Having a big business in Oregon is a pretty sweet deal, tax-wise. The corporate minimum tax is $10 a year – no, we did not mistakenly leave off any zeroes – a figure unchanged since our last Great Depression in the 1930s.
Contrary to conservative propaganda, Oregon is not exactly a tax hell for businesses. The Tax Foundation, a pro-business group, puts Oregon at Number 14 overall in its latest rankings of state tax climates for business.
So it makes good sense for this revenue-strapped state to enact a moderate tax increase on businesses. And the measure adopted by the legislature last spring, along with another one raising personal income taxes, fits any definition of “moderate.” Sole proprietorships would see no increase in their tax rate. Certain others types of businesses (ordinary partnerships and S, LLC and LLP corporations, to get technical) would have their minimum increased to $150 a year.Type C corporations – typically the bigger ones – would see their minimum rise to $150 if their sales in Oregon are less than $500,000. On sales are greater than that, they’d pay on a sliding scale that would go no higher than 15 cents for every $100.
The legislature also voted to raise personal income tax rates for individuals earning $125,000 or more or households making $250,000 or more. That leaves out 97% of Oregonians. Together, the corporate tax increases and the personal increase are expected to raise $733 million, without which the state will have to cut – again – into education, public safety and other important services.
These modest increases on the state’s richest individuals and biggest businesses don’t seem like such a bitter pill. But opponents claim they’re a dose of economic cyanide. They’ve turned in some 250,000 signatures – more than double the number needed – to put repeal of what they’re calling “the job-killing tax hikes” on the ballot in January.
The labor to collect those signatures came from an army of volunteers who buy into the familiar “all taxes are EEEEEE-vul” rhetoric of the right. But the cash – more than $1 million of it – came from the big corporate interests that stand to gain the most. The timber giant Weyerhaeuser Corp. alone kicked in $50,000.
The repeal campaign is another example of how the Oregon initiative and referendum process has been perverted. Originally designed to enable citizens to get good laws enacted or bad ones repealed when the legislature was corrupt or unresponsive, it has become a powerful tool that corporations and their political front groups use to stymie progressive ideas and push reactionary ones.
Unless somebody finds a way to take the money out of the process – which looks about as likely as Dick Cheney becoming the next “American Idol” – there’s no way to fix it, and we’ve been tempted to give THE BOOT to the whole thing. But in the hope that reform someday, somehow will happen – and in the knowledge that despite everything, good measures sometimes DO get passed – we’ll refrain, and content ourselves with BOOTing the absurd and irresponsible tax repeal campaign.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.
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First of all, Government IS a business, it's the largest business there is! It is the Goliath in the world of David's. The largest corporation in America pales in comparison to Uncle Sam. Look at Deschutes County, who is the largest employer… government. So when you say government, understand that we are talking about the largest (and least efficient) business of them all.
Everywhere you turn the government is squeezing out more change $$$ from business owners, a little tax increase here, a little increase in fees there, and throw in a few license increases while you're at it, tighten requirements on regulations that require more money (and time) to be spent to comply. Whether you own a large, small, or home-based business, taxation can seem like death by a thousand cuts.
Government is the fat kid sitting at the table shoving cake into his face as fast as he can before someone stops him. There's no self control or thoughts of consequences, just the selfish desire to continue to grow bigger… and bigger. Government is in the business of growing government. Without checks and balances, Salem would be a runaway train. So when a quarter of a million “citizens” (not corporations) sign a petition to halt government growth, I say good for the people.
We are in the midst of one of the worst economies in decades (bully for you if you're not feeling the pain, must be nice suckling that teat) All legislators had to do was NOT grow government and pass the same size budget as the year before. No new programs, no new growth, just hold things steady for one year. The fat kid can't help himself, he has to shove more and more into his pie hole. And where does he get it from, the little kids sitting at the table, he takes it right off their plate. Well the little kids are tired of it and are speaking up.
“We are in the midst of one of the worst economies in decades (bully for you if you're not feeling the pain, must be nice suckling that teat). All legislators had to do was NOT grow government and pass the same size budget as the year before.”
The problem with that premise is that in hard times people tend to need MORE government services of almost all types.
Also, you’re making the assertion that the more the “fat kid” eats, the less the “little kids” get. That would make sense if the government and the private sector were two completely separate entities, but they’re not. One way or another, virtually all the money that government takes in finds its way back into the private sector, either through direct purchase of goods and services from private contractors or through government employees spending their paychecks on the same stuff private-sector employees spend theirs on — food, clothing, housing, etc. There seems to be this idea out there that tax dollars just swirl down a black hole and vanish into some parallel universe. ‘Taint so.
Since when does a business of any type actually pay the tax increase? Is it not passed on to the consumer? Is it not passed on by laying off workers, or not giving raises, or benefits?
As for the personal tax, I was under the impression that in Oregon the people had to approve any personal tax increase increase. Was that done away with too?
Then too, the title of the op is “enrich the rich”. Don’t really see how that is going to happen. Do you also object to a referendum to repeal the gas tax increase? Or, is that “enriching the rich” too?
BTW, if the money collected eventually goes back to the purchase of goods, and services, does not that money “enrich the rich”?
And, what would have been wrong with keeping the budget where it was till the economy revives if it does? Are you trying to say there was no waste to eliminate?
“Since when does a business of any type actually pay the tax increase? Is it not passed on to the consumer?”
Then why do businesses bitch so much about any proposed tax increase, and spend millions on lobbying and ballot measure campaigns to prevent or repeal tax increases? And please don’t tell me it’s purely from altruistic motives.
H. Bruce Miller says:
Then why do businesses bitch so much about any proposed tax increase, and spend millions on lobbying and ballot measure campaigns to prevent or repeal tax increases? And please don’t tell me it’s purely from altruistic motives.”
Why would they not when they can use the argument to get all kinds of incentives from communities, and States, to move their business there?
And guess what, it works.
Still, you cannot refute the argument that a business does not in the long run pay any tax. Small businesses may be a different story since they operate on a smaller commodity basis, and thus their profit margins are not as high, nor can they afford to raise prices for goods to the same extent as a larger corporation can.