Issues
Legislature eyes $1.2 billion property tax
– Oregon Catalyst, by Taxpayers Association of Oregon
… the Taxpayer Association of Oregon testif[ied] at the Senate Revenue hearing regarding a property tax bill SJR 201 which could raise property taxes as much as $1.2 billion.
The bill is in design stages and the Revenue Committee is using the hearing to explore many ideas around changing Oregon property tax system and measure 50 (1997) and we are always open to dialogue on how to make our tax system more fair or effective. But as it stands we Oregonians pay too much in property taxes. We make it clear that Oregonians are already paying just over more property taxes than the average American and that Oregon state and local government spends more per capita than the average state in America. The bill as it currently stands would eliminate Measure 50 and the protection it gives against rising assessment taxation values which if gone could raise over a billion in new property taxes…
We respond & Your Comments
Here they go again. Our “public servants” in Salem are looking here, looking there, looking everywhere to gobble up a few billion more in taxes.
Why? Because they know that, thanks to overcommitments for funding PERS and Medicare, Oregonians are facing a $2.8 Billion shortfall next year. And our “Progressive” legislators don’t want us to wake up to it before they get themselves reelected in November.
Well – wake up. Do whatever it takes to remember it when you vote. Carve it into your dining table. Carve it into your forehead. Just remember.
Merkley Introduces Major New Retirement Security Legislation To Give Every Worker Access To A Retirement Savings Plan…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley unveiled the American Savings Act, major new national retirement security legislation. The American Savings Act would give every worker without access to a retirement savings plan through their employer the ability to save for retirement through their own, personal retirement savings account …
We Respond & Your Comments
Way to go, Jeff! You & your buddies in Congress are going to “give” 68 million workers access to a government run retirement plan?
Will it be anything like the last one you “gave” us? You remember, Jeff – it’s called Social Security. It’s the retirement “security plan” that:
- Congress funded by taking money from our salaries to save for our retirement and then looted it to fund programs like teaching cougars to run on treadmills;
- Will probably pay us back less than we put in if we die before we’re 85;
- That pays a far lower return to those who put in more thanks to their higher earnings;
- Takes my money if I die without a spouse or kids;
- That has $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
We bet you’ll loot this plan just like you looted Social Security. So just keep it, Jeff. Don’t do us any more favors.
Why They’re Suing
Linn Co., on behalf of Lane and 13 other counties, has informed Gov. Kate Brown of its intention to file a class action lawsuit against the State for more than $1.4 Billion of revenue lost due to the State’s mismanagement of Forest Trust Lands. Here’s why:
- During the 1930s and ‘40s Oregon counties acquired more than 654,000 acres of tax foreclosed forest lands;
- These lands were subsequently conveyed to the State as “Forest Trust Lands”;
- The State agreed to manage the Lands so as to maximize revenue, which, after deducting a management fee, would be passed to the counties which had previously held them;
- In 1998 the Oregon Board of Forestry unilaterally decided that the Lands did not have to be managed to maximize revenue but would instead be managed for their “greatest permanent value,” as defined solely by the State;
- In 2005 the Tillamook Co. Circuit Court declared that the State had a contractual obligation to ensure that “…the lands would be used to produce revenue”;
- The State’s appeal of this case was dismissed.
Linn County is now suing to recover forgone revenues resulting from the State’s decision not to manage the Lands to maximize revenue. If successful, Lane Co. could receive as much as $59 Million in damages and the assurance of a continued revenue stream which could be used for public safety, schools and other basic services.
Does This Drive You Crazy, Or What?
Abilify, duloxetine rank on Medicare cost list
– Julie Miller, Editor in Chief, Behavioral Care
Two of the top 15 most costly drugs for Medicare in 2014, according to newly released data, were Abilify (aripiprazole), which is an antipsychotic, and generic Cymbalta (duloxetine HCI), which is typically used as an antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug…
Abilify spending in 2014 topped $2.5 billion and demonstrated a 17 percent unit-cost increase over the previous year…
We Respond & Your Comments
OMG! We bought $2.5 Billion of this stupid psychiatric drug? Is somebody crazy?
Just one problem here: we didn’t. Bristol-Myers Squibb, maker of Abilify, reports in its audited 2015 SEC filings that U.S. sales of Abilify were just $1.57 billion and worldwide sales were only $2.02 billion.
What’s going on here? Medicare reported Abilify sales at the public list price of the drug, ignoring the discounted prices actually paid by insurers.
We step outside Oregon today to remind you to look behind numbers government numbers, see how they were calculated and what agenda they’re advancing. Here the agenda is to gin up anger at Big Pharma and gain support for price controls on drugs.
If we were cynics we might even worry that our buddies in Salem might pull a stunt like this. They wouldn’t, would they?
Tip Of Our Hat – Issue 106
Today we tip our hat to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden for leading the fight for a tax free Internet!
Along with then-Senator Chris Cox (R-CA) Ron co-sponsored the original temporary ban on Internet taxes. Now he’s worked with Republicans Bob Goodllatte and Mitch McConnell to make it permanent. Ron – Our hat’s off to you on this one!
Solyndra times five: What’s up with the $2.65 billion in federal loans to Abengoa?
– Ron Ninkolewski, Watchdog.org
…Renewable energy company Abengoa has received a combined $2.65 billion in loan guarantees…. But with the company teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, it’s unclear if taxpayers will get stuck paying off the loans…
Based in Spain, Abengoa SA is teetering on the verge of insolvency…
The renewable giant got — from the U.S. Department of Energy — loan guarantees of $1.45 billion to build the Solana solar plant in Arizona…
… William Yeatman, senior fellow…at Competitive Enterprise Institute… (said) “The total amount of these loans is something like five times bigger than what Solyndra got.”…
Solyndra…received $535 million in a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy in 2010. The next year Solyndra filed for Chapter 11, with taxpayers getting almost none of the money back. ..
President Obama…cited the DOE loan guarantee to Abengoa… saying, “After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it’s good news that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America.”…
We Respond & Your Comments
In previous issues we’ve detailed the billions of dollars lost to Oregon and other taxpayers thanks to governments’ obsession with green energy. So here we’ll just summarize why these loans are a lousy idea:
- Governments do a bad job of picking winners because they do so based on their personal preferences, vote-grubbing potential or campaign finance needs;
- The loans they make/guarantee or, worse, their outright grants aren’t made with their own money, so they’re less discriminating in their choices;
- They often make loans to entities that can’t get favorable treatment at banks because they’re bad credit risks.
- In the Obama Administration bureaucrats follow the lead of the boss, who’s chasing green energy like Captain Ahab obsessively pursued the Great White Whale.
Memo to all city, county and state politicos: You don’t do loans for a living. You’re not good at it. Leave it to those who are – they’re called banks.
Pfizer, Allergan Confirm $160 Billion Merger Deal
– Geoffrey Smith, Claire Groden, fortune.com
Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Allergan confirmed Monday they will merge…in a deal that is mostly, if not exclusively, about tax.
The deal…is structured in such a way as to reduce Pfizer’s tax bill by moving its domicile out of the U.S. to Ireland. The companies said they expect…to have an effective tax rate of 17% to 18% in the first full year after closing, compared to around 25% for Pfizer at present…
“Congress has been aware of the inversion virus for a long time. In fact, it passed legislation purporting to solve the problem a decade ago. But the underlying sickness continues to gnaw away at the American economy with increasing intensity…” – Senator Ron Wyden
“For too long, powerful corporations have exploited loopholes that allow them to hide earnings abroad to lower their tax rate…Now Pfizer is trying to reduce its tax bill even further.” – Hillary Clinton
“The company that Charles Walgreen started is reportedly considering a renunciation of its American citizenship and a move to Switzerland, just to avoid paying its fair share of taxes.” -Sen. Harry Reid (D-NEV)
“…nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands” – Judge Learned Hand
We Respond & Your Comments
U.S. companies move abroad via inversions and mergers because liberals have imposed on them the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world!
Before the merger Pfizer could invest $.65 of every profit dollar in the U.S. Afterwards they can invest $.88. Not a bad deal for workers – but rat poison to Hillary and Harry, who think a company’s purpose is to generate as much money as possible for the government. No – the purpose of a company is to legally return to shareholders the highest possible profits.
Here’s how to stop inversions and mergers – lower our tax rate to make it competitive with other countries.
To Sen. Wyden’s credit, he also calls for “comprehensive tax reform.” But only after inversions and mergers have been stopped. Hey, Ron – once they’re stopped, what’s your incentive to lower taxes? Maybe we should do that first.
State program helps Oregon businesses grow exports
– Elon Glucklich, The Register-Guard
Sales at Lesli Larson’s Eugene business, Archival Clothing, have risen a modest 10 to 15 percent each year since its 2009 founding. But 4,000 miles and an ocean separate Larson from some of her most loyal customers.
Japanese shoppers have flocked to Archival’s line of canvas and twill bags, wool caps and shawl sweaters in recent years…
In April, Larson joined seven Portland companies on a weeklong business expo to Tokyo to promote their companies — a trip she wouldn’t have made without help from an Oregon program seeking to boost exports of locally made goods.
Attending an international trade show typically costs a business $8,000 to $20,000, a price out of reach for some small businesses, said Ryan Frank, a spokesman for Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency….
We Respond & Your Comments
How nice! Business Oregon, AKA“The government,” gave thousands to Lesli so she could go to Japan! But we know who “the government” is – it’s you, us and our neighbors.
Do you own a business? Did “the government” ever pay for you to go to Japan to find new customers?
This program depends on “the government” picking winners like Leslie and leaving losing applicants to pay their own way. And we know how great governments are at picking winners and losers (think Solyndra). “The government” picks winners and losers with all the skill of a fall down drunk at a Vegas sportsbook.
What’s happening here is that “the government” is confiscating money from tax paying businesses which might otherwise spend it on expansion. Worse yet, they’re taking it from businesses that might be Lesli’s competitors and giving it to her! Why is she more deserving than businesses who paid their own way to Japan?
Let us have your thoughts on this.
Companies warn Oregon: Tax us and we might move
– Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian/OregonLive
John North, the vice president of finance for Ashland-based Lithia Motors, said the auto retailer would see almost all its profits from Oregon stores wiped out under a tax measure headed toward the November 2016 ballot….
Oregon’s business community is ratcheting up its rhetoric against the union-backed corporate tax measure that would raise an estimated $2.6 billion a year for schools and other services, far more than any tax hike in modern Oregon history…
“We have this burgeoning software business in Oregon that I think would be significantly affected,” said Ken Thrasher, a former Fred Meyer CEO and board chairman of Portland-based Compli. “We run the risk of these jobs being located somewhere else where we don’t have to pay the tax.”…
… Our Oregon has assembled a coalition – ranging from teacher unions to a small-business group that frequently supports left-of-center causes – and is working to gather the 88,184 signatures needed by July 8 to qualify for the ballot…
… because of a long-standing provision in Oregon tax laws, companies that mostly provide services would pay the tax based on their worldwide sales…
We Respond & Your Comments
There’s an iron law of economics: “If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less, tax it.” So if Oregonians want fewer businesses in Oregon they’ll pass this tax.
We know the tax is “for the children” and that we don’t spend enough on education. But we all know who it’s really for – the teachers’ unions. That’s why they support it.
We also know taxes inevitably rake in less money than predicted. That’s because the predictors assume everyone who might pay it will do so. Jacking up the estimate makes the tax more attractive.
But people aren’t stupid. They find ways to avoid paying taxes. In this case they’ll avoid it by voting with their feet and moving to another state – probably one that doesn’t:
- have a 9.9% personal income tax;
- treat capital gains as ordinary income;
- reach into your coffin to grab a big chunk of your wealth when you die.
To all Oregonians who want fewer businesses and jobs: go ahead and sign onto Our Oregon’s latest brainstorm.
Assaulting “Corporate Profits” Will Hit Average Oregonians
– Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute
A union-backed group is planning to put an initiative on Oregon’s 2016 General Election ballot that would result in the largest tax increase in Oregon history. Designed to tax sales of large corporations doing business in Oregon, Initiative Petition 28 may raise more than $5 billion every biennium…
…neither large nor small corporations have a magic pot of money from which they can painlessly bestow more to government…
The tax measure in question basically will impose a 2.5 percent gross receipts tax on most corporate sales above $25 million in the state, on top of other business taxes…
We Respond & Your Comments
Governor Brown Comes a’Calling
Business owner looking to relocate: Thanks for coming, Governor Brown.
Gov. Brown: Glad to be here. We want you to re-locate to Oregon.
Owner: Governor Brown, look: Oregon has the third highest capital gains tax rate in America and may impose a 2.5% gross receipts tax on my sales above $25 million.
Gov. Brown: But we have a great transportation system!
Owner: So does Nevada. And they don’t have Oregon’s 9.9 percent personal income tax.
Gov. Brown: But Oregon has a wonderful quality of life!
Owner: Ever put that in the bank, Governor? And Nevada’s a right to work state.
Gov. Brown: But we have great schools!
Owner: Look: I own this company. Oregon has one of the few death taxes left. Nevada doesn’t. When I die I won’t give you ten percent of the money I’ve worked for.
Gov. Brown: Don’t you think you should pay your fair share?
Owner: To paraphrase economist Thomas Sowell, what’s someone else’s “fair share” of money I worked for? Thanks again for coming. If you’ll excuse me, I’m late for a meeting with Governor Sandoval. He’s just in from Reno.