YES! YES!
Oh What a Night It Was!
Within minutes of the end of voting on Measures 66 & 67, SEIU 503 members gathered with allies in Portland, Salem, Eugene, Medford and Bend got the best news they could imagine: Oregonians had said yes to services and fairness in a historic election.
By wide margins, voters approved the two measures increasing taxes on wealthy residents and large businesses to preserve $733 million in funding for human services, education and community safety.
The measures, which passed with about 54% approval, were supported by members of SEIU Local 503 and a broad progressive coalition of 200 organizations that included other unions, AARP, Stand for Children, Oregon PTA and the state's long-term care industry. Aside from funding essential services, the vote restored some fairness to the state's tax structure and made history.
It was the first time Oregonians have approved a statewide tax measure since the 1930s, and marked the first change in the corporate minimum tax since it was lowered to $10 in 1931. SEIU 503 members knocked on more than 25,000 doors across the state and spoke by phone with 95,000 voters.
In the closing days, SEIU members from across the country called into the state to aid the vote yes effort. Speaking to a delirious throng of union members and other supporters in Portland, state legislative leaders predicted that the vote would have national repercussions. In Salem, SEIU 503 President Linda Burgin expressed gratitude to members, allies and voters.
"We did it the grassroots way," Burgin said. "We did it with a coalition of partners, who talked to their people and reached out to others. It had to be conversations. This was too complex an issue not to involve conversations."
“I am so pleasantly surprised because we’d heard it would be close,” SEIU 503 Board member James Jacobson told the Register-Guard at a celebration at the Oregon Education Association offices in Eugene. "I’m so happy, I’m crying.”
In fact, even though Multnomah County stretched the victory margins, both measures carried the rest of the state as well, winning in 10 other counties and trailing respectably in some areas that have trounced proposed revenue measures in the past.
Union leaders active in the campaign said it would be hard to overstate the importance of the victory on Measures 66 and 67, calling it
• a smashing triumph for all Oregonians, from small kids to frail seniors, who rely on the services we protected.
• a tremendous victory for members, who will be spared the devastating cutbacks that would have been inevitable had the measures failed.
• a huge win for fairness, finally making the wealthiest Oregonians and big corporations begin to do their share to fund the programs that benefit all of us.
• a very big deal nationally; showing that the so-called Massachusetts phenomenon, claimed by some to be evidence of a national electoral shift to the right, can be beaten by hard work, good organizing, and a message that resonates.
• and a terrific step forward for our union; which mobilized members to get involved in unprecedented numbers and saw new activists emerge and current activists develop as leaders.
Read press coverage on the YES on 66/67 victory
More recent news about member political action
Watch video of the Salem victory party: