Submit public comment to the CDC: All people need access to updated COVID vaccines at least twice a year
The CDC is accepting public comment for their next vaccine committee meeting through February 22.

#CovidIsNotOver
#VaxPlus
@PeoplesCDC

https://peoplescdc.substack.com/p/submit-public-comment-to-the-cdc

“Canadians might want to ask who with power is paying attention to the plague of long #COVID in this country.” — That would be nobody

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/02/06/Why-So-Quiet-Long-COVID/

Nearly 1 in 4 American Adults Who Get COVID-19 Suffer From Long COVID

Analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau data (Nov 2023 Household pulse survey) finds 24% of U.S. adults affected by the disease have experienced COVID-19 symptoms for three months or longer.

24.4% of Americans ages 18 and over who have received a positive COVID-19 test or diagnosis have experienced symptoms of COVID-19 that persisted for three months or longer. (25.1% in Oregon)

31% of those affected by long COVID report that the symptoms have reduced their ability to carry out daily activities. (41.5% in Oregon)

(41% of 25% is 10% so average chance in Oregon that your covid case will impact your ability to carry out your daily tasks for months afterwards is 1 in 10).

#CovidIsNotOver
#LongCovidIsNotOver
#Oregon

https://www.helpadvisor.com/community-health/long-covid-report

Clean & Safe: A Dirty and Dangerous Contract for Portland

Every year, Downtown Clean & Safe receives over $5 million to provide “enhanced services” to 213 blocks of Portland’s Central City. Yet below the surface of this seemingly benign contract lie threats to public transparency, public services, and even progressive public policies. In this segment, Guest Mole Alyssa Vitale explores how Portland business interests subsidize their anti-tax lobbying via a murky contract for sanitation and safety.

#PDX #PortlandOregon #PortlandOr #EndESDs

audio, text, and links to more information at https://kboo.fm/media/119914-clean-safe-dirty-and-dangerous-contract-portland

Plutocrats for Portland

Why do we hear so much about the supposed failures of recent progressive reforms in Portland? Why does there seem to be so much panic about downtown? Local organizer and activist Hyung Nam explains how Trump-era tax breaks have further incentivized the wealthiest developers and property owners to undermine the will of the real people of Portland.

(N.b., a plutocrat is someone who becomes powerful only because they are rich, and the dark-money group "People for Portland" might more accurately be named "Plutocrats for Portland.")

#PDX
#PortlandOr
#TaxTheRich

text and audio:
https://kboo.fm/media/119826-plutocrats-portland

#PDX
#StopZenith
#ClimateCrisis
#CleanTheAir
#PortlandOregon

Zenith poses a serious danger to public health, safety, and the environment.

The City of Portland’s approval of the Land Use Permit was not legally sufficient and excluded the public.

DEQ has a Duty to be a Leader and Use its Full Authority.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ly6KJDSkvtf2TKm2MLOe4cslaSlvzysuEcz6cbXtv0A/edit?usp=sharing

Portland does not have the highest taxes in the country!

by Mary King for Street Roots

The local press is again spreading a deceptive business lobbyist talking point, claiming that taxes in the Portland metro area are the highest in the country. It’s just not true.

Total state and local taxes in Oregon, reported by the U.S. Census Bureau are right in line with several other states, including Washington, Wyoming, New Mexico and Massachusetts. Taxes per person are just three-quarters of New York’s and four-fifths of California’s. Our small, local taxes are not big enough to meaningfully change that picture.

Unlike most states and many cities, we have no sales tax, which holds down our total tax bill and spreads it more fairly. Our property taxes are limited — and uneven — since the 1990s. Many property owners pay tax on assessments far below the market value of their real estate. Oregon’s gas taxes are relatively low, as are the taxes on beer and wine.

Only one tax rate, on one kind of tax, on people with the very highest incomes, is relatively high in the Portland area — though lower than in New York City and not much higher than San Francisco. That’s the income tax rate paid by very affluent families, combining state, Metro and Multnomah County income taxes. And that combined rate only applies to income that’s over $400,000. Half the families in Multnomah County have just one-fifth of that much income or less.

What’s more, the loudest griping about our local taxes comes from big downtown property owners who get lots of state and local tax breaks on top of coddling by the federal government. They need to recognize what the rest of us see: the tremendous value being added to our community and economy through the provision of affordable housing, support for people on the streets, universal preschool and investments in climate resilience.

Oregon is a leader in equitable taxation

State and local taxes generally make economic inequality worse, taking a much bigger chunk from families with the lowest incomes than the highest. We’re better than 41 other states but could be better still. Oregon still takes more from families with little than from people with a lot.

Most states are worse because they rely on sales taxes, rather than income taxes. Sales taxes hit people hardest who are just scraping by, spending their entire incomes on necessities. The less money you have, the more of it you’ll pay in sales tax.

Sales taxes are really high in the South, as well as in Washington, California and New York. In California, the state sales tax is 7.25%. With local sales taxes added, it’s up to 10.75% in some cities. Plus, California car buyers pay those sales taxes when buying a vehicle, even a used car sold by an individual. Compare that to Oregon’s vehicle tax of one-half of 1%, charged to car dealers. (Still, Oregon dealers can legally try to charge buyers for both the vehicle tax and their corporate activities tax.)
No sales tax means lower business taxes, too

Oregon is actually in the middle of the pack for combined state and local taxes on businesses. Businesses tax payments are also held down because we have no retail sales tax. We think of a sales tax as falling on consumers, but businesses also pay it on supplies.

To accurately compare business taxes in different states, you need the effective tax rate of all state and local taxes combined. The effective tax rate is how much of total profits companies are paying after working all the tax breaks and accounting tricks available.

Effective business tax rates for different states are calculated by business consultants Ernst and Young. We need to look at their two most recent annual reports together because the pandemic extension of the tax deadline in 2020 shifted some tax payments into the 2021 business fiscal year.

Ernst and Young find that Oregon’s effective business tax rate came to 4.1% of net income for fiscal year 2020 and 5.4% in fiscal year 2021, for an average of 4.75% over the past two years of data. Probably, the current percentage is a little higher since Oregon’s new Commercial Activities Tax wasn’t in effect for the first six months of those two years. That would still leave Oregon near the middle of other states, which ranged from 3.3 % to 8.7% in fiscal year 2020 and from 3.6% to 8.6% in 2021.
Oregon’s Commercial Activities Tax may not make up for the drop in corporate taxes since the 1970s

Since the property tax was restricted in the 1990s, Oregon hugely relies on income taxes to fund the state’s spending on education, public safety and health & human services. But, by 2018, the corporate share of income taxes had sunk to less than half what it was in the 1970s, leaving households to foot the bill.

In 2019, the state legislature passed the Corporate Activities Tax, or CAT, to create the appearance that businesses were again contributing as they used to. However, the tax design makes it relatively easy to pass the cost on to consumers in higher prices. As two tax advisors state, “while the cost of the tax will not be directly borne by the buyer the same as a sales tax, it is anticipated that some or all of the burden of the tax will be passed on by the seller to the buyer indirectly through higher prices as a result of higher input costs.”
Federal taxes are low — especially for real estate investors and developers

The top federal personal income tax rate fluctuated between 94% and 70% from the mid-1930s through 1980 — during many years of high economic growth. That rate applies only to income over a very high threshold.

That top rate was brought down by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. It’s been below 40% since 1986. Democrats raise it a bit, and Republicans bring it back down, most recently in 2017. The Brookings Institution assessed Trump’s tax package, saying, “It will take resources from future generations and from today’s lower- and middle-income households to enrich today’s well-to-do.”

Trump’s tax cut, half-accurately called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), especially benefited real estate investors and developers. The American Bar Association’s analysis of its details concluded: “The intention was to uplift the real estate business, not the individual homeowner, something the TCJA delivers.”
Plenty of state and local breaks for real estate investors, too

Oregon’s tax code generally mirrors the federal one. That means the state also gives several big tax breaks to real estate investors and developers, including the members of multi-millionaire Jordan Schnitzer’s “Revitalize Portland Coalition.” Schnitzer’s group bills itself as the “voice of Portland commercial real estate focused on providing feedback and advising public officials.”

It's Schnitzer’s group leading the charge against the small, local income taxes strongly supported by the voters to create universal preschool and provide essential services to people living on the streets.

What we never hear mentioned by the real estate industry or the local press is how much of the recent increase in local income taxes was outweighed by federal, state and local tax cuts and tax breaks. Nor do we hear about the big, widely spread and proven benefits to the local economy of the services being funded by small, local income taxes.

#PortlandOregon
#PDX
#StreetRoots
#Taxation
#Taxes

https://www.streetroots.org/news/2024/01/17/opinion-portland-does-not-have-highest-taxes-country

Excellent series.

#LittleBird
#SixtiesScoop
#Indigenous

https://www.pbs.org/show/little-bird/