Out of state firms (and one union) are bankrolling the biggest property tax hike in Oregon history

Out of state groups from as far away as New Jersey and Georgia have put up almost one-third of the money to fund Portland Public Schools' campaign for the biggest property tax increase in state history.

Most of the money is coming from construction contractors and developers who stand to make millions and millions of dollars in profits by pulling money out of the pockets of Portland homeowners.

Contributions as of February 24, 2011 according to ORESTAR:

Howard S. Wright Constructors	$25,000	OUT OF STATE
Stacy and Witbeck, Inc.	25,000	OUT OF STATE
Nike, Inc.	25,000
Northwest Natural Gas Company	25,000
Portland General Electric	25,000
John Gray	20,000
The Standard	20,000
Walsh Construction Co.	12,500
Adidas America, Inc.	10,000	OUT OF STATE
Heery International, Inc.	10,000	OUT OF STATE
Hill International	10,000	OUT OF STATE
KPFF Consulting Engineers	10,000	OUT OF STATE
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, SSF	10,000	OUT OF STATE
LCG Pence Construction LLC	10,000
Miller Nash LLP	10,000
Kroger	5,000	OUT OF STATE
Boora Architects	5,000
John Carroll	5,000
Kaiser Permanente	5,000
Legacy Health System CPC, LLC	5,000
Mark Edlen	5,000
Metropolitan Land Group, LLC	5,000
Providence Health System	5,000
S.D. Deacon Corp. of Oregon	5,000
Safeway Inc.	5,000
SERA Architects	5,000
Umpqua Bank	5,000
Walker Macy	5,000
Ball Janik LLP	2,500
David Evans and Associates, Inc.	2,500
EMS Management LLC	2,500
Fortis Construction Inc.	2,500
Friends of Jeff Cogen (5571)	2,500
Hoffman Corporation	2,500
Shiels, Obletz, Johnson, Inc.	2,500
William Shields	1,500
Azumano Travel	1,000
Barbara Regan	1,000
Bradley Malsin	1,000
Chapman School PTA	1,000
Dan Saltzman	1,000
Ellsworth Ingraham	1,000
Forest Park PTA	1,000
Mary Nolan for State Representative (3701)	1,000
Nick Fish for City Council (5709)	1,000
Rex Burkholder	1,000
Stephen McCarthy	1,000
Sunnyside Environmental School PTSA	1,000
TVA Architects, Inc.	1,000
William Dickey	1,000
Carter MacNichol	500
Constance Seeley	500
Douglas Goe	500
Jeffrey Condit	500
La Paloma/Paloma Clothing	500
PBS Engineering + Environmental	500
Susan Barrett	500
Trudy Sargent	500
Pamela Knowles	300
Alyssa Keny-Guyer	250
David Schmidt	250
Jason Matusow	250
Laura Smoyer	250
Metropolitan Learning Center PTSA	250
Stephen Gomez	250
Pam Knowles for Schools (13648)	246
Brock Logan	200
Cathy C Arrington	200
Linda Hopkins	200
John Sutter	150
Rob Nelson	101
Miscellaneous Cash Contributions $100 and under	3,580
	==========
TOTAL	$355,977

Portland Examiner: No on construction bonds

From the Portland Examiner:

My personal favorite construction project in the $178 million unnecessary repair portion of the bond issue is providing covered playgrounds for schools with very uncertain physical education program funding. Yes for protected playgrounds. Maybe not for physical education teachers.

Jefferson High School: After years of failed reforms the only solution for PPS is more money

Portland's Jefferson High School has suffered through 40 years of reforms, realignments, and overhauls.  With every change, more and more students flee the failing school. As the Oregonian reports:

Wholesale reinvention is not new for Jefferson. Since the late 1990s, the school has been subjected to a constant churn of reforms and changes, many of them ill-conceived, poorly supported or both. As principals came and went, sometimes several in a single year, the faculty has been upended and the school remade into subject-area academies, then grade-level academies, then back to a unified school.

Portland Public Schools latest plan is to spend tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Jefferson as a mini college.  Remember, this is the same school where more than half the students do not meet state standards for math or science.

And now they're ready to go to college? Early?

The Oregonian reports that interest in the program is weak:

Although nearly 400 eighth-graders live nearby and have limited choices apart from Jefferson, however, the school has not been swamped with interest.

Even with Sam Adams and Jeff Cogen pushing for higher taxes, only half of likely Democratic voters favor largest property tax increase in Oregon history

The Oregonian's Steve Duin reports on Portland Public Schools megabucks campaign to send property taxes through the roof:

The three girls sit in the middle of the maelstrom Monday night, the Hansen soda cans empty, the pizza slice forgotten, pounding numbers into cell phones, oblivious to the din about them.

A half hour earlier, Mayor Sam Adams rolled through the room like a wisp of smoke, leaving Jeff Cogen, the Multnomah County chairman, to frame the challenge posed by the Portland Public Schools' $548 million bond measure.

Even with political heavyweights calling the shots and kids straight out of Oliver Twist, the developer funded campaign is challenged to find support even among the strongest supporters of public education.

After an hour, the girls tally up the results. They made 146 calls and connected with a grand total of 30 voters. Sixteen of the 30 said they'd support the $548 million bond measure and the local option levy. Seven were negative and seven undecided.

And these are the likely voters, the motivated voters, the Democrats?