Jackson County Democrats

I thought you would be glad to hear that, after 48 hours of uncertainty, hold-out Democrat Sen. Mark Hass agreed to vote “AYE” on HB 3405, which raises nearly $300 million from Oregon’s largest corporations to help stop further cuts to public schools and other vital services. Thanks for all of your incredible advocacy – especially Vanessa & our Beaverton members/contacts who made critical, last minute phone calls to Sen. Hass expressing their support for this important legislation.

Sen. Hass worked closely with Rep. Tobias Read through the night to craft a partner bill to HB 3405 that the Senate Revenue Committee will take up in the next two days. That bill, HB 2073, will dedicate $70 million of the corporate tax increases to Oregon’s Rainy Day Fund starting in 2013.

The final vote on HB 3405 was 18 aye to 12 nay – which meets the constitutional requirement for a 3/5ths majority for passage.

Now the Senate will debate HB 2649, which increases the personal income tax rate on taxpayers making more than $250,000/year for a household and $125,000/year for an individual. I’ll keep you updated on the developments with this bill – it is likely to pass the Senate along party lines.

In case you’re interested, here is today’s Oregonian coverage of the House vote on both of these issues: www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/06/democrats_promise_state_money.html.

Thanks again for your fabulous advocacy all this session. The success of both of these revenue measures AND a school budget far above what the Governor’s office predicted is in large part to the work YOU’VE done! A 5,000 person rally, personal meetings with your legislators, town halls, in-district meetings, etc., etc. helped keep children and public schools at the forefront of this debate. Thank you, thank you!

Standing with you,

Dana

Dana Hepper
Oregon Advocacy Director
Stand for Children
cell: 503.724.2611
dhepper@stand.org
www.stand.org