo

There may be no school tax measure on the May primary election ballot after all.

Portland school board co-chairwoman Bobbie Regan said city residents are saying they can’t support another tax for schools. Board members will spend the weekend talking with parent groups about the possibility of not pursuing either Mayor Tom Potter’s proposed city income tax for schools or a supplemental property tax measure.

“One of the possibilities is, we don’t go out for either,” Regan said. Instead, she proposed “that we pull between state government, county and city governments, and the business community to see what we could cobble together. We’d figure out how much we would spend of our reserves, what kinds of cuts would be tolerable.”

The school board had scheduled and then abruptly canceled a public hearing on a supplemental property tax measure this week. The board still may discuss that option and refer a tax measure to the ballot when it meets Monday night. It could withdraw the measure later.

A new poll gauging public support for each option is expected to be completed today. The City Council has until Feb. 22 to place Potter’s plan on the May ballot.

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