Corporations today pay far less in Oregon taxes than they used to — an outcome that did not arrive by accident. Rather, it is largely the result of powerful special interests having manipulated the system to their advantage.
If Oregon’s economy is doing so well, why do workers like Ariel, Tai and Bertha continue to live one paycheck away from financial disaster?
Center policy analyst Tyler MacInnis sat down with Ken Adams, host of The Valley View, and talked about Oregon’s business climate and the imperative to increase the minimum wage.
Work is not a sure path out of poverty. The official poverty line, based on a formula developed in the early 1960s, underestimates what it takes to make ends meet today.
Economic growth in recent years has done little to reduce the share of Oregonians living in poverty. Oregon’s poverty rate in 2013 ebbed only slightly from the high-water mark set in 2011.
It’s unfortunate that some Oregon lawmakers are pushing to cut the tax rate on income from capital gains. Several legislative proposals exist to grant preferential treatment to income generated from the sale of assets such as stocks, bonds and real estate.