As HR1 phases in over the next 6 years, Oregon will lose billions of dollars. To make sure PSU is secure for the long term, we’re asking to phonebank Kotek and Statehouse Ways and Means leaders, to create urgency, and get them to declare an education emergency and release the Education Stability Funds to support PSU. Unfortunately, there’s the threat of a Republican statehouse walkout to preserve $691M in tax incentives for venture capital speculation and hiding corporate profits offshore that could paralyze the session, which ends as soon as February 27th-March 8th.
As folks likely know, $888M being taken out of this year’s Oregon budget by the omnibus Federal HR1 bill is being used to justify a $40M in PSU layoffs. If we don’t act, this pattern of diverting education, healthcare, and childcare funding into venture capital and hiding profits of top income earners offshore will grow for the next 6 years. This is the moment to appeal to your colleagues' and students’ ability to intervene. The closer we get to all 1,100+ PSU-AAUP represented workers and all 20,000 PSU students taking action, the more we can change what’s politically possible on ESF funds.
Here's the phone script with an updated, shorter voicemail version. To move legislators, it's recommended you use your issues, your concerns for beloved colleagues, and the impact on PSU if there isn't an enrollment and growth strategy, as HR1 rips billions of dollars out of the Oregon economy over the next decade.