A state effort to provide every Oregonian with $1,600 a year in basic income appears to be heading toward defeat next week, with polls showing the measure wildly unpopular among voters.
The poll, conducted by the progressive-leaning Public Policy Polling firm on behalf of the Washington-based progressive nonprofit Northwest Progressive Institute , found that 54 percent of Oregon voters oppose the measure that would raise corporate taxes to generate a guaranteed basic income for the state’s residents. The proposal has come under fire from a wide swath of state political leaders and groups.
About 29 percent of respondents said they are likely to support the measure, while 17 percent remained unsure, the poll found.
The Northwest Progressive Institute said in its analysis of the poll that the measure’s likely failure is “for the best.”
“[The ballot measure] is poorly designed and it triggers an array of damaging, likely unintended consequences that make it really a measure that is not a good idea as it has been drafted and proposed,” Daniel Hauser, deputy director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy, said in a statement.