Everything we care about comes down to money: Climate, Education, Healthcare & more

OSTPDX Monthly Meeting---May 14, 6:45 – 9 PM, SUBUD House, 3185 NE Regents Dr.

Everything we care about comes down to money: Climate, Education, Healthcare & more!

Oregon’s revenue and expense sheet has been seriously out of balance for decades. We’ve been crippled by anti-tax ballot initiatives that passed in the 1980s and 90s and have been perpetuated by special interests ever since. Because of our perpetual revenue shortage, budgets for schools, social services, climate and most other essential services have been cut to the bone.

Oregon lawmakers are continually searching for new revenue under every rock, but what we really need is to rethink our system of taxation that adheres to more progressive principles. Happily, a large coalition of nonprofit leaders has recently come together to outline progressive tax principles and revenue-raising proposals that could lead the way toward reforming and rebalancing our tax system.

The Oregon legislature will likely have passed an historic budget bill for K-12 Education-- The Student Success Act - $2 billion more for education in the coming two years. And they are proposing a Corporate Activities Tax to raise that funding. This is just the first step and we need to keep engaged for the long term.

Please join us for this meeting, where two prominent revenue-reform leaders will discuss where we are now, how we got here, options for fixing our broken tax system, and actions already underway in the current legislative session:

Alejandro Queral, Executive Director, Oregon Center for Public Policy, a progressive think tank on everything revenue related. Alejandro will give us background on Oregon's current budget and tax structure, what's missing, and some strategies for creating an equitable, fair and progressive structure in the future.

Jody Wiser, founder and lead activist, Tax Fairness Oregon. Jody, a former teacher in Irvington, has been a tireless advocate for reforming and restructuring our revenue system. She'll add what's needed for property tax reform and then look at revenue “stepping stones” for the future.

Following the speakers, we'll break into small groups to explore key issues and important actions we can all take to help reform Oregon’s tax system.

This meeting is vital! Our progressive legislative priorities can’t move forward without fundamental revenue reform. We can’t overstress the importance of attending this meeting.

In the meantime, please take action to support a KEY revenue-reform proposal already moving through our state legislature:

1. Everyone: Please call or email members of the Student Success Joint Committee and thank them for their budget and revenue package. It’s historic. They need to know that we support them in order to get it out of committee. Here’s the member list: ​https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Committees/JCSS/Overview

2. If your legislator is on this committee: Please call or email telling them you support the Student Success Act budget proposal and the Corporate Activities Tax to pay for it, preferably with a change that ensures that low-income citizens receive a tax credit or tax cut to offset higher prices for some goods that may be passed onto​ them by the Corporate Activities Tax.

3. Everyone: Please call or email your own legislators and tell them you support the Student Success Act and expect them to support it when they get a chance.

Thank you!

Contribute to this great One Small Thing meeting by volunteering to help set things up the evening of May 14. From 6:15 to until the program starts at 7, we need two people to help move chairs and other items and to greet people as they arrive for the program. If you can’t arrive early, you can still help with clean up for a few minutes after social time ends about 9:30. Either way, you are making a valuable contribution and getting to know other group members better. If interested, contact Phyllis Brown as soon as possible at phyllisabrown54@gmail.com.