Proud to live in Oregon!

Now lets get the DMV to send every person with an ID a voters reg and ballot and we will be far along the path...

we vote by mail. Saves long line wait. Far easier to vote here.

Plus our Gov Brown is doing pretty well to

(pdx) (p-town) (ripcity) portland

A huge problem here in Portland is working class people getting squeezed out of neighborhood after neighborhood. Portland housing costs have been increasing at a jaw-dropping rate for several years now (dammit, we got "discovered...about 10 years ago). It's possible that raising minimum wage here could allow at least some of these folks avoid losing their places.

Why would that make it any better for working people?

I think it's just an increase at the bottom. Minimum wage is nowhere near enough for a single individual to rent a place in most of Portland, even a studio. The rate of yearly increase in average rents is terrifying (15% last year alone). There are rent control proposals, but not only are they being fiercely resisted by the business community, they're also a bit too late, anyway.

...this is not good enough when we may actually have a "$15 Now!" ballot measure to vote on in November. This blunts the momentum behind that ballot initiative and doesn't deliver any real immediate results. It will take six years for this bill to push wages up to not even $15 per hour.

Meanwhile, rent in Portland went up over 15% this year alone and workers will have to wait until 2017 to get a bump to $11.25 and that is only in the midst expensive parts of Oregon. Here is a link to a good article with a chart to see what actually happens with this bill and it has the ballot initiatives numbers as well. [link:http://www.blueoregon.com/2016/02/chart-latest-update-oregon-minimum-wage-plan/|

Given you don't have a sales tax (love paying the actual price when I go up there and visit) and more of your revenues are based on property tax and income tax (hence why you can't pump your own gas up there.....heh...love to jump out of the car with my California plates and act like I'm heading to pump the gas myself, just to see the attendant run).

So a higher minimum wage will also mean more government revenues.