Steady as She Goes: State and Local Government Revenues and Spending in Oregon

State and local governments raise and spend money primarily to educate our children, keep our communities safe, arbitrate disputes through the courts, and provide health care and other services for our most vulnerable neighbors. In providing these and other services, Oregon state and local governments are not expecting more from Oregonians today than was expected a generation ago.Oregon's own-source general revenue has hovered around 15 percent of Oregonians' income over the last 25 years. Like revenue, spending by state and local governments in Oregon has risen in line with increases in the incomes of Oregonians. Since 1980, own-source state and local government general expenditures as a share of Oregonians' income have held steady, hovering around 15 percent, just as revenue has. This report explains these trends

No Contest: Why expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit is better for working families and Oregon than the Tax Bracket Increase

Next year (2009), the Oregon Legislative Assembly may face two different income tax measures purporting to help working families.One plan, proposed by Republicans in the legislature, would double the size of Oregon's two lowest income tax brackets, doubling the share of income that is taxed at 5 and 7 percent (hereinafter, the "Tax Bracket Increase"). The other plan, proposed by Oregonians for Working Families, would expand Oregon's Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to 18 percent of the federal EITC. Which proposal is better? Read our latest issue brief No Contest: Why expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit is better for working families and Oregon than the Tax Bracket Increase or here in PDF

Doing Well For Themselves, Not Oregonians: Corporate profits are high in Oregon, but not corporate income taxes

Corporations operating in Oregon are doing well for themselves, but less well for Oregonians. In the last few years, corporations have seen their profits in Oregon skyrocket, more than doubling since the beginning of the decade and hitting record levels last year. Unfortunately for Oregon's individual income taxpayers, corporate income taxes remain low by historical standards. Even though corporations made record profits last year, individual Oregonians are still picking up the slack for corporations who pay less in corporate income taxes as a share of the economy than they used to

It Better Only Drizzle, Why the newly created Oregon Rainy Day Fund is inadequate protection against the next economic downturn and how the problem can be fixed

Despite the creation of the Oregon Rainy Day Fund by the Legislature earlier this year, Oregon's public structures remain exposed to serious disruption in the next, inevitable economic downturn. This report examines the severe shortcomings of Oregon's two reserve accounts, the Rainy Day Fund and the Education Stability Fund, finding that:As of October 2007, state reserves available to the Legislature in the new Rainy Day Fund and the Education Stability Fund, combined, total only $237 million -- the equivalent of just 1.8 percent of General Fund revenue in the current budget cycle. To weather a recession of the same magnitude as the one that struck in 2001, the state would need nearly$2 billion, or about 15 percent of General Fund revenue in the current budget cycle.A design flaw prevents the Legislature from accessing the Oregon Rainy Day Fund until July 2009, and it severely limits access to future earnings and investments in the fund.The Education Stability Fund was drained nearly empty in 2005 and has barely recovered. Its effectiveness, moreover, is hampered because some of its funds are tied up in venture capital investments and because investment earnings are not retained in the fund.Oregon has failed to fund its two reserve accounts adequately. At the present rate of funding for both the Rainy Day Fund and the Education Stability Fund, total available reserves will grow to just 6.8 percent of General Fund revenue by the end of the 2013-15 budget cycle. By comparison, the 2001 recession caused General Fund revenue to decline by 15.2 percent.How to save Oregon's future rainy daysOregon would be in much better shape to weather a recession if the Legislature were to fix the flaws that restrict the availability and growth potential of the two reserve accounts and to fund them more adequately.The Legislature should refer to voters measures that would transfer future unanticipated personal and corporate income tax revenue into the Rainy Day Fund until the fund reaches its funding cap.The Legislature should increase the cap to allow the fund to grow large enough to protect Oregon from a 2001-like recession

One in Eight Oregonians Needs Congress to Halt the Erosion in Food Stamps

The purchasing power of food stamps has declined because Congress has not updated the value of food stamp benefits to keep up with the rising cost of food. The U.S. House of Representatives will soon decide whether to put a stop to this erosion of food stamp benefits when they vote on the 2007 Farm Bill.This short paper discusses the reasons behind the erosion in food stamp benefits and how it impacts Oregonians

Punishing Food Stamp Program Success: The Bush's Administration's Farm Bill would reverse Oregon's progress against hunger

The Bush Administration has proposed eliminating $543 million in food stamp benefits for about 329,000 low-income Americans over the next five years. The Agriculture Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives may soon vote on this proposal as an amendment to the 2007 Farm Bill

No Gain, Just Pain: Most Oregonians would not benefit from Measure 59, but they would lose public services

Imagine being offered the following deal: in exchange for more overcrowded classrooms, more Oregonians without health coverage and higher college tuition, you get . . . nothing. That is not a hypothetical scenario for most Oregonians. It is the raw deal contained in Measure 59 on the November 2008 ballot. Measure 59, which would allow an unlimited deduction of federal income taxes on state tax returns, offers no tax break to more than three out of four Oregon taxpayers. And yet the measure's hefty price tag -- more than $1 billion, or more than about 9 percent of General Fund revenues, each budget cycle -- would force deep cuts in Oregon's public structures. Voters rejected a similar scheme in 2000. Like its earlier version, this year's reincarnation of the unlimited federal tax deduction portends no gain, just pain for most Oregonians. Read OCPP's latest report No Gain, Just Pain: Most Oregonians would not benefit from Measure 59, but they would lose public services. Read OCPP's news release Costly Ballot Measure 59 Tilts Benefits to Wealthy, Leaving "No Gain, Just Pain" for Most Oregonians

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