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Time to shine the light on the taxes of big corporations
In the current legislative session, as is the case every session, corporate lobbyists are hard at work trying to procure new tax breaks for their clients. These lobbyists representing many big corporations are going around waving a corporate-funded study claiming that business taxes in Oregon are too high. If you are a lawmaker, you lack […]
Any new Oregon R&D tax credit should cut out corporations splurging on stock buybacks
Imagine you have a wealthy cousin who comes asking for money. He brags about how much he spends on lavish parties, yet he begs for cash to fix up his house. “You gotta be kidding me,” you’d probably say. That’s also what the Oregon Legislature’s response should be to the big corporations that are coming […]
U.S. House Republicans go to bat for wealthy tax cheaters and against the national interest
The new House majority nearly came to blows in electing one of their own as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. But those deep fissures were nowhere to be seen days later, when they voted unanimously for a bill that would protect the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. Right out […]
Legislature doesn’t have to look far to find money to tackle the housing crisis
Calling it the “number one issue throughout Oregon,” more than two dozen mayors recently wrote to the Oregon Legislature asking for $125 million in annual funding to address homelessness. “Cities cannot be left to solve this statewide crisis by ourselves,” the bipartisan group of mayors noted. Although the mayors did not identify the source of […]
Oregon can protect exploited, low-paid workers. Here’s how.
Not long after Morrisha Jones joined her co-workers in petitioning to form a union at one Burgerville location, the fast-food chain suspended the eight-month pregnant cook. Other workers also faced punishment, suspension and termination. While the negative publicity surrounding Morrisha’s suspension forced the company to backtrack, this wouldn’t be the last instance of intimidation that […]
Congress knows how to slash child poverty. It just needs to do it.
If you could prevent millions of children from falling back into poverty, would you? Most of us, I imagine, would answer “yes” without hesitation. But not Congress. For nearly a year, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have dithered as the policy directly responsible for a dramatic decline in poverty last year lapsed. It’s time for Congress […]
Free, simple tax filing puts interest of Americans above corporate profits
Paying taxes is our civic duty. The government’s duty is to make it as easy and inexpensive as possible for us to pay our taxes. But for too long, Congress has failed to uphold this responsibility, favoring instead corporations that profit from our need to file tax returns. A bill recently introduced in Congress would […]