Oregon, like most states, is facing a severe revenue crisis. States are suffering from the impact of national funding priorities that put corporate profits and the military industrial complex above people and communities. The Oregon Legislature may not have much control over the Pentagon budget, but they can respond to the corporate control over our economy.
We need an economy that’s fair, accountable and democratic. Oregon needs a Legislature that has the backbone to respond to the root of this crisis.
This Legislative Session ROP and its member human dignity groups call upon our legislators to:
Put People First: Human well-being is the indicator of economic success
Hold Accountable those responsible for the Economic Recession
Promote Real Security through community empowerment and energy conservation
Below you will find examples of legislation and proposed solutions that we call upon on Legislators to take on this session. This will be updated throughout the session with relevant legislation.
Put People First: Human well-being is the indicator of economic success
- Protect Oregon workers from Wage Theft by protecting the rights of contingent workers and day laborers; regulating construction labor brokers; and enhancing the ability laborers to combat wage theft.
- Establish a publicly funded and privately delivered Oregon health system (single payer)
- Address Oregon’s revenue crisis by eliminating tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy
- Public economy that invests in public schools, teachers, and children
Hold Accountable those responsible for this Economic Recession
- Immediate moratorium on foreclosures
- Reduce outrageous credit card and other loan interest rates and reign in predatory lending
- Move Oregon’s money out of Wall Street Banks and into an Oregon State Bank with the creation of financing programs that benefit Oregonians
Promote Real Security through community empowerment and energy conservation
- Restore driver’s license access to all Oregonians regardless of ability to prove legal status. Eliminate unnecessary barriers for individuals to legally drive or purchase insurance in Oregon.
- Pass initiatives that foster full access and inclusion of immigrants and communities of color such as in-state tuition for students who graduated from high school or got a GED in Oregon; racial equity in health care; equal access in all areas of public policy
- Support strong families and safe communities by stopping deportations of contributing members of our communities.
- Advance energy conservation as a strategy to reduce Oregon’s dependence on foreign oil and non-renewable resources
Taking a stand:
Nationally our economy is in the tank. In Oregon we are suffering from the impact of national funding priorities that put corporate profits and the military industrial complex above people and communities. If Obama’s budget passes, even less funding will be available for states to help meet the needs of our most vulnerable community members- a percentage of the population that is growing every day with further foreclosures, unemployment and ever-increasing cycles of debt.
At the beginning of this recession, the ROP community set out to build up a People’s Economy- one that measured economic success in human well being, not in stock prices or corporate profits. In 2011, we find ourselves facing a national budget that “freezes” domestic spending, while increasing the Pentagon Budget. In the last 15 years Oregon’s prison system has nearly quadrupled in price, to the point that we now spend more on prisons than higher education.
The people are losing.
Yet, big corporations, like Wall Street Banks, are continuing to benefit. The same banks that got bailed out are turning predatory with fee increases, inflated interest rates and over priced mortgages. There is a growing trend of bank holding companies contracting with some states and municipalities to collect and foreclose for back taxes.
We need a government that will not stand for this massive theft of public wealth by the criminal financial elite. We need an Oregon Legislature that takes a clear stand against this on-going assault on the public and declares itself pro-democracy.