Month: August 2025

Multnomah County is hosting a series of public meetings in August on Preschool for All. Preschool for All is still under threat. Please come out to show your support for the program and urge the County Commissioners to save it! 

Date: August 6, 2025 | 9:30 am – 12:00 pm
What: Preschool for All Board Briefing #1
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)
Topics: Mechanics of indexing, parameters for tax year 2026 changes

Date: August 19, 2025 | 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
What: Preschool for All Board Briefing #2
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)
Topics: Economic benefits & value of PFA, the path to universal coverage, impacts of changes, debunking economic myths, and PFA TAG recommendation

Date: August 20, 2025 | 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
What: Preschool for All Work Session
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)
Topics: Discussion of Board proposals

Date: August 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
What: Preschool for All Public Listening Session
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)

Date: August 21, 2025 | 10:35 am – 11:35 am
What: First Reading on Preschool for All Board Proposals
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)

Date: August 28, 2025 | 10:40 am – 11:40 am
What: Second reading and vote on Preschool for All Board Proposals
Where: Multnomah County Board Room (501 SE Hawthorne, Portland)

From Friends of Preschool for All: You may remember that Multnomah County Commissioner July Brim-Edwards was the only one of the Commissioners who didn’t speak out against the Governor’s undemocratic moves to kill Preschool for All, and that’s because she shares the Governor’s goals. But her strategy relies on something a little sneakier: on August 28, Commissioner Brim-Edwards will bring a vote on “indexing” the program to the full County Board. Indexing sounds like a common-sense tool, but it’s a covert guarantee to cut this program.

Indexing refers to adjusting for inflation the income thresholds above which the tax is levied. It’s touted by business interests as “common practice”, but not even the state of Oregon indexes high incomes to inflation, and neither should Multnomah County. Inflation affects high income groups differently – they are more insulated and their incomes also rise more quickly than those with lower incomes.

Jeff Renfro, Multnomah County Economist, has been clear that indexing means program cuts, and that the program would go into the red, with no reserves, two years after it hits full universality. That will mean serious cuts, and lost slots, just after it finally meets its promise to the voters.

Program cuts means lost jobs, increased childcare expenses, a heavier burden on working families, women leaving the workplace, and small businesses shuttering. It means the rich keep their money while families are screwed.

What can you do?

There will be several opportunities to speak up before this crucial vote, including at our Town Hall on 8/13. RSVP here! And stay tuned as we share additional critical opportunities to give testimony to keep up the pressure: Hands off Preschool for All. They all made promises to protect this program during the SB106 snafu, and they need to honor those commitments. REMIND THEM.