PAGE 6 | December 16, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Oregon labor gearing up for high-stakes legislative session
The Oregon Legislature won’t
begin its next session until Feb-
ruary, but Oregon labor organi-
zations are getting ready. De-
mocrats will have a 35-25
majority in the House and a 17-
13 margin in the Senate, and as
usual, there’s a lot at stake.
Oregon will have to pay for 5
percent of the expanded Medi-
caid cost, and lawmakers will
have to figure out how to pay for
that.
Fair workweek
United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555’s priority
legislation will be to rein in
growing scheduling abuses like
unpaid on-call shifts and last-
minute schedule changes that
create chaos for many workers
and their families.
Budget battle royale
Oregon faces a projected $1.7
billion budget shortfall over the
next two years. Oregon voters
could have raised $3 billion a
year in new revenue from top
corporations by passing Meas-
ure 97, but it went down by a
three-to-two margin. The mea-
sure’s union backers are choos-
ing to interpret that as a rejection
of that particular proposal, not
rejection of the idea of big cor-
porations paying their fair share.
They’d like the Legislature to
raise taxes on big corporations,
but no specific proposal has
emerged for how to do that, and
any plan faces the requirement
of a 3/5 supermajority.
Gov. Kate Brown has pro-
posed to deal with the budget
shortfall by raising $897 million
in new revenue and making
$800 million in cuts. Her budget
calls for taxes on insurers, to-
bacco and alcohol, and ending a
corporate tax break granted in
2013. It would also lead to tu-
ition increases, teacher layoffs,
Playing defense
Business groups and Republi-
can allies are looking once again
to cut public employee salaries
and benefits, particularly in the
Public Employee Retirement
System (PERS). Public em-
ployee unions will fight to en-
sure pension promises are kept.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain headlined the launch of the Fair Shot for All Coalition’s 2017 campaign.
and social service cuts. Labor
leaders say they won’t accept
those cuts while Oregon corpo-
rations still have the lowest
taxes in the nation.
Fair Shot, round three
The Fair Shot for All Coalition,
a statewide labor-community al-
liance begun in 2014, unveiled
its 2017 agenda Dec. 1. It in-
cludes a system of paid family
medical leave for all Oregon
workers, an end to “no cause”
evictions, an end to the
statewide ban on rent control, an
end to racial profiling by police,
an effort to ensure health cover-
age for all Oregon kids, and the
extension of reproductive health
services to non-citizens.
Health care
Obamacare expanded Medicaid
to an extra 400,000 low-income
Oregonians over the last four
years, but the state’s bill is com-
ing due (assuming it isn’t re-
pealed next year by Congress.)
The feds picked up 100 percent
of the cost of those newly eligi-
ble for Medicaid the first three
years, but starting Jan. 1, 2017,
Transportation
Aging and inadequate infra-
structure, and unprecedented
levels of congestion, are posing
a serious impediment to the
state’s economy and quality of
life. To deal with that, the Build-
ing Trades, together with the
AFL-CIO and business groups,
will push for a robust statewide
multimodal transportation infra-
structure spending. A gas tax in-
crease will be one component.
PORTLAND
City Council passes tax on
excessive CEO pay
Full Service Third-Party Administrator
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Wishing you
In a 3-1 vote Dec. 7, Portland
City Council made Portland the
first city in the nation to tax pub-
licly traded corporations for sky-
high CEO pay. Companies that
pay their CEO more than 100
times the average employee will
have to pay an additional 10 per-
cent in the City’s business tax,
and those paying over 250 times
will pay an extra 25 percent.
The proposal comes from
outgoing Commissioner Steve
Novick, and it’s made possible
by new disclosure requirements
that take effect next year under
the federal Dodd-Frank finan-
cial reform legislation.
Dan Saltzman was the lone
council member to vote against
it; Nick Fish was absent but
would have voted no.
The tax is meant to make a
statement on growing income
disparity, and raise $2.5 million
a year for the City.
The joy of family, the gift of friends and the best of
everything for the new year
Lee Centrone| Jennifer Schmidt | George Buhalis | Bonnie Maraia
from
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