With tax season coming to an end, it’s a good moment to discuss the vital role that our tax system plays in our lives. At its best, the tax system makes the economy work better for everyone. At its worst, it deepens existing economic injustices.In this episode, we focus on two aspects of the tax system.  First, we discuss Oregon’s record-breaking kicker, which is sending massive tax rebates to the rich, while giving little or nothing to those struggling the most. OCPP’s Daniel Hauser explains the policy and discusses how to make the kicker work better for Oregonians.In the second half of the show, we focus on the importance of having a well-funded Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Joe Hughes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy discusses the long-term erosion of the agency’s budget, as well as recent efforts to turn things around.

With lawmakers in Salem having wrapped up their work, we take a look at a couple of legislative developments that perhaps you have not heard about, but which could make a big difference in the economic well-being of many Oregonians.We begin the show by discussing legislation that better protects Oregonians from unfair debt collection practices. Chris Coughlin, Policy Director at Oregon Consumer Justice, talks about the just-enacted Family Financial Protection Act.In the latter half of the show, Candice Vickers, Executive Director of Family Forward Oregon, discusses an effort to get the legislature to put sufficient resources into a vital state child care program, Employment Related Day Care.

We’re talking taxes today on Policy for the People, specifically from the vantage point of the Oregonians with the fewest resources, those who are struggling the most to make ends meet.  In our first segment, we hear about a brand new tax credit in Oregon designed to shore up the lowest-income families with young children in our state. Tyler Mac Innis of the Oregon Center for Public Policy explains who qualifies for the Oregon Kids’ Credit and why the creation of this new tax credit is a very good thing.But despite the positive development that the Oregon Kids’ Credit represents, Oregon’s tax system as a whole is one that continues to weigh more heavily on the lowest income families than anyone else. Miles Trinidad of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy discusses the recently released report Who Pays?

Once again, the possibility of a federal government shutdown is upon us. This renewed threat ultimately arises out of competing visions of the role of government and the kind of nation we want to have, our guest on this episode explains. Sharon Parrott is President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Sharon discusses those competing visions, as well as the prospects for enacting legislation that can improve the lives of people throughout our country.

Hunger in Oregon is rising rapidly, a reflection of the economic insecurity afflicting so many families.In this episode of Policy for the People, we speak with Susannah Morgan, President of the Oregon Food Bank. As Susannah explains, the level of hunger right now is the worst that she has seen in her 28 years of working in food banks in several states.But as she points out, neither hunger nor poverty are inevitable. They are the result of public policy choices, and we can make better policy choices.

Perhaps the biggest danger from rising economic inequality is what it’s doing to our bodies, to our health. Economic inequality is killing us. Literally.In this episode of Policy for the People, we hear from Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, author of the book Inequality Kills Us All.  A former emergency room physician, Stephen is currently an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.We also get a quick update on the latest figures on inequality. OCPP Policy Analyst Tyler Mac Innis discussing the key takeaways from a new report on income inequality in Oregon.

The share of children in the U.S. living in poverty has soared, according to new data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. In today’s episode, we talk with Tyler Mac Innis, a policy analyst with the Oregon Center for Public Policy, about what’s behind the surge in child poverty. We also discuss how the federal government measures poverty in a way that significantly understates the number of families having trouble making ends meet.In the second half of the show, we explore a different, more accurate measure of economic insecurity developed by the United Way. We talk with Jim Cooper, President and CEO of United Way of the Pacific Northwest, about the Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) Index, and what this measure economic insecurity tells us about the current reality facing Oregon families.

This special episode examines what is looking increasingly likely: a federal government shutdown. Unless Congress can pass a continuing budget resolution by September 30, the shutdown will begin on Sunday, October 1.What would a federal government shutdown mean for people in Oregon and across the nation? Who would be most affected? And what are the deeper policy and ideological differences driving the nation toward a federal government shutdown?To examine these issues, the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s Executive Director, Alejandro Queral, spoke with someone with decades of experience navigating the halls of Congress: Ellen Nissenbaum, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

All of the strike activity we’re seeing right now is a hopeful sign for those who want to see an economy that works for everyone. In this episode, we speak with Margaret Poydock and Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute, co-authors of the recent report What to know about this summer’s strike activity. We discuss what’s driving the recent wave of strikes, the challenges workers encounter when seeking to strike, and the policy changes that would strengthen workers’ ability to act collectively.

Money is power. And the extreme concentration of wealth that we're seeing means that more and more political power is in the hands of billionaires, who use that power to further increase their wealth, according to today’s guest, Bob Lord. Bob is the Senior Advisor on Tax Policy for Patriotic Millionaires, as well as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.In this episode of Policy for the People, we talk with Bob Lord about why taxing the rich is essential in order to shrink inequality and save our democracy.

On July 1, workers in one region of Oregon achieved what once seemed an inspired goal. The minimum wage in the Portland metro area — not in the rest of the state — crossed the $15 an hour level. But this milestone arrived more than a decade after workers across the country began demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage.In this episode, we examine how much actual progress Oregon’s minimum wage workers made since the legislature established a new minimum wage law seven years ago.We finish with a brief discussion on a big win for Oregon’s most vulnerable children: the legislature’s decision to establish the Oregon Kids' Credit, a new state child tax credit.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that threats of violence against the LGBT community are on the rise. We’ve also seen a slew of anti-LGBT legislation in statehouses across the country.  In addition to increased hostility and threats to physical safety, the LGBT community also faces higher levels of another form of violence, what Gandhi described as “the worst form of violence”: poverty.In this episode of Policy for the People, we discuss the issue of poverty in the LGBT community with Dr. Bianca D.M. Wilson, a Senior Scholar of Public Policy with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. The Williams Institute is the nation’s leading research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.

The clock is ticking on the nation’s ability to pay its debts, as U.S. House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats and the White House agree to steep budget cuts. While much of the attention has been on the economic crisis that could follow a default by the U.S. on its debt obligations, that’s not the only risk facing the nation and our state.In this special episode of Policy for the People, we examine what’s at stake for Oregonians in the debt ceiling negotiations.OCPP executive director Alejandro Queral spoke with Whitney Tucker, Director of State Fiscal Policy Research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about the economic hardship that would fall on Oregonians from the budget cuts sought by House Republicans.

Over the past four-and-a-half decades, we have seen economic inequality return with a vengeance. We're living through a new Gilded Age, comparable to the one at the turn of the 19th Century. The first Gilded Age was the age of Rockefeller and Carnegie; ours is the age of Bezos and Knight. The return of extreme wealth inequality is the result of public policy choices, not least decisions in how we tax the superrich.In this episode of Policy for the People, we look at two different policies on how we tax – or don’t tax – the wealthy. In the first segment, we examine the tax break known as Opportunity Zones. Bennett Minton of Tax Fairness Oregon explains why this is a tax break where only the rich can play.In the second segment, the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s Daniel Hauser discusses a recent attempt by some Oregon lawmakers to fast-track a repeal of the estate tax – the only real mechanism we have in Oregon for taxing extreme wealth.

Many families in Oregon struggle to put food on the table, and this is especially true for many immigrant families. They are excluded from the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As a result, many immigrants – including the very people who grow, harvest, and process the food we eat – cannot access federal food assistance.But there is hope on the horizon. Oregon Senate Bill 610, known as Food for All Oregonians, would extend food assistance to immigrant families where the federal government fails to do so.In this episode of Policy for the People, we talk about SB 610 with Fatima Jawaid Marty, the campaign manager for Food for All Oregonians, and Aldo Solano, the Strategic Partnerships Manager at the Oregon Food Bank.

Care workers play a vital role in our communities.  They feed, bathe, and otherwise care for those who cannot take care of themselves. In doing so, care workers make it possible for others to go to work and live their lives. Unfortunately, care workers get paid low wages and few benefits, all while performing physically and emotionally demanding work.In this episode, we speak with Melissa Unger, Executive Director of SEIU Local 503, about the challenges facing care workers – specifically, those who perform long-term care work. We discuss what Oregon lawmakers should do to ensure that care workers can take care of themselves and their families.  One of the policies that could go a long way in improving working conditions for long-term care workers is what's known as a “wage board.”  We end the show with a conversation with Janet Bauer, Director of Policy Research at the Oregon Center for Public Policy, about the benefits of wage boards.

Right now, the Oregon legislature is considering a bill that would establish the Oregon Kids' Credit.  This state child tax credit would put money in the pockets of the families with the fewest resources, helping them cover the rent, pay for food and other essentials. The need for a state child tax credit became all the more urgent after Congress failed to renew the enhanced federal child tax credit that did so much to reduce poverty in our nation in 2021.We discuss the Oregon Kids' Credit proposal with two of its champions, State Representatives Andrea Valderrama and Lisa Reynolds.But first we look at how the enhanced federal child tax credit made a crucial difference in the life of one  family in Oregon.

One of the big topics of discussion in Salem right now is whether to provide new subsidies for semiconductor companies like Intel. This push for new subsidies stems from the congressional enactment of the CHIPS Act, by which the federal government has pledged tens of billions of dollars to ramp up semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. Understandably, Oregon lawmakers are eager to see some of that money flow to Oregon.But are corporate subsidies worth the cost? Do business incentives actually accomplish what state and local governments hope to achieve? And what should Oregon lawmakers do in response to the semiconductor industry’s current call for new state subsidies?In this episode of Policy for the People, we explore these questions with two guests: Greg LeRoy, executive director at Good Jobs First, and John Calhoun, a volunteer with Tax Fairness Oregon.

Is there a way for Oregon to ensure that everyone in our state has access to affordable, quality health care? And can it be done at a lower cost compared to our current, complicated system of health care?There is, according to a group of experts, policymakers, and community members who spent about two years looking into these questions. Created by the Oregon legislature, the Task Force on Universal Health Care has produced a blueprint for a single-payer health care system in Oregon. In this episode of Policy for the People, we speak with Dr. Bruce Goldberg, chair of the task force, about what such a system would mean for individuals and families, health providers, and employers.

The strengthening of the federal Child Tax Credit in 2021 caused child poverty to plummet. Unfortunately, those changes were temporary. And now, millions of kids across the country are falling back into poverty, due to congressional action.In this episode of Policy for the People, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden talks about his efforts to bring back the enhanced Child Tax Credit before the year ends — before a new Congress takes its seat in January.Our focus on kids continues in our second segment. Ivy Major-McDowall, Policy and Advocacy Director at Our Children Oregon, discusses what the data says about the well-being of Oregon’s children.