Oregon sends a message- will the administration and Congress listen?

[depakid]

Oregon corporations and high-income earners will pay higher state taxes as voters weighed in Tuesday on two hotly debated measures. The Oregonian has determined that Measures 66 and 67 will pass.

Measure 66 raises the income tax paid by households earning at or above $250,000 a year or individual filers who make $125,000 or more. Measure 67 raises the state's $10 minimum corporate income tax.

Together they generate an estimated $727 million, which has already been budgeted by the 2009 Legislature for public schools and other state services.

The tax measures were strongly supported by the state's teachers and other public employee unions. They argued that schools and public services would face damaging cuts. The "Yes for Oregon" campaign raised about $6.85 million as of Election Day, according to Common Cause Oregon.

A coalition of Oregon businesses, including the state's grocers, mounted a campaign to defeat the taxes, arguing that they would cost jobs at a time when the economy is already struggling.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/oregon_measure_66_measure_67_e.html

Making sure that corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share (and also help to clean up their messes) is not only wise public policy but smart politics.

Under the economic and political circumstances- and considering how much money and media support the corporate teabagging no tax crowd had, this is as big a wake up call as what happened in Massachusetts.

OK Dems- whose side do you want to be on?

[niyad]

1. no

[Clio the Leo]

2. I dont understand how this works on the state level....

.... wouldn't the wealthy in Oregon just move?

[Zynx]

3. People live in states for reasons other than marginal tax rates.

There is very little evidence that people move en masse in response tax changes.

[Clio the Leo]

7. Well, I'm just comparing it to what I see here....

.... I live on the GA/TN border. We have no state income tax and the very reason why the CITY is in TN and the suburbs are in GA is because of that lack of income tax.

Conversely, the shopping is just across the border in GA where the sales tax is lower.

[Zynx]

9. In those situations it might matter, but in the case of Oregon population is distriubted differently

[depakid]

10. Oregon doesn't have a sales tax- so Washingtonians come over and shop at Oregon buinsesses

with some frequency. Also- little known fact: Oregonians don't have to pay Washington's sales tax if they show a valid Oregon license or ID card.

There was a similar situation years ago when Washington passed its lottery. Oregonians didn't really want to use a regressive funding mechanism like that- for a number of reasons. but once Washington passed it, too much money was flowing over the river.

Now that the state's gotten addicted to the revenue, it's really pressed the envelope on the forms of gambling it allows.

While a lot of callous, educated people figure that it's a tax on the innumerate, the bottom line is that most everyone's seen mothers, towing kids with raggedy shoes, buying up $20.00 worth of scratch offs.

[depakid]

4. That's the prefabriacated line that the right wing no tax crowd uses over and over

Fact is that Oregon's overall taxes are slightly below (about #28) the middle of the pack, and is considerably lower than either of its coastal neighbors -and in addition affords a better quality of life.

So, no- they won't "be moving."

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. It's a baseless threat

They'll swear up and down that they'll move their whole operation, but they ain't going from Portland to Tuscaloosa. Ain't gonna happen.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. The Bill Sizemore era is over!

Woohoo!

[Arctic Dave]

6. "grocers"? I wonder if they mean Fred Meyers (Kroger)?

[depakid]

11. Yes for Oregon: "It took courage"

Kevin Looper, who ran the campaign to pass the measures, said the vote was a signal that predictions of a general conservative retrenchment following the Republican victory in this month's Senate race in Massachusetts were premature.

"I think this is firmly a progressive, populist moment. It just takes leaders to stand up and say what we're about, and make sure things are clear to voters," he said. "Because when the choice gets made clear like that, voters will almost always make the right decision."

Looper said the credit for passing the measures goes to Democratic leaders in the Legislature who sent the tax increases to voters against nearly unanimous Republican opposition.

"It was an amazingly courageous thing for the Legislature to say, 'We're going to both protect schools and make a case for tax fairness by keeping the burden off middle-class families,' " he said.

[Go2Peace]

12. People are ready for progressive leadership. This tax was transparent and well written

and people supported it.

Get rid of the "Washington" idea that you have to fool people and can't call out and advocate for strong progressive policies. Instead, just get ahead of it and start declaring the truth of what got us where we are and the serious reversals we need. If you make it clear and sound like you mean it people will listen and get behind it.