Within a week of the walkout, lawmakers passed a bill to raise $1 billion a year for school funding through a tax on Oregon businesses with more than $1 million a year in sales.
Top Democrats propose to cut public employee compensation and divert those resources to fund employer obligations to the pension system, but a coalition of public employee unions plans to fight the cuts in the Capitol and in the courts if need be.
Oregon’s nonpartisan school board and special district elections tend to have very low turnout — as low as 34 percent. That means even more than usual, union voters can make a difference.
Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries has half the staff it had two decades ago, and newly installed commissioner Val Hoyle says it’s time to restore funding.
