Organizers Abandon Effort to Overturn School Funding Package
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – An Oregon business group says it will no longer try to overturn an education tax package meant to provide a $1 billion funding increase to the state’s public school system.
Oregon Manufacturers & Commerce said in a statement Tuesday the group has abandoned efforts to send the school funding package to the voters to potentially overturn during a special election. The law– signed by Gov. Kate Brown earlier this year– is expected to bring in billions of dollars of new revenue for schools through a half a percent tax on the state’s wealthiest businesses.
The group says lawmakers made it difficult to put the issue to the ballot by changing the date of a potential special election from next November to this coming January.
Jim Green is the executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association. He says the announcement “moves us one step closer to ensuring that this vital investment in our young people will become a reality.”