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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2016)
NORTHWEST OREGON LABOR COUNCIL 2016 General Election Endorsements SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 OREGON STATEWIDE Governor: Kate Brown Secretary of State: Brad Avakian Attorney General: Ellen Rosenblum State Treasurer: Tobias Read Measure 97: Increase the Corporate Minimum Tax Measure 98: Career & Technical Education in High Schools CLACKAMAS COUNTY NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 117, NUMBER 20 PORTLAND, OREGON IN THIS ISSUE FIVE LIES AND TWO TRUTHS What corporations are saying about M97. | Page 5 ELECTRICIAN FOR STATE HOUSE IBEW’s Ray Lister has a fighting chance. | Page 3 Union-built courthouse p. 2 Meetings p. 8 OCTOBER 21, 2016 County Chair: Jim Bernard Commissioner: Position 4: Ken Humberston Measure 3-494: Clackamas Fire District, Annexation of Boring RFPD #59 boundaries into Clackamas Fire District #1 COLUMBIA COUNTY Commissioner: Position 1: Margaret Magruder CITY OF GLADSTONE Mayor: Tammy Stempel Councilor: Position 2: Bill Osburn Councilor: Position 4: Neal Reisner Councilor: Position 6: Frank Hernandez CITY OF HILLSBORO Mayor: Aron Carleson CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO Mayor: Jon Gustafson Councilor: Theresa Kohlhoff Measure 97 would increase funding for schools, health care and senior services by raising taxes on the top 0.25 per- cent of corporations doing business in Oregon. It qualified for the ballot thanks to the efforts of over 6,000 volunteers, and above all Oregon schoolteachers, who collected 85,238 of the 130,000 signatures the campaign submitted on May 20 (above). CITY OF PORTLAND MEASURE 97: The Game Changer Commissioner, Position 4: Steve Novick Measure 26-179: Affordable Housing Bond CITY OF WEST LINN Mayor: John Carr METRO Measure 26-178: Clean, Safe, and Healthy Water MULTNOMAH COUNTY Commissioner: District 4: Amanda Schroeder Oregon Senate (Within Northwest Oregon Labor Council’s jurisdiction) Dist. 18: Ginny Burdick; Dist. 21: Kathleen Taylor; Dist. 22: Lew Frederick; Dist. 23: Michael Dembrow; Dist. 25: Laurie Monnes Anderson Oregon House (Within Northwest Oregon Labor Council’s jurisdiction) Dist. 26: Ray Lister; Dist. 27: Sheri Malstrom; Dist. 29: Susan McLain; Dist. 30: Janeen Sollman; Dist. 31: Brad Witt; Dist. 34: Ken Helm; Dist. 35: Margaret Doherty; Dist. 36: Jennifer Williamson; Dist. 37: Paul Southwick; Dist. 38: Ann Lininger; Dist. 40: Mark Meek; Dist. 41: Karin Power; Dist. 42: Rob Nosse; Dist. 43: Tawna Sanchez; Dist. 44: Tina Kotek; Dist. 45: Barbara Smith Warner; Dist. 46: Alissa Keny-Guyner; Dist. 47: Diego Hernandez; Dist. 48: Jeff Reardon; Dist. 49: Chris Gorsek; Dist. 50: Carla Piluso; Dist. 51: Janelle Bynum; Dist. 52: Mark Reynolds Authorized and paid for by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, 9955 SE Washington, St., Suite 305, Portland, OR After decades of legislative failure to solve the state’s rev- enue problem, union-sponsored Measure 97 will make a better Oregon — by asking giant corporations to pay their fair share. And that could lead to similar efforts around the country. By Don McIntosh Associate editor Twenty-six years ago, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 5, by 52 percent. Measure 5 lim- ited property taxes to 1.5 per- cent, and shifted school funding responsibility from local school districts to the state. Many who voted for Measure 5 in 1990 felt property taxes were too high, and wanted the Legislature to find other sources of revenue. But voters rejected the 5 percent sales tax that lawmakers sent to the ballot in 1993 — by a three- to-one margin. That was fol- lowed by measures 47 and 50 in 1996 and 1997, which reduced “assessed” property values by 10 percent, and limited future increases in as- sessed value to 3 percent a year regardless of how much market value increased. It’s been 20 years. To- gether, the property tax limitation measures fed a long slow decline in schools, along with occasional acute budget crises. Today, Ore- gon has the nation’s third-largest class sizes, the fourth-highest high school dropout rate, and some of the nation’s shortest school years — on average two weeks shorter than the 180- days-per-year national standard. Oregon today has one guidance counselor for every 549 stu- dents, one school librarian for every 674 students, and one school nurse for every 4,635 students. And pinched school districts have deferred and de- ferred building maintenance — a backlog that reached $7.6 bil- lion statewide by 2014. “Drive by any school and take a look,” said Portland Public Schools IBEW Local 48 union rep Donna Ham- mond. “We’re talking superglue and bandaids.” Only once in the last two decades has the legislature tried to come up with additional rev- enues to offset the reduced prop- erty taxes: Measures 66 and 67, which voters passed. Pitched as rescue measures in 2010 during the height of the recession, 66 and 67 slightly (and in some cases temporarily) increased in- come taxes on corporations and on the top 2 percent of income earners. That might have been Turn to Page 4
