Saturday, January 23 at King Elementary School in Northeast Portland supporters gathered for the winter kick-off for A Better Oregon. The A Better Oregon campaign is slated to address what they call, “the long-standing need for game-changing investments in Oregon’s schools and community services by holding large and out-of-state corporations accountable for their fair share in taxes.”
Since October, A Better Oregon has been circulating a petition for Initiative Petition 28, a ballot measure that would increase the corporate minimum tax for C corporations whose Oregon sales exceed $25 million each year.
“As this campaign progresses you’ll see tens of thousands of educators come together to stand up for their students. That’s because we know, first-hand, the impact disinvestment in public education has on their learning,” said Hanna Vaandering, an elementary physical education teacher from Beaverton, and President of the Oregon Education Association.
“If we want stronger communities, more options for our students, a better future for all Oregonians, then there is no way around it — large, out-of-state corporations are going to have to start paying their fair-share, just as everyday Oregonians have done all along.”
“I keep hearing that things are going to get better. Instead, they keep getting worse. School years and school days are still short. Class sizes are getting bigger. Our graduation rate is one of the worst in the country. And it’s not just our schools — everywhere you turn, there’s need. And now is the time to fix it,” said Collin Robinson, parent of two from Bend and elected president of Oregon Parent Teachers Association.
Opponents of Initiative Petition 28 (IP28) state that it is a costly and damaging proposal. The Bend Chamber has joined a coalition of small businesses, local chambers and consumers from across Oregon in opposing IP28.
The nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office has estimated that IP28 would increase taxes on Oregon sales by more than $5 billion per two-year budget cycle – by far the largest tax increase in our state’s history.
The Bend Chamber has posted on its website several reasons the initiative would be so damaging:
Because IP28 would be a tax on gross sales – not profits – businesses would be required to pay the tax regardless of whether they’re making a profit or not. That would force many employers to raise prices or cut jobs in order to stay in business.
IP28 would impose billions in new taxes on the sales of products and services that Oregonians buy and use every day – food, electricity, insurance, health care, medicine, gasoline and other essentials. That would especially hurt small businesses and families on fixed incomes.
- IP28 is like a hidden sales tax, except worse, because it would be applied at multiple stages of the supply chain. By the time a product goes from the manufacturer to distributor to retailer and ultimately reaches the consumer, it may have been taxed multiple times. This “tax on a tax” would make Oregon products more expensive, and Oregon companies less competitive.
- Ultimately the costs of this huge new tax increase, if passed, will fall on Oregon small and medium-sized businesses, as well as Oregon consumers and families, in the form of higher prices for almost everything we buy.
- Finally, there’s no guarantee that the billions in new taxes from IP28 would go where proponents claim they would. In fact, there is no plan and no accountability for how this huge new tax increase would be used — it’s a blank check for politicians to spend as they please for years to come.
As part of the A Better Oregon campaign’s effort to collect the 88,184 signatures needed to qualify for the November 2016 ballot, volunteers circulated petitions throughout the day. Organizers planned to gather 1,000 signatures in the one-day event. Signatures are due to the Secretary of State July 8, 2016.
“I care about my community and I want to make sure it’s healthy, but as a small business owner, there’s only so much I can do on my own. Crowded classrooms, unaffordable health care, seniors retiring into poverty… everyone can agree that these things need to change. With A Better Oregon, we have the opportunity to do just that — we can make the kinds of investments that will allow our communities to thrive,” said Carmen Ripley Wilson, owner of Beanstalk Children’s Resale in Portland.
