As eyes are fixed on Washington waiting for the President's first State of the Union address, the pundits should take a look at Oregon. When ballots were tallied last night, Oregon voters had approved tax measures to preserve funding for schools, health care, and other public services important to middle class families by a margin of roughly 54 percent. Aside from funding essential services, the vote also restored some fairness to the state's tax structure.
While many states across the country are making drastic cuts to schools and human services that would deepen the recession, Oregon voters made a clear statement of their priorities: the government's top job must be to preserve vital services and infrastructure and stimulate the economy. This vote marks the first time Oregon voters have approved a statewide tax measure since 1931. Prior to the passage of this measure, more than two-thirds of corporations doing business in Oregon paid just $10 a year for the corporate minimum income tax.
Measures 66 and 67 will preserve $733 million in funding for human services, education and community safety by:
- raising the corporate minimum tax from $10 to $150
- increasing the tax rate on upper-level profit and
- raising the tax rate on people with taxable household incomes upward of $250,000.
SEIU 503 Exeutive Director Leslie Frane said this about the vote to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services:
"It would be hard to overstate the importance of our victory on Measures 66 and 67.
"It is a smashing triumph for all Oregonians, from small kids to frail seniors, who rely on the services we protected.
"[This win] is also very big deal nationally; we showed that the so-called Massachusetts phenomenon, claimed by some to be evidence of a national electoral shift to the right, can be beaten by hard work, good organizing, and a message that resonates."
SEIU Local 503 President Linda Burgin accredits door-knocking, phone banks and face-to-face outreach as the keys to the successful Vote Yes for Oregon campaign. "We did it the grassroots way," she said. "We did it with a coalition of partners, who talked to their people and reached out to others. It had to be conversations. This was too complex an issue not to involve conversations." Over 250 groups and community organizations including SEIU, other unions, small business owners, advocates for children and seniors, churches, environmental organizations, and civil rights groups came together to mobilize voters for the special election. SEIU members knocked on 25,000 doors and made more than 95,000 phone calls to voters.
"Yesterday's election sheds real light on the mood of the electorate," said SEIU International VP Anna Burger. "Voters are seeing positive and progressive change that helps real working families and voters are ready to hold corporations accountable. Congress should take notice."
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