Fellow Kossacks,
Last week, I announced my candidacy to serve as a representative in the Oregon State Legislature. I am a progressive Democrat running in a moderately conservative rural district that went 58 percent for Bush in 2004.
I have been a diarist here for a fairly short time, though I have been doing progressive blogging for nearly three years. Please read my bio for more personal information and details about my grassroots and netroots activism. I'd welcome any help that folks are willing to provide. I have a solid local grassroots base, but I'd love help with virtual phone banking, and the like.
Read below the flip for the speech outlining why I am running, and my major campaign goals.
Speech taken fromPeralta for Oregon, the campaign web site of Sal Peralta for State Rep.
I am announcing today, my candidacy to serve as the representative for House District 24 in the Oregon State Legislature.
Over the past 16 months, I have toured across this state, and in my home county, meeting with groups to discuss the state of Oregon government today, and I have seen a great deal of pessimism about the ability of Government to respond to the major issues of the day.
And there are many pressing issues:
In 2003 and 2004, more than 600,000 Oregonians went without health insurance for more than a full year.
Nearly 1 in 5 Oregon children currently lives in poverty.
Out of state corporations operating in Oregon enjoy the lowest tax burden in America, while our citizens have among the highest payroll taxes in America.
And for the last 5 years, our state has been at or near the bottom in the nation in employment.
Something has to change.
And that's why I'm running. Because I am deeply concerned about the direction that Oregon and America are headed. And I'd like to play my small part in helping to turn things around and to restore some of the optimism that citizens once had about the ability of government to serve the public interest.
I intend to run a very different kind of campaign than most candidates.
Although I am actively seeking personal contributions from folks around the country, I will not be accepting contributions from businesses or trade associations that are not located in Yamhill County, nor will I be accepting contributions from labor unions that don't have members in the county.
Why? Because I believe that too many of our elected officials in Salem, and in Washington DC, serve 2 masters.
The first, and most important of these masters should be the constituency that elected them. We the People.
The second set of masters are the special interest lobbyists and business associations that primarily fund political campaigns in Oregon, and spend millions to lobby our representatives on public policy.
The result of this dual ownership of our political process is a system in which we have public servants who tend to do a very good job with constituent casework, helping the people navigate their way through various government bureaucracies to access government services, but who all-too-often, do a poor job of shaping and passing public interested public policy.
I have 2 particularly disheartening examples from the last legislative session:
The first is Senate bill 545, the Payday loans bill.
This is a bill that would have restricted the amount of interest that short-term payday loans lenders can charge their clients, who are predominately the working poor.
Currently, many lenders in this industry charge consumers more than 600 percent interest on an annual basis.
This bill would have limited them to 15 percent interest over a two-week period, that's is roughly 400 percent per year.
It was supported by a number of church and consumer advocacy groups, and endorsed by every major newspaper editorial board in Oregon.
It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, but was killed in a house committee after it was revealed that opponents of the bill, primarily from the Payday loans industry, had contributed more than $150,000 dollars to the campaigns of legislators on both sides of the aisle, and had spent more than half a million in lobbying to kill it.
That does not serve the public interest, and if I am elected, I will sign my name to that bill and fight to get it passed.
The second is Senate Bill 329, which would have allowed private businesses and low-income individuals to opt in to the state's prescription drug pool, thereby enabling up to 250,000 Oregonians to save an average of 30 to 40% on generic drugs.
This bill was opposed by Pharmaceutical companies who spent more than a million dollars lobbying legislators in 2003 and 2004, and gave hundreds of thousands more in campaign contributions.
If you support me in my bid to win this office, I will sponsor legislation to enable small businesses and working families to opt-in to the State's prescription drug pool, and I will fight to get that bill passed in the House.
Politics is about making choices. Voters choose whom to support at the ballot box. And Representatives choose what issues they intend to support when they are elected. Unfortunately, our current legislature appears to have consigned itself to making too many easy choices out of political expediency.
This Legislature has been unable or unwilling to take a reasonable approach to addressing land-use reform. And the result was Measure 37, an un-funded, extreme response that was borne out of the very real frustration and sense of unfairness that is endemic to our state's land-use system.
This legislature has been unwilling, or unable to take a reasonable approach to address the issue of tax fairness in this state. The result is initiatives, including 2 that will be in the November 2006 ballot, that will threaten the ability of our state government to respond during periods of economic downturn.
I think we need bold action in our legislature as opposed to timid triangulation. And it is with bold action in mind that I propose the following initiatives:
TAXES
I believe that Oregon's personal income tax system should be decoupled from the Federal system. I believe in flatter, fairer taxes with progressive tax credits for low and middle income families, and tax deductions for charitable giving. I believe that Oregonians should be able to figure out their taxes on a form the size of a postcard, and that we should stop rewarding companies with tax breaks and loopholes for taking Oregon jobs overseas or out of state.
I support the efforts of Representative Peter Buckley to eliminate tax breaks and other expenditures that benefit narrow special interests, but that cost Oregonians dearly when it comes to funding vital services. Among these tax breaks I include the following:
- Tax breaks on income earned offshore by American Citizens.
- Deferrals on financing of income for foreign corporations
- And exclusions on income earned overseas by corporations operating in Oregon.
Additionally, I will support bi-partisan efforts to create a tax amnesty program to try to collect a decent percentage of the $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from 2003-2005.
HEALTH CARE
I've already mentioned my support for allowing businesses and individuals to opt-in to the state's prescription drug pool. This would lower the cost on prescription drugs by 35 - 40 percent.
Additionally, I will support a re-introduction of the $0.10 cigarette tax, which passed via the public initiative process in 1994. The estimated $30 million that this would raise should go to providing medical coverage for Oregon children who are currently without health care insurance.
I will also support an initiative to join other states that are currently challenging federal law on drug re-importation from Canada.
EDUCATION
Oregon is currently 40th out of 50 states in funding for K-12 education, and 46th out of 50 states in funding for higher education. State funding for higher education today barely accounts for more than 20 percent of total receipts, having while tuition and fees for Oregon colleges and universities has increased by 46 percent since 2001. Both of these problems are compounded by the massive federal cutbacks in federal financial aid for students. President Bush's 2007 budget proposes the elimination of Federal Perkins Loans, while spending for Pell Grants has remained static for the past 5 years.
Something has to change. We need a new commitment to raise school funding from kindergarten through college. And we need to make sure that money spent for our schools goes directly to classrooms rather than to administrative overhead, and that the salaries and benefits of Oregon teachers are in line with what other states are providing.
Those are a few of the areas that I will focus on if I am elected.
I'll definitely take more time to spell out my positions on various issues as this campaign progresses, but for now, I'd like to leave you with the following words:
"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
And it's why I am asking you to help elect me to serve as a representative in the Oregon house.
For more information about me and my campaign, or to help me get elected, please visit my campaign web site.