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[ROPnet] KTA: Crafting a Guaranteed Income for Oregon Paid for by Taxpayers

Why This Activity?

For democracy to work, everyone in our communities must have a basic standard of living. Today, Oregon has both more millionaires and more people struggling with food and housing insecurity than ever before. Our partners at Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP) and Urban League of Portland are investigating one way to solve that: giving people money with no strings attached, also known as a “basic income.” Rural Oregonians deserve a seat at the table whenever decisions are being made about us, and since a bigger chunk of rural communities are poor than our urban counterparts, we need to be part of economic justice policymaking!  

On November 5th, Oregonians will be voting on Measure 118, which would increase taxes on the largest companies and redistribute those dollars evenly among everyone living in Oregon. It would increase corporate taxes to 3% on sales above $25 million and use the proceeds to send equal rebates to everyone who lived in Oregon for 200 or more days that year, regardless of age, documentation status, or income. Anyone who loses state public benefits due to this rebate would receive support equal to the lost benefit amount. ROP is not taking a position on Measure 118 (more details on why in the 2024 STAND Guide coming soon), but we want to lift the conversation at this timely moment to dig into the nuances together!

What is the Activity?

This month’s Kitchen Table Activity is to participate in OCPP’s cash policy discussion by either adding your feedback as a group or hosting a community conversation in your town on the subject of basic income! The OCPP cash policy discussion will dig into where this idea of giving people cash came from, how it’s been working in pilot projects across the country (and the world), and ask your input on a series of questions related to how it could work in Oregon. What would make this work best for your town? How might Oregon make this policy as appealing as possible? OCPP is also looking for folks to join their campaign if you want to go further!

How to Complete the Activity:

  1. Reach out to your leadership team or core members of your group to schedule a meeting. Is there someone outside your group who’s been rocking it that you want to invite into a larger role? Invite them too!

  2. Follow along to this self-directed discussion guide and write your team’s answers to the reflection questions in a separate document. Don’t use the boxes embedded in the webpage since they are sized for a single individual, not a small group going through it together.

  3. Watch the videos linked in the discussion guide including clips about:

    1. Results from studying Stockton, California's city-funded Guaranteed Income Program

    2. A pilot guaranteed income program by Magnolia Mother’s Trust in Jackson, Mississippi

    3. Robert Reich’s explanation of Universal Basic Income

  4. To make sure that rural Oregon is a part of formulating this statewide economic justice policy, send a copy of your discussion notes to ROP and OCPP! Email (emma@rop.org) or send them by mail to (PO Box 664, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.) Let us know how it went and what you thought of the guided discussion!

  5. Excited about basic income and want to take it further?

    1. Host a community-wide discussion on basic income! You can download and use OCPP’s facilitation guide in English or Spanish, or work with your ROP organizer to envision what would fit your community best.

    2. Get your city or county to be the first in rural Oregon to test out a basic income program!

    3. Have other ideas? Let us know what you are up to by emailing us at emma@rop.org so we can share your ideas/projects across the state!

Background: Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly activity by the Rural Organizing Project. The idea is that small actions can lead to powerful collective results when groups of people gather to complete the same action across the state of Oregon. ROP works to keep each KTA easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still manage to complete the KTA each month.

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BLM ~ Loses Fight with Miners for the Sugar Pine Mine Victory for Patriots