Now that Oregon’s Speaker of the House has shut down real discussion of a fiscal reckoning with her pronouncement that the discussion on PERS reform is over, the Unfortunately-Named-Tina-Kotek and her buddies in the State Senate are now turning their sights to a sales tax. A hearing the sales tax measure, SB 824 and it’s companion SJR 36, is scheduled today before the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee.
Oregon has a $275 million dollar budgetary hole to fill now–with billions in the future–because its government employee pension system is eating away at the state’s income like an aggressive cancer. But no Tina-therapy will come. Kotek has proclaimed one Democrat written PERS and budget bill OK with her (and her union cronies) and that’s where it will stay. No other PERS reform bills will be heard.
So the questions she, Senate Democrats and the Governor are asking are:
- ‘Do you think we can sell this sales tax snake oil to voters and convince them this will fix our problems?
- Do you think they’ll notice we left most of the cancer in the patient and we’ll need more money down the line anyway?
Oregon has spiked a sales tax nine times, but Democrats are hoping to find enough voters who think they can foist tax increases on someone else that they might go for it, who knows? They were dumb enough to have voted for Measures 66 & 67 which only served to further stall the Oregon economy in a recession. Businesses moved out to tax friendlier states. Capital left the state. The U-6 unemployment rate still hovers around 17%.
Heckuva job, Democrats!
So State Senator Mark Hass (rhymes with), egged on by his Democrat buddies has decided to scare even more businesses out of the state with a sales tax. His proposal would be a constitutional amendment put to the voters perhaps as early as 2014. Oregon voters spurned a sales tax in 1993 by a nearly 3:1 margin.
All things being equal, I like the idea of a consumption tax. Always have. But not in this one party rule state. Not with these people in charge.
Oregon has the second highest income tax rate, its fee schedule would choke even California’s Jerry Brown and the property taxes are confiscatory.
Hass says the rate will start at 5%. Do you think it will end there? Exemptions from the sales tax would include food, water (good news Portland!), Grandma’s rascal scooter, other medical equipment, drugs, clothing and utilities. At least this time they’re not even insulting us (yet) by lying and saying the sales tax would be “revenue neutral.”
That’s something.
Happy Tax Day!
