...Election results have Oregon labor thinking big in ’07
(From Page 2)
backing.
• Raise the corporate minimum
tax. Two-thirds of corporations doing
business in Oregon pay just $10 a year
in income tax because they are able to
show no profit on the books. Kulon-
goski proposes to increase that mini-
mum to a sliding scale of $250 to sev-
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eral thousand, depending on the size of
the company.
• End the corporate kicker. Oregon
has a unique law whereby if income
tax revenue exceeds what the state
economist predicts, the difference is
refunded to taxpayers, including many
out-of-state corporations. Kulongoski
is proposing to keep the corporate in-
come tax “kicker” and use it to create
a rainy day fund for when revenues are
lower than predicted.
• Raise the cigarette tax. Kulon-
goski proposes to raise the cigarette
tax to the level paid in neighboring
Washington, dedicating the proceeds
to fund health care for Oregon chil-
dren.
• Roll back wasteful tax loopholes.
SEIU wants lawmakers to re-examine
tax breaks passed by past legislatures.
If the breaks didn’t accomplish the
purposes their backers claimed, like
creating new jobs, then the breaks
would be eliminated, returning mil-
lions of dollars to public coffers.
• Offer amnesty to corporate tax
cheats, and increase penalties on
those who don’t come forward. For
companies that have used off-shore tax
havens and other legally murky loop-
holes, SEIU wants Oregon to offer
them a chance to come clean and pay
up, or else face stiffer penalties if
found in violation of the law.
F IXING H EALTH C ARE
• Tighten the screws on insurers. A
labor-backed proposal would make
health insurers justify premium in-
creases before a public commission.
• Bulk up bulk buying. Kulongoski
is proposing to open the state’s pre-
scription drug purchasing pool to
small businesses.
• Rein in hospital overbuilding. To
avoid costly and duplicative overbuild-
ing, labor wants to see a strengthened
requirement that hospitals demonstrate
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PAGE 8
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
a community need before building
new facilities.
• Shine a light on hospital pricing.
Unions will be looking to support
some method for patients to compare
prices and outcomes between hospi-
tals.
O THER I DEAS
• Roll back privatization. Are Ore-
gon taxpayers getting ripped off by lo-
cal versions of Halliburton? SEIU
wants the Joint Ways and Means Com-
mittee to scrutinize contracts to make
sure the work couldn’t be done
cheaper and better in-house.
• Open up the political system to
third parties. To eliminate the
“spoiler” dilemma, the union-backed
Working Families Party of Oregon
will be pushing for a “fusion” bill,
which would allow third parties to use
their ballot line to endorse major party
candidates.
• OLCC bill. United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 555 will
lobby for an Oregon Liquor Control
Commission bill that would de-crimi-
nalize the unintentional sale of alcohol
to minors by grocery clerks.
• Expand the scope of public em-
ployee union contracts. To do some-
thing about the problem of mandatory
overtime, SEIU wants to add safety
and staffing levels to the list of
“mandatory subjects of bargaining.”
• Prohibit transit workers from
striking. Amalgamated Transit Union
will be pushing to get transit workers
added to the list of public workers pro-
hibited from striking. At first glance,
that seems odd: Why would a union
seek to give up the right to strike? The
answer: For public workers who can't
strike, the law requires binding arbitra-
tion to settle contract disagreements
between labor and management. In
theory, arbitrators impose the most
reasonable of the two positions.
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JANUARY 5, 2007
