The 2015 Oregon Legislative session has ended, and it has been one of the most significant sessions in recent history for Oregon’s working families. There was meaningful and real change: legislators improved access to paid sick days, made saving for retirement easier, banned the box to create job opportunities for people with prior convictions and arrests, and ended profiling based on race, gender, and sexual orientation and made Community College more affordable.
As always, our goal is to save as much tax revenue as possible to devote to education and urgent social services. We’re happy to report several successes. They will prevent millions of dollars from being handed out by legislators as tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals, or as cash payments to Washington County.
Still, there were disheartening moments this year. At committee hearings, legislators often brushed aside our fact-based testimony and pushed ahead with their tax giveaways. This year, legislators’ favorite tool for tax giveaways was property tax breaks, the cost of which were never totaled. First thing in the session, they passed SB 611, “the Comcast bill.” As the session proceeded they passed more property tax breaks for an array of others (see below). Regrettably, when legislators and corporate lobbyists are arranging tax breaks behind closed doors, citizen advocates are simply not at the table. We must bring change by building a base of informed and committed voters large enough that, because of our threat potential, legislators cannot afford to ignore us. Then we’ll gain a stronger place at the decision-making table.