Issues
Editorial: Sales tax is a reach too far
‘Public employees unions run the statehouse,’ said state Rep. Dennis Richardson, during a 2014 visit to Astoria…
Now the public employees unions are asserting themselves grandly with Initiative Petition 28, the initiative to establish a corporate sales tax on corporations with gross receipts of more than $25 million annually…
The most correct title for the measure is the PERS Bailout Tax. Financial demands of the Public Employees Retirement System will soon increase the load on school districts and municipalities — causing schools to lay off teachers in order to fund retirement pensions.
Legislative remedies to the PERS dilemma …were thrown out by the Oregon Supreme Court. In the face of the court’s judgment, there was a proposal to require new PERS enrollees to contribute to their retirement, in the manner that is common in the private sector. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would not support that.
Revenue raised by IP 28 is the unions’ answer to the PERS problem…
We Respond & Your Comments
We’re shocked! Shocked! When “Progressives” first tossed IP 28 on the table The Oregonian reported “Unions and other left-of-center groups argue that major tax hikes on major corporations and the wealthy are needed to shore up education and other public services…”
We thought IP 28 was “for the children.” After all, isn’t any tax? We thought it would buy smaller class sizes, music education and other good stuff. And now we learn it’s really for pensions for public employees? How sad.
Actually, we’re not that stupid. We knew all along IP 28 is a way for “Public Servants” to serve themselves the money you earned.
Editorial: The Benefit of More Taxes
We read in The Bulletin on Friday morning that two Democratic state senators want to add yet another new tax on Oregon businesses and, inevitably, also on consumers.
It would be a tax on carbon. It might raise another $1.5 billion a year for the state to try to fix this or that. That’s on top of the $3 billion more a year that will be taken from Oregon businesses and passed on to Oregonians if Initiative Petition 28 passes this November.
We have another idea…
We propose the state of Oregon tax Oregon businesses and residents at a rate of 100 percent.
That’s all income. All of it should go to the state. The state can decide for us all how our money should be spent.
Just think of the benefits.
The tax code would be simple. “Whatever you think you got, it’s not yours. Please remit all income to the state. And don’t forget to check under the couch cushions.”…
We Respond & Your Comments
We can add absolutely nothing to this gem except that we encourage you to click the link and read the whole editorial.
But we do have one worry – What if our Legislators read it? They’d slap their foreheads and scream“Why didn’t we think of that?”
SBE Council Ranks the 50 States in “Small Business Policy Index 2016”…
– SBE Council
… the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) released its 20th “Small Business Policy Index 2016: Ranking the States on Policy Measures and Costs Impacting Entrepreneurship and Small Business Growth.” The Index… ranks the 50 states according to 50 different policy measures, including a wide array of tax, regulatory and government spending and performance measurements.
The states that are most policy-friendly to entrepreneurs…are: 1) Nevada, 2) Texas, 3) South Dakota, 4) Wyoming, 5) Florida, 6) Washington…
In contrast, the policy environments that need the most work are: 40) Maryland, 41) Maine, 42) Iowa, 43) Oregon…
Raymond J. Keating, SBE Council’s chief economist and author of the study, noted… “…make no mistake, tax, regulatory, government spending and other governmental performance and cost measures…have real impacts not only on entrepreneurship, investment, small businesses and their workers, but naturally therefore, on the overall economy of each state.”…
We Respond & Your Comments
Oregon – A state with abundant natural resources, harbors, a navigable river emptying into the Pacific, good highways, international and regional airports, drop dead scenery and high quality of life. It should be a business mecca.
But it’s not. What went wrong? As the SBE Council makes clear, high taxes and heavy regulation are business killers.
Add to taxes and regulation the 4th highest minimum wage in the U.S. Then pile on a corporate gross receipts tax for companies with Oregon sales of $25 million or more (IP 28). Now you see how 30 plus years of tax and spend one party governance has taken what should be the number one state in just about any category and turned it into the #43 state for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
New PSU analysis delivers kinder verdict on corporate tax measure
By Saul Hubbard, The Register-Guard
A newly released analysis of Initiative Petition 28, a $3 billion-a-year corporate tax increase that will be on the statewide November ballot, paints a rosier picture of the measure’s impacts than a… report from the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office.
The new report…by Portland State University’s Northwest Economic Research Center, estimates that IP 28 would cause fewer private-sector job losses and more public-sector job gains in its first five years than what the legislative report projected.
PSU’s study…estimates the state would lose 17,000 private-sector jobs and gain 30,000 government jobs…while the legislative report puts private-sector job losses at 38,000 and public-sector job gains at 18,000…
Our Oregon, an advocacy group backed by public employee unions that is spearheading IP 28, paid $45,000 to commission the PSU study…
We Report & You Respond
As the kids would say, TOTALLY AWESOME! Let’s pop the corks! If Petition 28 passes we’re only gonna lose 17,000 private sector jobs! What could be better? Wait…we all know what’s better: 30,000 new government employees. And higher consumer prices as businesses pass tax increases along to us! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
And think of the goodies we’ll get from these 30,000 newbees :
- New regulations
- New departments that need new managers, assistants & lawyers
- New buildings to house them
- New taxes to pay for them
Once again we’re reminded that government can never make do with the money it has – but you always can. In fact, you can do with less.
UO students, associate professor urge university to unload fossil fuel investments
By Diane Dietz The Register-Guard
University of Oregon student activists made their quarterly approach to the Board of Trustees on Thursday to urge divestment in fossil fuels, but this time they got backup from an associate professor.
Michael Dreiling of the sociology department pointed out that the students are honoring the science they learned in UO classes…
Senior environmental studies major Kaia Hazard — a week away from graduation — carried about 1,000 cards with signatures urging divestment…
Eric Jung, a senior in environmental science, biology and political science, said the university has a chance to “do the right thing” and “improve its image.”…
We Respond & Your Comments
We scratch our heads and ask ourselves “What are these ‘Stewards of the Earth’ hoping to accomplish with divestment of fossil fuel stocks? Would it make any difference to Exxon if every university sold every share?” No.
Here’s what none of these heavy-in-education-but pitifully-light-in-wisdom geniuses has noticed: every time a university sells a share of Exxon, somebody else buys it. All that’s changed is the owner, which has no effect on Exxon. In fact, by divesting, they’re eliminating any influence they might have on the evil entity!
Then we ask if it would make any difference if these Green Crusaders knew their crusade is meaningless. Sadly, we conclude they really don’t care. All they want is to perform the “beau geste” – an act that looks nice, feels good and accomplishes nothing.
Editorial: It pays to be a state employee
Most Oregonians who buy their own health insurance policies may pay significantly higher monthly premiums next year. The highest proposed average increase in premiums is 32 percent and the lowest was just over 14 percent.
Many state employees face a similar problem with increasing costs of health care…
We Respond & Your Comments
But Oregon state employees aren’t like us. They won’t be hit with a 14%, or even a 4% premium increase. Because, thanks to their BFFs in the Legislature, their increases are capped at 3.4%. Nice gig, huh?
Were we cynics we’d think maybe their sweet deal is somehow related to the fact that in the 2015-16 election cycle Oregon public employee unions tossed $264,925 into political campaigns. If Oregon follows national averages, 86% of this loot went to Democrats, who control the Legislature.
Here’s the takeaway:
- Your taxes pay public employees’ salaries
- Public employers withhold money from these salaries for union dues
- Unions spend the dues to elect Democrats
- Democrats then bargain with the same unions over salaries and benefits
And the beat goes on. Who wins? Democrats and public unions. Who loses? Look in the mirror.
Yes, a nice gig indeed.
As Spending On Lobbying Increases, Transparency Remains Murky
By Hillary Borrud, Capital Bureau, East Oregonian
SALEM — Businesses, special interest groups and governments have increasingly invested in lobbying Oregon lawmakers and other state officials over the last nine years. And based on spending data from the state, those groups appear to have concluded lobbying is a good investment: reported annual spending on lobbying increased 15 percent from 2007 to 2015, when adjusted for inflation…
The EO Media Group/Pamplin Media Group Capital Bureau categorized lobbying spending in Oregon by industry and sector using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks spending on lobbying by industry at the federal level. In total, groups spent more than $251 million on lobbying over the last nine years, according to state data…
We Respond & Your Comments
Gee, we can’t figure out why businesses want to blow all this loot on lobbyists. After all, lobbyists don’t produce anything for them to sell. So why not spend that money on expansion? Or maybe some new employees? Wouldn’t that be more productive?
Could it be that some level of government regulates:
- How much to pay some employees?
- How much time off to give them for maternity leave?
- How much sick leave to give them?
- How much of their profits they have to turn over for an ever-growing list of taxes?
Then there are never ending regulations that tip the scales in favor of big businesses that can afford to deal with them and leave smaller competitors gasping for air. And the government picking winners and losers based on who’s “greenest.”
So lobbyists become businesses’ main line of defense against more government intrusion. Want to get rid of lobbyists? Get the government off of businesses’ backs.
Governor Still Won’t Say Where She Stands on Proposed Tax Increase but Will Say How She’d Spend the $3 Billion…
By Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week
Gov. Kate Brown is playing coy on Initiative Petition 28, the proposed corporate tax increase that will raise $3 billion a year in new tax revenue.
Brown, a Democrat, has been close to the public employee unions backing the measure for her 25-year political career—but she has repeatedly declined to take a position on the measure…
Today, Brown issued a page-and-a-half “Corporate Tax Implementation Plan” for the measure, suggesting ways the revenue could be spent…
Here’s the spending part:
The plan endows a new Career Pathway Fund that supports significant expansion of career and technical education…
Increase the number of students who complete high school with an industry credential…
Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Expands energy assistance programs for low-income consumers
And here’s Brown’s attempt to make the measure less painful for Oregon employers:
Allows businesses subject to IP-28 to subtract a portion of Oregon payroll costs from their annual corporate tax obligation.
Offers investment incentives through the Oregon Growth Fund that benefit Oregon businesses.
Brown also proposed a carve-out for software companies that are located in Oregon but have extensive sales in other states…
We Respond & Your Comments
Why hasn’t Guv Kate endorsed IP-28? Because today it’s positioned as a tax. But Kate’s spending plan is the first step in repositioning it as help for “the kids” and “the poor.” So anyone opposing the tax is anti kids and anti poor. Kate, compassionate Liberal that she is, will then jump on the 28 bandwagon.
Once IP-28 passes Kate’ll start choosing winners. They’ll inevitably be those who support…Kate and her Dems. Willamette Week (above) says she wants a carveout for software companies. This isn’t in Kate’s current spending plan, but don’t be surprised if it pops up. Then other companies will start giving money to slop up at the “Carveout Trough.”
And there’ll be “investment incentives through the Oregon Growth Fund.” Translated: Pro Katers will get IP-28 relief for dumping your bucks into the State fund that picks more winners (read “contributors”) to lard your bucks onto.
Liberals are always compassionate. They’re always for kids and poor folk. Because there just ain’t no end to the good you can do with somebody else’s money.
Expanding OT
– Eugene Register Guard Editorial
When the Obama administration announced last Wednesday it was expanding overtime pay protection for more than 4 million workers, the reaction from the business sector was swift — and completely predictable.
Few employees will actually benefit financially from the change, they said. The new rule will add burdensome paperwork for both employers and employees, and make employees’ schedules less flexible, they said…
The Obama administration estimates that the change will increase affected workers’ pay by $1.2 billion annually over the next decade, but acknowledges that some employers may choose to reduce employees’ pay rates or hours to avoid having to pay them overtime…
Most of the employees affected by the new rule work in fast food or retail industries, where employees are designated “managers” and paid salaries instead of hourly wages, but do much of the same type of work as their hourly wage subordinates, who often earn nearly as much as their bosses while working fewer hours…
We Respond & Your Comments
Here we go again…“compassionate” Progressives want to take money out of some Americans’ pockets and give it to Americans (they really mean “voters”) of their choosing in the name of “fairness.”
Let’s review some iron clad rules of economics and business:
- When you increase the cost of anything (in this case labor) you reduce demand for it – no matter how “fair” it is;
- One of the few things in business you can control is the cost of labor;
- The average fast food restaurant shows a pretax profit of just 3%;
- Businesses don’t just stand there while government takes their money.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports how some business people are reacting to the new overtime threshold:
- Roadhouse, Inc. may reduce bonuses by 25% – 50% to put managers’ salaries over the threshold;
- Domino’s Pizza will cut back on overtime;
- The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts businesses will offset these new costs by cutting benefits.
David French, NRF Senior VP of Government Relations said it best in the WSJ: “Just because there’s an overtime rule does not mean there’s going to be overtime pay.”
My View: Let’s have national vote by mail
– U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Fifty-one years ago, President Johnson urged Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. And in the face of implacable opposition from Southern states, Johnson clearly laid out the stakes: “Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote”…
[Sadly,] Americans are facing new barriers to exercising their fundamental right to vote.
Across the country, there are stories of long lines, inexplicable purges of voter rolls and new requirements that make it harder
for citizens to vote. There is no excuse for accepting this state of affairs…
Thankfully, there is a solution.
…In Oregon, every voter receives a ballot two or three weeks before an election date…
So my proposition is the rest of our country should follow Oregon’s lead and offer all voters a chance to vote by mail….
…My view is voting rights are simply too important to abandon the field to special interests who would manipulate our government…(emphasis ours)
We Respond & Your Comments
Gosh, Ron, we are truly touched by your selfless, patriotic desire to stop “special interests who would manipulate our government.”
But we do have a few questions:
- Do Metlife, New York Life Insurance and Citigroup count as “Special Interests?”
- How about Prudential Financial and Massachusetts Mutual Life?
- According to the Center for Responsive Politics they, via their PACs, employees & immediate families, tossed a cool $194,700 your way.
Just two more questions, Ron – Do you think your being Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee had anything to do with their generosity? Did they have a little government manipulation on their minds when they signed those checks?
Just wondering.