Such a hard year. Such a momentous year.

2020 may go down as a turning point in history. A worldwide pandemic, a devastating recession, the explosion of a movement for racial justice, historic wildfires, a turbulent election season.

And yet the year also saw an acceleration of preexisting trends, those of widespread economic insecurity and vast economic inequality.

These themes appear in the publications that interested our readers most in 2020. Here are the top five OCPP publications of the year.

5. A Portrait of Poverty in Oregon

Before the pandemic, poverty afflicted all corners of Oregon. More than one in 10 Oregonians lived below the federal poverty line before the coronavirus economic crisis. Though poverty harms Oregonians of all races and gender, certain groups — people of color, women, Oregonians with a disability, and rural communities — face greater obstacles to rise above the federal poverty line.

4. Changes to Unemployment Insurance Would Help Oregon Cope with COVID-19

In response to the emergency triggered by the pandemic, OCPP issued recommendations on how to make our UI system more responsive to the needs of workers. The state implemented all but one of the seven recommendations.

We have long pushed for improvements our UI system, as we understand it can play a vital role in keeping families afloat in times of crisis and stabilizing the economy.

3. Toward Prosperity for All: OCPP’s 2021 legislative agenda

We believe we need to make the 2021 Oregon legislative session count, taking significant strides toward economic and racial justice. We can do so by:

• Extending the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to all workers.
• Enforcing workers’ rights by Just Enforcement Act.
• Raise taxes on the rich — to increase investments in housing, education, and other services that improve the well-being of Oregonians.
• Raise taxes on big corporations, to the same end.
• Disconnecting from wasteful federal tax breaks that mainly flow to the rich and corporations.
• Enact corporate tax transparency, to understand which big corporations Oregonians are subsidizing through the tax code and what we get out of it.<.li>

2. Lawmakers break promise to students rather than block tax cuts for the rich

In emergency federal legislation to address the pandemic, special interests snuck in a batch of new tax breaks. These mainly benefit the rich and corporations. Because Oregon’s tax code connects to the federal one, Oregon is replicating the same wasteful tax breaks. The Oregon legislature can stop these new tax breaks from also squandering Oregon resources, but so far it has failed to act. Some of those paying the price for inaction are college students who had their Oregon Promise Grant revoked.

1. Income Inequality in Oregon Notched New Record Prior to COVID-19 Crisis

Never had the richest Oregonians reported so much income as in 2018. COVID-19 has provided a stark reminder of the instability and damage inequality produces. Perhaps most obviously, the concentration of income among a relative few left large portions of Oregonians without the means to save and be prepared to weather the economic downturn.

Thank you for reading and sharing our content this past year.

Our work is made possible by the support of people like you. Please help us continue the fight for economic and racial justice in Oregon by making a contribution today.