LET TERS
SKOV FOR COUNCIL
A FAIRY TALE
Congratulations on your masterful pro-
motion of Emily Semple in the Oct. 20 is-
sue. You not only gave her the cover but
also quoted her in the article “Who Runs
the City.”
Her cavalier attitude toward climate
change — less City Council discussion
and more tree planting (EW endorse-
ments, 10/20) — belies any pretense at
understanding the council’s responsibility
for enforcing the Climate Recovery Or-
dinance. Josh Skov does understand this
responsibility of the council and has the in-
telligence, tenacity and preparation to act
accordingly.
As a former city councilor representing
the inner-city neighborhoods and the Whit
before it was the Whit, I know the value
of prepared, pragmatic progressive voices
on the council. I think Josh is such a voice
and I hope the voters of Ward 1 share my
assessment.
Shawn Boles
Eugene
Once upon a time, in a land far, far
away, it was a dark and stormy night in the
autumn of our discontent. Though it was
the best of times, it was also the worst of
times: The less-than-charming prince, hav-
ing become a small-handed, underhanded,
fire-breathing dragon with weird hair and
strange complexion, was feeling his oats
(or maybe it was just his hemorrhoids).
Searching hither and yon, over hill and
over dale, he hit the dusty trail in his tour
bus in the quest for a beautiful princess to
work his wiles upon.
He found her working at her spinning
wheel and, being the prick her fairy god-
mother warned her about, slipped roof-
ies into her curds and whey, whereupon
he non-consensually kissed the sleeping
beauty and grabbed her Puss-in-Boots, be-
lieving he could do so with impunity be-
cause he was rich and famous.
The princess, who had by that time
already overcome her sensitivity to peas,
vanquished the Wicked Witch of the West,
subdued her narcissistic and equally wick-
ed stepsisters, left those sniveling dwarfs
to do their own housekeeping, overcome
food poisoning from that apple and broke
Editor’s Note: In addition to the print letters, please go to
eugeneweekly.com for more Skov endorsements.
HOT AIR SOCIETY
her bitch-of-a-mother’s mirror, cut her hair
and escaped the tower, found her lost glass
slipper and donned a pair of ruby slippers
... upon awakening and realizing what was
happening, gagged, vomited, wiped her
mouth and decided she didn’t want to kiss
this toad of a frog again. So she kicked him
in the balls and told him to f*** off ... then
picked up her kitty cat and rode off into the
sunset alone over the river and through the
woods on a bicycle built for two and voted
for Hillary.
Richard Leach
Coburg
SCARE TACTICS
The No on Measure 97 letters and ads
are laden with the phrase "massive corpo-
rate tax increase." Let's take a closer look.
Corporations that make less than $25
million in gross receipts pay a minimum
tax of $30,000. Measure 97 will not change
that. Do the math — it is anything but
massive. Currently, small businesses are
paying a much higher tax rate; the large C
corporations are truly not pitching in their
fair share.
Measure 97 is simply asking that those
big C corporations making over $25 mil-
lion pay an additional 2.5 percent on gross
receipts over that $25 million. A 2.5 per-
cent increase at those levels is hardly mas-
sive and will marginally move Oregon
from dead last position in corporate tax in
the nation.
What is massive is the impact that the
estimated $3 billion in revenue will have
on education, healthcare and senior ser-
vices. Keeping in mind that businesses
and families will not move to Oregon if
our schools and services are in such poor
shape, it is a bogus argument for opponents
to suggest that the money would be divert-
ed. Why would it with those services in
such desperate need? It is in our common
interest to fund them.
Opponents would have us believe that
corporations making those amounts in
gross receipts would have difficulty paying
their respective tax rates. This while corpo-
rate profits and CEO pay have skyrocketed
in the last decade.
To suggest that the tax would be passed
on to consumers is speculative hyperbole
and a scare tactic. Market competition
would negate that action.
Zenia Liebman
Junction City
BY TON Y CORCOR A N
We All Scream for Ice Cream!
TAKING A LOOK AT MEASURE 97
A
s you know, dear readers, the Hot Air Society is not only a social
drinking club; we are also a 527 Super-PAC. We secretly authorized
the distribution of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to the Don-
ald Trump, Bud Pierce, Art Robinson and Dennis Richardson cam-
paigns. The incendiary phone has been blamed for one house fire, a
burning Jeep and several alarming moments on airplanes. We felt it was the least we
could do for them.
Since you know how we feel about the aforementioned clown college candidates,
let’s visit Measure 97, the most critical issue on the ballot.
Measure 97 is complex. For 10 years in the Legislature, I advocated for a similar
gross receipts tax. Democrats were not in control back then, but the arguments for
and against the tax were identical.
Here’s what current House Revenue Committee Chair Phil Barnhart had to say
in a recent email exchange with our mutual friend, L.S., a local journalist. L.S. as-
sumed I was supporting Measure 97 and said she had some misgivings about the
measure after reading an anti-97 pitch in the R-G by the heirs to Umpqua Dairy. She
asked why the measure’s authors chose to tax sales rather than profits. I responded
by describing the legislative history of the gross receipts tax and the impending $1.3
billion shortfall in the 2017-19 state general fund. In conclusion I muttered:
“Anyway, Phil makes a persuasive argument that 97 goes after forgone profit lost
to the state by bad federal tax enforcement on profits vs. sales. This may or may not
have anything to do with Umpqua Dairy’s tax liability. GMAFB! Over $25 million
in Oregon? Tax increases are never popular. Without this particular tax solution at
this time … Oregon’s in deep doodoo. $1.3 B deficit in next biennium … Not one
Republican has proposed an alternative … say no more. Ask Phil.”
I copied Phil on the email and he sent this unsolicited response:
L.S.,
Tony raises some points I did not know about the bias of the owners of Umpqua
that might raise skepticism. Please note that the article contains no numbers. There
is no way to check to determine if the arguments are correct or not. Tony makes the
correct point that the federal tax law that Oregon also uses to define profits is fatally
flawed. Corporations used to pay about 18 percent of our General Fund and it is
now about six percent and headed lower. About 50 of the largest corporations in the
country, you could probably name them, will pay 80 percent of this tax.
4
October 27, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
These are the same fine folks who, like The Donald, have figured out how not to
pay taxes based on profits. The huge advantage of a minimum tax (at a much lower
rate than the profits tax) based on sales in Oregon is that it is much simpler to cal-
culate and therefore much harder to manipulate. These very large corporations have
avoided paying their fair share for a long, long time. They need to pay up. This is
the best way to get there. Please note that these corporations use our resources to
support their businesses just like those who actually pay taxes. They should pay a
minimum tax for education, health and senior services whether they make a profit
or not. That theory is already well established in our property tax law. Sales is a
good estimator of the corporation’s use of government resources.
It turns out that profits (as currently defined) are not.
If M97 passes, I expect to spend ’17 looking at
requests from companies like Umpqua Dairy
who will be asking for forbearance. If they can
prove they are a special case, they will get it. At
this point I have no idea. We did that after M67
passed as well and changed the law as it applied
to a couple special cases.
Take a look also at the website at abetteroregon.
com.
Only you can answer the basic question for your-
self: Should we continue to cheat public school kids
and Oregon’s future or should we risk a few unintended
consequences of a new but very much needed tax?
Phil
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Anti-97
corporations have raised more than $17 million so
far to defeat the measure. Contributors include Wells
Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Chevron, Com-
cast, Costco, Albertsons, Safeway and Fred Meyer
parent company Kroger.
Stay tuned and vote, dammit!
Former state Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove is a retired state
employee.