My name is Xander Patterson. I am a longtime Portland progressive activist. I am running for Multnomah County commissioner because the federal government is running the country into the ground and taking us with it. It is giving huge irresponsible tax cuts to the rich and cutting vital human services for the poor and middle class. State government isn't doing much better.
These cuts have a profound impact on Multnomah County government and the people it serves. Of the county's billion dollar budget, about one third of the money is federal, one-third state, and one-third is raised locally. When you hear about big federal and state cuts to health care, affordable housing and other human services, much of that money comes right out of the county budget.
Serving on a Multnomah County Citizen Budget Advisory Committee dealing with basic living needs, I have seen the human impacts of these cuts. They force us to make decisions that are unwise, inhumane, or both: Do we cut child abuse prevention programs or throw mentally ill seniors out in the street?
That leaves us here in progressive Multnomah County with a choice: We can either sit idly by while our schools deteriorate our health care crisis spirals out of control, and our human services suffer the death of a thousand cuts, or we can get way more ambitious on the local level to build the kind of community we want to live in.
I think we need to take on more responsibility for funding our services and solving our problems locally. We should start by recognizing that the reason we have a fiscal crisis on all levels of government is that for 25 years we've been giving huge, irresponsible tax cuts to a very small number of very rich people and very big corporations. I believe we can fund our services on the local level if those who received these tax cuts pay their fair share on the local level.
We can restore fairness to our tax code by in effect repealing the Bush tax cuts on the local level. I propose we make the Multnomah County income tax very progressive, instead of basically flat, like the just-expired ITAX. We should exempt up to the median income so that anyone making less than $45,000 would pay nothing. Income for people at that level and below has gone down over the last 25 years, and they have received little if any of the federal tax cuts. Income over $45,000 could be taxed at 1 percent, with the rate gradually increasing to 3.25 percent on income over half a million dollars.
This progressive income tax could raise as much revenue as the old ITAX, but half of us would pay nothing, and 80 percent of us, anyone making less than $75,000 would pay less than they did under the ITAX. Everyone, even the wealthiest taxed at the highest rate, would pay less in combined federal, state, and local income taxes than they did before the Bush tax cuts, 40 percent of which went to the richest 1 percent.
We can fund schools, health care, affordable housing, public safety, addiction treatment, the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, and other vital services if we all pay our fair share.
When I was growing up, there was a lot of talk in this country about how we might eliminate social evils such as racism and poverty. For the past 25 years, such talk has been all but absent from the political debate. We can bring a sense of decency and hope back into American politics. We need to start where progressives are strong, right here in Multnomah County.