07:56 PM PST on Thursday, February 9, 2006

By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

The Portland School Board abruptly cancelled a public hearing on school funding scheduled for Thursday evening as district leaders backed away from Mayor Tom Potter's proposed city-wide income tax to pay for schools.

KGW photo

PPS Superintendent Vicki Phillips talsk about lack of public support for a school tax.

"Our citizens' tolerance has reached its limits," said Superintendent Vicki Phillips, citing polling data that shows a "strong undercurrent" against another temporary local tax measure.

Potter's almost 1 percent personal income tax, which would be augmented by a .04 percent business license surcharge, would last for four years. It's designed to help, in part, replace a temporary 1.25 percent Multnomah County tax that is expiring.

Voters in 2003 approved the three-year county-wide income tax for schools. It too was billed as a temporary fix to help schools through a rough patch, but those opposed to the tax had warned that politicians would come back for more money when it expired.

The polling, conducted for the Portland Schools Foundation, shows a less than 50-percent voter support for the Potter measure. If the tax were to be approved later this month by City Council, voters would then have to ratify it on the May ballot.

Even Potter himself appeared to concede defeat on Thursday. The mayor, in Taiwan on a trade mission, issued a statement acknowleging that "the timing may not be right for a May vote."

Superintendent Phillips, along with School Board Co-Chairs David Wynde and Bobbie Regan, said public support for the tax appeared doomed due to uncertainty about the strength of the economic recovery in Portland.

"What we've heard is that the economy is tough," Regan told reporters at a briefing Thursday afternoon at Grant High School. "People are also tired of temporary funding solutions. We have to be respectful of the community."

With local families facing rising costs for housing, health care and utilities, the superintendent and school board heads all agreed the tax plan would be an extremely tough sell -- even among ardent education supporters.

Regan said Portland school leaders would "go back to work in Salem to try and shore up funding." Local school districts across the state have criticized the Oregon Legislature for failing to adaquately fund education in recent years.

Mayor Potter said he planned to convene an "education summit" with community leaders next week to explore other funding ideas.

The Portland Public Schools are facing a $57 million budget shortfall next year, after losing $25 million this year, and Regan proclaimed: "There are no good options."

School leaders said they would probably be forced to spend down the district's reserves to "dangerously" low levels and make additional cuts that Regan said, "will hopefully not impact the classroom too much."

The mayor's office said City Council was examining whether some city revenues might be diverted to the school district on a temporary basis.

However, Phillips conceded that more job losses and school consolidations were likely if, "in the end there's no way to close the $57 million gap."

The School Board will discuss budget options at their next regularly scheduled meeting this upcoming Monday evening.