Jobs and Economy

Thirty Years of Democratic Governors?
How’s One-Party Rule Working Out for Oregonians?

Per capita personal income in Oregon trails the nation and has for decades.  

 US $46,129 | Oregon $41,681

Oregon’s per capita personal income trails
California and Washington.

California $50,109 | Washington $49,583 | Oregon $41,681

Poverty Rate for Oregon is higher than the nation’s.

U.S 14.5% | Oregon 15.1%

And higher than California, Washington, and Idaho.

Washington 12.0% | Idaho 12.9% | California 14.9% | Oregon 15.1%

  • Oregon and Mississippi were tied for highest food stamp use in 2013. About 20% of households rely on food stamps in Oregon (and Mississippi) compared with the U.S. rate of 13.5%. SOURCE
  • Oregon’s food stamp rate is about 12% higher than it was in 2000; California’s is only 4.9% higher, and Washington’s is only 5.6% higher. SOURCE
  • Portland has No. 3 highest food stamp rate among large metro areas. Only Detroit and Miami have higher food stamp uses. SOURCE

Detroit and Miami: 17.5% | Portland: 16.5%

Oregon’s per person income is dropping

Since 1997, Oregon’s per person income has fallen to 91% of the U.S. average. This means that the average Oregon worker has about $5000 less in his/her pocket than the average American, and our state and local governments have about $1.4 billion less to spend each year on teachers, police officers, and care for the sick and elderly. SOURCE

Oregon personal income levels are far below the State of Washington at 106% of the U.S. average. While the two states used to track each other on personal income, they have now taken divergent paths. SOURCE

If you like the path that Oregon’s been on for the last few decades, stick with Kate Brown. She’s been part of Salem’s Democratic rule for the last quarter century.  Kate Brown is more of the same—the same policies, the same one-party rule in the governor’s office that we’ve seen over the past three decades, the same economic strategies, the same wage stagnation for working and middle-class Oregonians, and the same tax and spending policies that have produced the figures above.

Oregon Can do Better

If you believe Oregon can do better—that we must do better, for our families and children—it’s time to give a non-career politician who’s a proven community leader a listen.

It’s time to consider Bud Pierce.

New leadership for a new Oregon.

Bud Pierce believes it’s time for a fresh, bipartisan, pragmatic approach to Oregon’s problems. Bud Pierce believes food stamp growth is not something for a state to aspire to or achieve. It’s a mark of failure for a state’s economy and Oregon’s entrenched political class. Bud Pierce believes we can do better than Mississippi, and he doesn’t mean exceeding Mississippi in food stamp use. Bud Pierce believes we need to end crony capitalism and corporate welfare for state-favored companies and the well-connected. Bud Pierce believes that we need to put more teachers in schools, more money in the pockets of working Oregonians, and more welfare recipients in jobs.

So how does Bud Pierce plan to do this? He will:

  1. Start by not signing laws that make it more difficult for small businesses to grow good-paying jobs, as Kate Brown did in signing a 19-cents-a-gallon hidden gas tax (the low-carbon fuel mandate), a paid sick leave requirement, and new state retirement plan for small businesses.
  2. Make Oregon once again a great place to do business by ending job-killing regulation mandates and cutting taxes on small businesses
  3. Cut taxes on low and middle-income working families so they can keep more of their own money and save for their kids’ college or their own retirement.
  4. Push for a repeal of Kate Brown’s low-carbon fuel mandate and end her 19-cents-a-gallon hidden gas tax in order to put more money in the pockets of working (and motoring) Oregonians
  5. End giveaways and special tax breaks for politically-favored corporations.
  6. Fix PERS once and for all.

Kate Brown and the Democrats have had their chance to change Oregon for the better. In fact, they’ve had their way for the last quarter century, and it’s not working. It’s time to try Bud Pierce's proposals.