PORTLAND (AP) - Education funding raised in Multnomah County through business fees should not go into a statewide pot of money for Oregon schools, Gov. Ted Kulongoski says.

"He's not going to support that," Kulongoski spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said after the governor met Thursday with Portland Mayor Vera Katz.

Glynn would not commit Kulongoski to a veto but emphasized that he has opposed the idea since rural legislators first floated it.

The Portland City Council has voted to increase license fees on city businesses to generate $38 million for city schools - $20 million this year and a total of $18 million over the next three years.

Multnomah County voters will be asked in a May 20 ballot to raise residents' income taxes by 1.25 percentage points to generate $128 million annually in each of the next three years for county schools, social services and public safety. About three-quarters of that money would go for schools.

Led by state Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, some legislators have threatened to take that county money and the already-committed city money for schools into the statewide schools fund. Ferrioli and other rural Republicans say they consider the local tax moves an end run around the state school funding formula.

Multnomah County Chairwoman Diane Linn said the governor must stay focused on ensuring the common school fund is at least $4.8 billion, the number used as the basis for the county's local ballot request.

The governor's budget in January set the number at $5.05 billion. Glynn could offer no prediction of what the number will be in his revised budget, coming out Wednesday.

The leaders of the Legislature's Joint Ways and Means Committee have proposed a state school budget of $4.6 billion.

Glynn could not say how involved Kulongoski would be in supporting the county tax measure, but that he does back it.

"He thinks it's a good thing when local communities want to get more involved in their schools," she said.