OEA President Testimony
Good morning. My name is Enrique Ferreira, and I'm a proud elected president of the Oregon Education Association, and I'm here to oppose Senate Bill 1586.
Madam Co-Chair, thank you for having this opportunity to speak to all of you. I represent 42,000 members across the state, Pendleton, Bend, Klamath, the North Coast, Hillsboro, Washington County, and we represent nurses, IT instructors, school bus drivers, counselors, and faculty in all community colleges across the state. Our mission is to unite the public education, and what I hear today is that we want strong jobs for Oregonians, and we do too.
But you can't have a strong economy or a strong workforce when you are trying to deplete the educational system that supports a strong economy from the financial resources that we depend. We oppose Senate Bill 1586 as drafted because it chooses business over schools. If you want strong schools and strong economy, you cannot deplete school funding.
Section 11 of the bill makes significant changes by saying that zones sponsored in a business firm are no longer required to provide for school support fees to be paid in lieu of the property taxes that will otherwise be imposed on the business firm's facility for each year for exemption after the fifth year. Oregonians are struggling to pay the basic necessities every day. Affordability crisis is a front center in our lives, our students, and your communities.
Our funding of our schools is paramount, and this takes away from our funding. This is a step backwards. Our legislators should be advocating for corporations to pay their fair share. They're becoming ultra billionaires off the backs of the working people of those communities, especially in Hillsboro and the rural areas of the state. Thank you.
