House Speaker Tina Kotek released a statement on the September Economic and Revenue Forecast. “The substantial improvement in today's revenue forecast highlights the uniqueness of a recession brought on by a global pandemic. While we are in a better financial position than we expected to be, it is still an unpredictable road ahead, particularly without further federal relief assistance.

“Oregon and the country are still facing a deep recession that is disproportionately impacting lower-income communities. Income inequality is glaringly clear in this forecast. I am pleased that the Legislature took a measured approach to rebalancing the budget in August by strategically using one-time dollars to protect critical services that are essential to encouraging an equitable recovery.”

At the same time, Jay Kudlow took the podium at today’s President’s press conference with a different story. With charts and graphs, he explained the economic recovery. He showed that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the real median household income growth from the Census Bureau released last week was an increase of $6,000, 5-times higher in three years than under eight years of the Obama Administration. His response to an “A” shaped recovery, where only the top did well and the bottom did not do well, he says the lower income levels increased significantly higher than the top 1% or top 10%. Automobiles and housing are showing the highest sales in 14 years. “It’s a phenomenal increase in living standards.” He continued, “While living standards went up, poverty went down and inequality went down.” There isn’t any question we have more work to do on the recovery and unemployment particularly in targeted areas – getting back to school and working on COVID-19 related safety precautions and health precautions. Recovery is looking very good but may still do something to help the small business owners.

Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner release his statement on federal response:

“I continue to be disappointed by Congressional inaction and their failure to provide further pandemic relief to individuals and states. State and local financial support would help our efforts to keep Oregonians housed, safe and able to access health care.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2020-09-23 17:25:34

Last Update: 2020-09-23 17:33:28