🛣️ROSE QUARTER: the freeway cap that ate $143M before a shovel moved
🧒PRESCHOOL FOR ALL: the tax that overshot — and is still under attack
🏫PPS PROMISE: $60M for Black students, five years in a drawer
🔢LOOSE CHANGE: three numbers worth knowing this week
🛠️FOLLOW THE MONEY: the people and tools tracking the receipts
INFRASTRUCTURE · I-5 ROSE QUARTER
OREGON HAS SPENT $143.5 MILLION ON THE ROSE QUARTER PROJECT — WITHOUT MOVING A SHOVEL. NOW IT'S $1.5 BILLION SHORT.
When the Oregon Legislature passed HB 2017, the Rose Quarter freeway project was pitched as a $450 million widening with a community cap over I-5 in historic Albina. Nine years later, the cost estimate sits between $1.96 billion and $2.08 billion — and the federal grant that was supposed to cover nearly half the cap has been rescinded.
The supposed deal: widen I-5, build a freeway lid, reconnect a neighborhood the state bulldozed in the 1950s. The actual receipt: nearly a decade of planning, one stormwater-and-bridges starter phase, and a transportation commission staring at $167 million in leftover construction money and no clear path to the rest.
Oregon Department of Transportation Reports the current project cost estimate is $1.96B–$2.08B and that only $67.5 million of the federal Reconnecting Communities grant was obligated before the remainder was rescinded.
Oregon Transportation Commission Voted in December 2025 to keep the project alive with $167 million on hand — explicitly calling on the legislature to find the rest.
Oregon Legislature (HB 2017) The 2017 transportation package that originally seeded the project; ODOT spokespeople confirm $447.5 million has been secured for a project now estimated at over $2 billion.
From 2016 through mid-2025, Oregon spent $143.5 million on planning, engineering, community outreach and environmental review — without any dirt moving. Phase 1A, which began in summer 2025, covers stormwater improvements, bridge work and an auxiliary lane extension. It does not include any portion of the freeway cover that voters and Albina advocates were promised.
The federal Reconnecting Communities grant that briefly made the project look halfway funded was largely clawed back in 2025, leaving ODOT with about a quarter of what it needs. The Transportation Commission's three options in December were: build a smaller 'Phase 1B' overpass widening with the $167M, hold the money and beg the 2026 legislature, or shelve the rest entirely. They picked option two and kept building.
THE PATTERN
Nobody set out to spend $143 million on PowerPoints. But the Rose Quarter is what happens when a project's scope, politics and price all triple while its funding source disappears. The freeway lid is a real promise to a neighborhood the state actively destroyed — and it is also now a $1.5 billion hole with no plan to fill it. The receipts so far are slides, studies, and a single overpass.
📁 RECEIPTS: OPB · Big projects, bigger problems: Oregon bridge, highway efforts face delays and steep costs · OPB · New phase of Rose Quarter project to proceed, despite funding hole · ODOT · I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project · KGW · Oregon Transportation Commission keeps Rose Quarter project going · OPB · Portland Rose Quarter freeway project takes first step, but still short $1.5B
EDUCATION · PRESCHOOL FOR ALL
MULTNOMAH COUNTY'S PRESCHOOL TAX HAS HAULED IN MORE THAN PROJECTED, DOUBLED ITS SEATS, AND IS STILL GETTING ITS RATE HIKE DELAYED.
When Multnomah County voters approved Measure 26-214 in 2020, the auditor's office projected a personal income tax that would build toward universal preschool by 2030. Five years in, Preschool for All has consistently raised more money than expected, is on track to nearly double its seat count next year, and just got told by its own advisory group to hold off on the scheduled tax increase.
The supposed deal: a marginal tax on high earners to deliver tuition-free preschool to every 3- and 4-year-old in the county by 2030. The actual result: a program that hit 3,800 seats this year, is offering 7,460 for 2026–27, and is sitting on a reserve of more than $600 million while critics call it a failure.
Multnomah County Preschool & Early Learning Division Allocated 7,460 seats to providers for the 2026-27 school year, up from a current capacity of 3,844, surpassing the original pre-pandemic target of 6,500–7,000.
Multnomah County Board of Commissioners Tabled a scheduled 0.8% tax increase in 2026 pending a technical advisory group review; the advisory group's draft recommends delaying again until FY2029.
City of Portland Revenue Division Administers the PFA tax under a 10-year intergovernmental agreement; the county will pay up to $9.85 million in administration costs for FY2025-26.
PFA brought in $187 million its first year and $199 million its second — about $68 million more than the original first-year projection. The program has grown from 728 children in 2022-23 to 3,800 in 2025-26 (a five-fold increase), and the county estimates families save roughly $18,600 per child per year. A family satisfaction survey reported 97% satisfaction and 97% of seats enrolled.
The catch the critics love: the program has piled up more than $600 million in reserves while the county's general fund stares at a $10 million deficit. Managers say the cushion is required to absorb the period when program costs will exceed annual tax revenue. Governor Tina Kotek has publicly said the program 'is not working'; the technical advisory group, citing recession risk, recommended against indexing the tax to inflation and against the planned 0.8% rate hike.
THE PATTERN
This is the rarest civic story we cover: a Portland-area tax measure that overshot its targets, delivered the service it promised, and is still treated like it failed. The reserve looks gigantic until you remember the program is supposed to last decades. The honest critique is that the rollout was slow; the dishonest one is that 'it doesn't work.' Both are now in the same political pile.
📁 RECEIPTS: Multnomah County · Preschool for All on track to exceed growth target for 2026-27 · Willamette Week · Preschool for All Seats Will Double Next Year, County Says · Willamette Week · Preschool for All Advisory Group Says: Don't Raise or Index the Tax · Willamette Week · As Pressure Ramps Up to Freeze the PFA Tax Rate · Multnomah County · Preschool for All to serve up to 3,800 children in 2025-2026 · KOIN · Preschool for All on track to nearly double capacity
SCHOOLS · CENTER FOR BLACK STUDENT EXCELLENCE
VOTERS APPROVED $60M FOR A CENTER FOR BLACK STUDENT EXCELLENCE IN 2020. FIVE YEARS LATER, PPS FINALLY BOUGHT A BUILDING — AND IT STILL NEEDS $20–25M MORE.
In November 2020, nearly 75% of Portland voters approved Measure 26-215, a $1.2 billion construction bond that earmarked roughly $60 million for a Center for Black Student Excellence. The pitch: a hub for tutoring, enrichment and community support for Portland's historically underserved Black students.
Five years later, the bond money mostly sat. In December 2025, the PPS board voted unanimously to spend $16 million on the One North property in Albina. A due diligence report said the building needs another $20–25 million in renovations and 24 to 30 months of construction before it can open.
Portland Public Schools Board of Education Approved a $16 million purchase of the One North building on December 2, 2025 — more than five years after voters earmarked $60 million for the project.
PPS Bond Accountability Committee Reviews bond spending; the 2020 bond is required to undergo regular performance audits by external agencies.
U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights Opened a Title VI investigation in February 2026 into whether the center discriminates by race; PPS responded by renaming it the Adair-Grice Center of Excellence.
PPS used $16 million of the $60 million bond allocation to buy a 72,000-square-foot Albina building that an appraisal had valued at $15.2 million. The remaining $20–25 million for renovations is the next ask. Ongoing operating costs for the district are projected at more than $200,000 per year once the center opens. Construction estimates run two to three years.
Meanwhile, PPS asked voters for $1.83 billion in May 2025 for a new bond — the biggest in district history — while the 2020 center was still mostly unbuilt. The district faces a $50 million budget shortfall for 2026-27, has cut $115.5 million from its budget over the last three years, and saw spending on third-party 'purchased services' jump 61.9% to $437 million.
THE PATTERN
Voters did not approve $60 million for a building. They approved it for a program. PPS spent five years not really doing either, then bought a property, then got investigated from Washington for the program's stated purpose, then quietly renamed it. The receipt voters got back wasn't a center. It was a deed, a federal investigation, and a renovation invoice still in the mail.
📁 RECEIPTS: KGW · Five years after voter approval, Center for Black Student Excellence still faces delays · KGW · US Education Department opens civil rights probe into PPS' Center for Black Student Excellence · OPB · PPS initiative to support Black students is latest Oregon target of Trump administration · Willamette Week · PPS Proposes Spending $16 Million on Center for Black Student Excellence · OPB · PPS spending on third-party contracts balloons in proposed budget · KGW · 'I wish there was more progress': PPS Center for Black Student Excellence shows little movement
THREE NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
Portland's general fund shortfall going into the FY2026-27 budget, which the City Council closed with cuts, reserves, fees, and another $27M in PCEF interest.
Total the Portland Clean Energy Fund has allocated through 2029 — against a 2018 voter-approved cap-and-tax once expected to generate up to $60M a year. Annual revenues now average $200M.
Size of the PPS school bond voters approved in May 2025 — the largest in district history — while $60M of the 2020 bond's Center for Black Student Excellence allocation was still largely unspent.
TOOLS & PEOPLE DOING THIS WORK
Where we get the receipts when the press releases run out.
TOOLPCEF Grants Dashboard — City of Portland's searchable database of every Portland Clean Energy Fund grant application and award.
TOOLPPS Bond Program Page — Portland Public Schools' bond accountability hub, with audit links, project status, and Bond Accountability Committee meeting recordings.
TOOLODOT Rose Quarter Project Library — Official project documents, current cost estimates, and committee meeting materials.
TOOLPortland Revenue Division — Personal Tax Page — Rate tables, thresholds and program documents for Metro SHS and Multnomah PFA personal income taxes.
OUTLETOPB Politics — Public broadcasting's running coverage of state transportation funding, city budgets and Oregon education.
OUTLETWillamette Week — Schools — Tightest local reporting on the PFA tax debate and PPS bond mechanics.
Reporter (OPB) — Has tracked the Rose Quarter cost spiral and ODOT's funding fights through multiple legislative sessions.
Reporter (Willamette Week) — Covers the Preschool for All tax debate, the technical advisory group recommendations, and county budget tensions.
K-12 Reporter (KGW) — Has stayed on the Center for Black Student Excellence story for years — from the original $60M ask to the One North purchase to the Title VI probe.
City Hall Reporter (Portland Mercury) — Detailed amendment-by-amendment coverage of the $8.5B city budget and the PCEF backfill fight.
City Auditor's Office — Published the February 2026 climate-strategy audit naming PCEF reliance as a structural risk; ongoing work on city budget transparency.