PAGE 4 | October 21, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Today, Oregon has the lowest effective business tax rates in the nation.
...The Game Changer
From Page 1
as far as state lawmakers were
willing to go, but it wasn’t
enough to solve the longterm
revenue problem. Before Meas-
ure 67, many big corporations
paid just $10 a year in taxes. But
even after, some companies
with over $100 million in sales
(including 78 of them in 2013)
paid just $100,000 or less in
state taxes.
Now Measure 97 is on the
ballot. Measure 97 is the first
time Oregon voters have been
given the option to raise taxes
on the biggest corporations on a
scale that could turn around the
schools 20-year decline.
How it works is pretty sim-
ple: C-corporations doing busi-
ness in Oregon would pay a
minimum corporate income tax
equal to 2.5 percent of all in-
state sales over $25 million.
That simple change would raise
an estimated $3 billion a year —
increasing state revenue by
nearly a third. That’s roughly
equal to the revenue lost by
Measures 5, 47, and 50.
And the tax would hit some
taxpayers that have had it pretty
easy. Only the top one quarter of
the top 1 percent of companies
doing business in Oregon will
pay this tax — about 400 com-
panies in all. In inflation-ad-
justed dollars, Oregon’s corpo-
rate income tax is generating
about as much as it did in the
Oregon General Election
1970s, even though personal in-
come tax revenues have tripled
since then. Oregon today has the
lowest effective corporate tax
rate in the nation.
But many of the biggest cor-
porations doing business in Ore-
gon would like to keep their
taxes low. As of Oct. 18, when
this went to printer, corporations
had reported over $17.9 million
in contributions to the No on 97
campaign.
That kind of corporate money
pays for a lot of ads, but by and
large it’s paying to spread disin-
formation, doubt and fear about
the measure. The Labor Press
takes those arguments apart on
the next page. Read that, and
you’ll see why union members
and working people have every
reason to vote for the measure,
and to be proud of union effort
that went into it.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
AGAINST MEASURE 97: Who’s
opposed to big corporations paying
higher taxes? Big corporations, for
starters. See the whole rogue’s list of
contributors at defeatmeasure97.com
FOR MEASURE 97: Over 400
businesses have come out in support
of union-sponsored Measure 97, as
well as hundreds of elected officials,
economists, farmers, community and
faith leaders, and unions and non-
profit groups. See the whole list at
voteyeson97.org/coalition
Ballots can be returned by mail or at any official drop site in Oregon.
All ballots must be received by 8 p.m., Nov. 8. POSTMARKS DO NOT COUNT