Rolling Up Our Sleeves: Building an Oregon that Works for Working Families

Working families in Oregon, as in the rest of the nation, faced a tough economic environment even before the onset of the current recession. Prior to the downturn, Oregon experienced a seven-year stretch in which its economy and productivity grew faster than that of the nation as a whole. And yet Oregon working families emerged from that seemingly favorable period with stagnant or shrunken wages and less health care coverage. The percentage of families stuck in poverty despite their work effort remained unchanged. How did it come to pass that the economy grew but most working families gained nothing or fell behind? The answer is simply that the rules of the economy have not been guided by a goal of shared prosperity and opportunity for all. The economic benefits mostly flowed upward, swelling the incomes of those at the very top. Toward the end of the economic expansion, income inequality had reached record levels. Now, with a recession battering the state and the nation, the economic condition of working families has become more precarious. History shows, however, that in tough economic times we can summon the will to accomplish great things. Seven decades ago, a generation of Americans rose up from the depths of the Great Depression and together built a strong nation and economy. This achievement rested on a foundation of broadly shared prosperity and opportunity for all. The benefits of economic growth flowed to typical working families. It is time for Oregonians to learn from history and build a new foundation. Action now can help alleviate some of the pain of the current downturn. But more importantly, our work today will help usher in a new era of broadly shared prosperity and opportunity. In this report, we outline strategies for building an Oregon that works for working families. The specific recommendations fall under three broad categories: policies that strengthen the public sector's role in promoting shared prosperity, policies that secure the incomes of working families and reforms to the tax system that make it fairer for working families and generate revenue for public systems that create opportunity. This report is not a comprehensive plan for achieving an economy of shared prosperity, but it presents a broad policy framework and a range of specific proposals that point the way forward. So let's roll up our sleeves and begin building an Oregon that works for working families

Climate Change Impact Assessment for Surface Transportation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska

WA-RD 772.

Oregon Nonprofit Sector Report

Based on survey data, provides an overview of Oregon's nonprofit organizations; their employees; financial health; organizational capacity, including collaboration; advocacy and public policy activities; economic and social impact; and future outlook

Tracking Oregon's Progress: A Report of the Tracking Oregon's Progress (TOP) Indicators Project

In 1989, Oregon embarked on a novel experiment to track the progress of the state toward a set of economic, social and environmental goals embodied in the state strategic plan Oregon Shines. The task of tracking a set of indicators to measure progress was assigned to a new state entity: the Oregon Progress Board. For two decades, the Progress Board measured the state's progress using a set of social, economic and environmental indicators. After the 2009 report was completed however, the state decided not to continue funding the Progress Board and discontinued the tracking of state and county indicators.This 2014 report is a report to the people of Oregon. It identifies trends in the state that suggest both progress toward prosperity as well as issues that may be a source of future barriers and concerns. Like those who led previous indicator efforts, we hope that the report and website will be used by policymakers, government analysts, the press, business and civic leaders and the civically-engaged population to better understand the current social, economic, and environmental condition of the state

Undocumented Workers Are Taxpayers, Too

Public discussion in Oregon about undocumented immigrant workers and their families has tended to focus on the costs to Oregon of providing certain public services to these families. Relatively little is mentioned about the contributions undocumented workers make to Oregon.Undocumented workers are an important part of Oregon's economy. The work they perform is vital in certain industries. In addition, a substantial portion of the roughly $2 billion they earn in income each year is spent on goods, services, and taxes in Oregon, to the benefit of the state economy.This issue brief estimates the total contributions by undocumented Oregon workers in state income taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes. In addition, this issue brief computes the approximate amount undocumented workers pay in federal Social Security and Medicare taxes, which are matched by employers. Last, it also estimates the amount Oregon employers pay in state unemployment insurance taxes on behalf of undocumented workers.Data on undocumented workers is limited. Though it is not possible to determine precisely the tax contributions made by undocumented workers, the available data allows reasonable estimates of the likely scale of tax payments they make

Single Point of Entry Long-Term Living Resource System Team Report

Pursuant to House File 451 the Single Point of Entry Long-Term Living Resources System Team, involving several state agencies as well as interested associations, submitted a report to the legislature on recommendations to establish a single point of entry system

Wave Energy: a Pacific Perspective

This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by The Royal Society and can be found at: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/.This paper illustrates the status of wave energy development in Pacific Rim countries by characterizing the available resource and introducing the region‟s current and potential future leaders in wave energy converter development. It also describes the existing licensing and permitting process as well as potential environmental concerns. Capabilities of Pacific Ocean testing facilities are described in addition to the region‟s vision of the future of wave energy

The Intersection of Urban Form and Mileage Fees: Findings from the Oregon Road User Fee Pilot Program, Research Report 10-04

This report analyzes data from the 2006-2007 Oregon Road User Fee Pilot program to assess if and how urban form variables correlate with travel behavior changes that participants made in response to the mileage-based fee program. It finds that charging a noticeably higher fee for driving in congested conditions can successfully motivate households to reduce their VMT in those times and places where congestion is most a problem. Households in both traditional (mixed use, dense, transit-accessible) and suburban (single-use, low density) neighborhoods will likely reduce their peak-hour and overall travel under a charging scheme that charges a high-rate for peak-hour travel, though households in the traditional neighborhoods will do so more. It also finds that a mileage fee program that charges a high rate during the peak hour is likely to strengthen the underlying influence of urban form on travel behavior. In other words, land use probably will matter more to transportation planning if the nation shifts to a new paradigm of mileage-based financing and pricing system. For transportation policy-makers, this raises another layer of consideration when designing the optimal rate structure to achieve policy goals—either reduced VMT and congestion or sustained funding sources. For urban planners, this offers a wonderful opportunity to move towards a sustainable built environment through revised and compatible land use regulation under the context of a mileage-based fee. The research also reveals that program design could significantly affect a household’s response to a mileage-based fee program. Particularly in Portland, the establishment of an endowment account for participants actually increased household VMT when a flat-rate fee was charged, the opposite to policy-makers’ expectation. One possible explanation is that paying the mileage-based fees once a month, instead of paying the gas tax at each visit to the pump, may have encouraged households to drive more due to the reduced gas price at the pump