Students look through picture books at Escuela Viva Community School’s Southeast location, Oct. 26, 2023. The bilingual child care program is part of Multnomah County’s Preschool for All.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Oregon Senate Bill 106 saw a flurry of activity earlier this week, including a last-minute amendment that sought to sunset the universal preschool program and a hastily called legislative meeting featuring the chief executive of Multnomah County.
But as of Wednesday afternoon, no further sessions or votes had been scheduled for the bill. And with the legislature just days away from Sine Die and the amendment’s backers focused on other priorities, it’s unlikely the bill will move further.
The proposed amendment, considered at a Tuesday meeting of the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue, saw immediate pushback from Multnomah County commissioners and advocates of the preschool program.
The next morning, about 100 supporters and parents gathered outside Escuela Viva, a Preschool for All site in Southeast Portland, to defend the program. They said the free program provides a lifeline for working parents and helps build a strong education foundation for children.
“This is a program that was created for the people by the people. Leave it alone. If you don’t understand that, I’m sorry,” said Lydia Gray-Hollifield, a parent who helped shape the county’s preschool program.
Chair of the finance and revenue committee, Sen. Mark Meek (D-Gladstone) could not be reached for comment.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek had previously called for major changes to Preschool for All, which imposes an income tax on Multnomah County’s wealthiest residents.
“[Gov. Kotek] strongly maintains her position that the program’s current direction is not responsive to the economic realities of 2025, regardless of income bracket,” a spokesperson with the Governor’s office said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “If Portland does not rebound in the way we think it can, the downstream impacts on our economy will end up costing our most vulnerable and lowest income Oregonians the most.”
Lydia Gray-Hollifield speaks out in support of Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program outside of Escuela Viva in Southeast Portland on June 25, 2025.
Tiffany Camhi / OPB
An amendment to Senate Bill 106, proposed late Monday night, would have barred the state’s largest county from enacting any income tax that funds no-cost preschool and early learning programs. The bill called for Multnomah County to phase out the program over the next two years. Willamette Week first reported on the proposed changes to the bill.
“This really is an attempt to strip local control from our region,” Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said at the senate finance and revenue committee meeting Tuesday. “I would have wanted to see a process that provided us with much more public engagement and a clear path to community-led decision making.”
Tuesday’s information session on the bill came less than 24 hours after the last-minute amendment was proposed. No public comments were allowed at the meeting. But county commissioners did provide testimony on the outcomes of the fledgling universal preschool program and the potential dangers of ending it.
Vega Pederson said eliminating the income tax would take free preschool away from thousands of current and future families in the county.
Preschool for All launched in 2022, offering over 700 preschool slots to youngsters in Multnomah County. Officials say the program is on track to provide early education to 3,800 kids in the upcoming school year.
But that number is still far from the childcare and preschool demand. Multnomah County officials estimate it will need to expand to 11,000 slots to realize the program’s goal of free universal preschool for all families by 2030, a promise made to voters five years ago.
The program is also under fire for underspending funds raised by the tax. A recent audit found that Preschool for All is not spending enough money on efforts to expand the program, through such steps as building up the childcare workforce and investing in preschool facilities. Vega Pederson had previously chalked up these issues to program growing pains.
Gov. Kotek spurred the recent critical look at the program, by expressing concerns about the tax base impacted by Preschool for All. In a June 10 letter to Vega Pederson, Kotek said 2023 tax filer data had suggested that the program’s tax was pushing Multnomah County’s high-income earners to move out of Portland.
The program levies a 1.5% marginal tax on income of individuals who make more than $125,000 a year. Households that make more than $200,000 a year are taxed at that same rate. Taxpayers in the county who make more than $250,000 are on the hook for a 3% tax.
“I am concerned that the program’s current direction is not responsive to the economic realities of 2025,” wrote Kotek in the letter.
Kotek called on Vega Pederson to “ease the current tax burden even if doing so may slow the timeline toward achieving universal preschool in Multnomah County by 2030.”
However, the tax data cited by Kotek was preliminary information provided by a state task force. A Central City Task Force summary initially showed a decrease in tax filers in 2023, but revised data has revealed an increase in filers.
“Let’s not make hasty decisions and cut [Preschool for All] before it’s had a chance to fully roll out,” Multnomah County spokesperson Ryan Yambra said. “The reality is that Multnomah County has gained over 5,400 Preschool for All filers since tax year 2021.”
Senators at the Tuesday committee meeting appeared to be apprehensive about the county’s program, noting that it could be duplicating childcare and preschool services already offered by the state.
Meek also took issue with the fact that the program currently does not verify the income of applicants, another sore spot highlighted in the audit.
“All of us on this committee want to make sure that our families are able to access child care,” Meek said. “What I have a little bit of heartburn with is that there’s no means-testing.”
Multnomah County Commissioner Meghan Moyer fired back at the meeting, saying the program is means-tested.
“We prioritize low-income families right now because we are not at full enrollment,” Moyer said. “But be clear that our goal is universal preschool because the cost of preschool on working families is crushing.”