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- As a public employee, I don't feel like I ... - Mathteacher218
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The Oregon legislature wrapped up its 75th regular session just before 10 PM Monday. Tuesday we'll talk with legislators about how the budget ended up and reflect on the successes and failures of the session. The recession loomed large over the legislature this year, resulting in tax increases and the delay of Measure 57. Lawmakers managed to pass the education budget late last week, despite a veto from Governor Ted Kulongoski, who said it drew too heavily on reserve funds. A couple of bans squeaked through in the past few days: field burning and the use of hand-held cell phones while driving will soon become illegal in Oregon, assuming the governor signs both bills.
What bills have you been following this legislative session? How will raised taxes and budget constraints affect you? What were you hoping for from this session that didn't happen?
GUESTS:
- David Nelson: Oregon state senator (R-Pendleton)
- Tina Kotek: Oregon state representative (D-Portland)
- Jefferson Smith: Oregon state representative (D-Portland)
- Vicki Berger: Oregon state representative (R-Salem)
Photo credit: smohundro/ Flickr /Creative Commons
COMMENTS: (27 total)
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Well, I'd like them to outlaw eating, putting on make-up and reading, etc while driving as well. I've nearly been hit as much from those people as those that drive while talking. I'd also add there are plenty of rude drivers that don't use their turn signals or do dangerous things without distractions.
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At the top of the list for this Legislature's successes HAS to be the expansion of health care coverage for 80,000 kids and 30,000 adults. The expansion for kids is the largest in the country and is a huge win for Oregon's uninsured kids. It's also good news for the state economy as the expansion will draw down over a billion dollars in federal matching funds and create jobs throughout the state. Along with health expansion, the Legislature passed HB 2009 - important health reforms and the creation of a state Health Authority, which will improve Oregon's health delivery system and contain costs. Those achievements are significant and will make a difference in the lives of all of us.
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I applaud the legislature for increasing the income tax on couples who make more than a quarter-million dollars. Oregon's near flat-income tax in inherently unfair for the poor. In a bad economy such as now, those of us who are still making more than a quarter-million dollars can afford to pay a bit more.
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I disagree. The oil companies have made record profits- despite no major changes in supply or demand. I say the legislature should go after the oil companies and not those who have worked hard to make a decent income. I think the current increase is inherently unfair for the (relatively) rich.
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The public sector needs to take an accross the board pay cut. If they really cared about the people they are supposed to be serving. I am a small business owner (investor) and I have taken a huge pay cut and my employees are working reduced hours.
The public workers who have zero capital invested seem to feel they are better than their employers, i.e. private sector taxpayers.
The legislature seems to only be interested in protecting the public sector and ignoring the private sector business people who actually create the wealth that is being squandered.
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As a public employee, I don't feel like I am any better than anyone in the private sector. I don't have a choice of taking a pay cut, I either have a job or I don't. With the current state of the budget, I will probably lose my job.
Yes, it is true that I haven't put money into my institution to keep it running (aside from the personal income and property taxes that I pay). However, I don't get any returns either. The best that I get is the satisfaction that I am helping people gain education or job retraining. Guess what? Those people end up in the private sector and possibly, eventually at your company.
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I am grateful that the House and Senate Leadership chose to act with some courage to make sure that, while our state suffers from the worst recession of my lifetime, it does not gut and decimate essential services provided by the state. The additional revenue that was raised was critical to balance the over $2 billion in cuts. Raising taxes at any time is politically risky but we had legislators who demonstrated boldness and faith in Oregon's voters that we the people recognize this is a time to work together for shared, fair solutions.
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I run a small business. Since my corporation is an S-Corp, we pay the $10 AND AND AND all the corporate profits are paid to the owners and are taxed at their tax rate. So, in Oregon, our profits get taxed at the about 10% personal rate.
I hate this myth that corporations don't pay taxes. My S-Corp pays a lot of tax.
John P.
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The wealthy fought very hard to get Corporations defined as a "person" and so Corporations ought to be taxed as a "person", just like any other actual live breathing "person".
Have you ever considered that since a Corporation is legally considered a "person", that makes you legally a slave owner?
I don't think that Corporations should have the legal status and consequent rights of real "persons".
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Okay, I'll say it: taxes SHOULD be raised to cover the legitimate expenses of government. Our current income tax is essentially flat; making it somewhat more progressive on the wealthiest businesses and individuals is long overdue. Cutting govenment services means cutting jobs, worsening unemployment and spreading the cost of necessary services over even fewer paychecks. Teachers and police are not frills.
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Hey yeah, let's sell off water from the Columbia River to fund the state! It's not like we need it here for anything. Abusing nature to replace tax revenue has never been tried before, let alone turned out badly!
Oh, and class warfare? My household makes over $250k. My tax contributions have a much smaller effect on my purchasing power than similar percentages would on households making much less. So, I don't mind increasing my contribution to help out.
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Last year at this time gas prices were significantly higher. At the same time maintainance funds for roadway maintenance keeps falling. I did not hear any action on adjusting this income source. Woud it be possible to adjust the gas tax to hold the price of gas steady near $3.00 a gallon? This seems to be the point that affects people's spending habits and encourage more efficient vehicles.
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That would be unfair to poor people who cannot afford hybrid cars. It would be a regressive tax. Repeated studies have shown that access to a car makes a HUGE difference for the earning potential and ability to hold a job for low-income workers.
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they may not be able to afford hybrids but driving is a privelege not a right. most people that can't afford cars take public transportation.
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This Senator Dave Nelson character is just trying to direct attention away from the fact that our current problems were caused by Conservative Republicans like him because they pushed through the US Congress the 1999 law to prevent any regulation and/or oversight of Derivatives.
Californias problems are not taxation they are the Conservative Republicans who caused the economic wreck that we are in.
Same with Oregons problems.
Nelson is just repeating the same old Conservative lies that got us into this mess.
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It's tough - I have a small OREGON Corporation that has never made money. I plan to someday grow it, with the help of my Daughter and want to keep in in Oregon to help our state. But if I am taxed a lot before I make any money, I will have to move it to another state, or close it. So I'm not a big corporation and if I quit, we all lose...
thanx,
DRiX
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I am sick of hearing that if we raise taxes on the rich and on coporations in this state that we will loose all of our rich and corporations. Firstly, we won't. And secondly, if somebody doesn't want to pair their fair share (yes, I think these taxes are fair) then I don't want them in our state anyway. An exodus like that would eventually change the status quo for the better. Everyone agrees that we need much, much stronger public schools, but we've been conditioned by decades of political propaganda to vote against any new tax. "Use more natural resources" is not a viable solution.
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Their "fair share"? I don't understand this kind of thinking. I am not entitled to anyone else's money but my own. I do not make anywhere close to enough money to be affected by the tax hikes on the "rich," but nor do I feel entitled to their income.
We spend more than $10,000 per child per year in public schools, that is much more expensive than the average private school tuition in Oregon. So how is spending more going to fix schools? Washington DC spends even more than we do (around $15,000 per year per child) and they have some of the worst schools out there.
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SIMPLE SOLUTION that would behoove OREGON to lead not follow here. Not big trees, but small bushes. Medical Marijuana represents many millions of dollars of taxable income that will produce many things. ONE - income for "highter" education - as our schools are hurting, and our next generations are not as smart as our country deserves. TWO - A renewable resource that saves what trees that are left can be carefully re-used.
THREE - Is anyone other than me tired of so many social ills around us caused by drunks. Drunk driving, abusive social behavior, and where I live near the University of Oregon - crime and property damage. The only drawback is the pharmaceutical industry will have some competition for a few of their expensive products.
This would take a different mind-set to realize that change is okay and not all drugs that are sold by corporations are good and natural ones are bad.
Somehow this seems like corporate spin. I understand that the DuPont chemical corporation is a principle reason for pot laws to help remove hemp competition for their new (at that time) nylon rope. Sigh...
Thanx for reading this far...
Eugene DRiX
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When you consider the Anti-Regulation Free Market Conservative Republicans, you realize that Bernard Madoff is the perfect embodiment of that ideal!
Madoff was so against Regulations that he just ignored them and operated by his own rules, he worked his own Free Market!
Bernard Madoff is what the Conservative Republican Free Market Anti-Regulators look like if they are allowed to get their way.
Bernard Madoff ruined the lives of many many people just like Conservative Republicans have ruined the lives of many people in our current Re-Depression. And Ronald Reagan did the same with his De-Regulation of the Savings and Loans.
Bernard Madoff, Ronald Reagan, and Senator Lindsey Graham are all peas in a pod, they are Conservative Republican examples of what is wrong with the US, Free Market De-Regulator ideologues.
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Tom, that is neither a fair nor an accurate representation of free market conservatives or the cause of this economy.
The housing crises was not caused by "de-regulation." It was caused by BAD regulations that created perverse incentives that have been crafted slowly by a highly lobbied legislature.
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"CMartin — Tue June 30th 10:10a.m. "
This Re-Depression was caused by Senator Lindsey Graham and his fellow Conservative Republicans pushing through the 1999 law against Regulating and/or Oversight of Derivatives. All of the housing crisis and the rest of our economic troubles were enabled and made possible by that law.
Bernard Madoff is a perfect example of the ideal Conservative Republican.
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In my humble opinion the failure of this (and past) legislation is that they have not done enough to protect our schools and government services. It seems clear to me that our government is operating under the mistaken assumption that to balance the budget there are only two options:
1) save money by slashing services
2) increase revenue through taxation
It is appropriate at this point to mention insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
I heard people asking over and over this morning for a third option. So lets explore Option Green [Senate Bill MJK911]
In my humble opinion the simple solution to this budget issue is (while a radical deviation from business as usual) to complete what the Energy Star program started and bring EVERY school and government building to life (buildings that enhance rather than degrade their environment).
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Maximize the energy conservation of every building (and making them healthy, safe, and environmentally sensitive as an after thought).
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Using a mix of solar, wind, and micro hydro to eliminate what conservation cannot and, with an eye on good taste, equip them with enough technologies to turn them all into small power producers.
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We can also install vertical axis wind turbines along all the roadways and bridges to pay for transportation costs. www.urbangreenenergy.com
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Setting aside the economics for a moment, the technical challenge of this approach are pretty simple as solar and for the most part micro hydro and small wind have reached the point of pretty much plug-n-play! its going to take longer to orient and design the systems, arrange the financial packages, and get the material on site than it will to actually install them. A success would also produce some additional positive returns on the investment...
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There are roughly 440 schools in the metropolitan region. It will take the coordination and cooperation (not competition) of every engineer, architect, installer, and manufacturer (in regards to Solar World and Abundant Renewable Energy Oregon's' only clean technology manufacturers) in the state to accomplish this mildly ambitious goal. Any Oregonians want green jobs? (I think other states should run their own programs)
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Although I don't have the numbers in front of me the combined sustainable revenue stream established be avoided energy cost and excess electrical generation would probably fill up the rain barrel which is the states "rainy day fund".
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In my humble opinion the investment into education is THE HIGHEST PRIORITY of ANY intelligent society (unless you liked the thought of seeing the movie "Idiocracy" played out in real life). With this in mind the math of doing this especially to the schools is Dr. Seuss simple- Get the schools a churin, to keep the teachers earnin, to see our kids succeed in their learnin. ~Thanks Cat~
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I can understand taxing things we don't want like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, pollution, excess driving, gasoline and ANY fossil based fuel source, or monolithic corporations but i have never understood why the government taxes land, hard working peoples income, or the contributions they choice to make to the free market. I guess I always assumed that if all the schools and city/state/federal buildings generated and sell clean power THIS would be the sustainable revenue stream that would keep our communities strong and stable. I may also just be a dreamer but I know I am not the only one.
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Including the costs of the estimated $1M/mile to run new transmission lines it is not logical to consider building new concentrations of large wind farms or other massively degrading large scale power plant (including offshore ocean energy) until ALL the on site ability to generate clean sustainable energy has been developed FIRST. The cheapest energy is energy generated and consumed at the same place.
To the critics who say there is no money to accomplish this task, I say they are not looking hard enough.
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I do not have the resources of the federal government but I have been able to identify SEVERAL sources of private equity funding offering BILLIONS of dollars for sustainable investment opportunities.
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The financial models that could make these work for school started as a simple expansion of the Bonneville Environmental Foundations solar for schools program www.b-e-f.org and make it possible for industry to see the profit in making these investments.
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I submit this solution as a legislative action because....
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To attract the financial resources one building at a time is not big enough. This needs to be pushed through as a one time infrastructure investment, which also helps with the final price tag using economy of scale strategies.
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Since we want to stimulate new jobs, which can be sustained by applying this same action to EVERY residential, commercial, industrial piece of development in the state. We must (for this single action) suspend, prevailing wage and standard contracting practices while preserving and enhancing the minority and emerging small business opportunities.
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Schools and state agencies are not organized to generate revenue. Indeed steps must be taken to ensure the budget levels of government buildings be maintained because an efficient government this month gets less money next month (kind of counter productive measures).
We are in the midst of an social, political, and economic revolution. Like the early mammals we must adapt to this changing climate lest we go the way of the dinosaur.
More information can be obtained from the Alliance for Reason and Knowledge Linked In Group (soon on the arkpdx.org website) or simply by dropping me a line at robert@arkpdx.org
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I applaud the legislature for banning the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. I am so sick and tired of people failing to use their turn signals, making dangerous maneuvers, etc. because they are on the phone. However, I hope the State Police get the support they need to enforce the new regulations.