The Oregon state employee., January 01, 1947, Page 11, Image 11

9
led to thé development of amazing new
methods and improved products in
these peacetime industries. Mr. Barrick
I sees a new and greater industrial. fu ­
ture for, Oregon "as long as the tw o
major resources of forestry and agri­
culture of this state can be maintained
and placed on a substantial yield basis
by intelligent planning and conserva­
tion measures.” He also directs atten­
tion to the new industries which show
premise of becoming large postwar bus­
inesses. "The huge potential electrical
power, and untouched mineral resources
encouraged the establishment of the
chemical and eléctro-chemical field of
industrialization, which opened the
eyes of industrialists throughout the na­
tion to the opportunities and economic,
potentials of Oregon . . Orégon has
the great potential foreign markets of
thé future— the Orient, Russia, Cen­
tral and South Aiperica . . . The trend
over the recent war years was one of 1
increased output, further industrializa­
tion, diversification, new production
and pew fabrication in peacetime in­
dustries which has left Oregon with a
larger potential economic base than
ever before . . . There is optimism on
the West Coast, and optimisnl, in and
of itself, adds impetus to the expansion
I of an overall economic base of any
community.” .
The im portance'of an industry may
Q established by a variety o f' meas­
ures. "Value added by m anufacture”—
¿¡accepted by I Mr, Barrick as the best
comparative^ measure—B defined as
" 'the increment created- by* the manu­
facturing process’. ’ It is the difference
between tlie value of the product and
the oôst of materials, and includes the
contribution of business to the eco<.
nomic. factors of production through
wages and returns to. both borrowed
and equity capital before.-taxes. Using
1899^as the base year,' Barrick discloses
that the increase, iri m anufacturing has
been of relatively more importance in
Oregon than in'-the United States in
general. The 193 9 index of value added
by m anufacture in Oregori is -8 55 and
that for the United States is 533; an
increase in Oregon of 8 ^ ® times the
base year, and an increase of only 5(6
in the United States as a whole. This
'implies that Oregon has m anufactur­
ing possibilities which offer greater
opportunities than the average for the
United States.”
In the last chapter of this report,
Mr. Barrick considers the relative fis­
cal capacity, tax burdens and tax effort
of Oregon and the other Western states.
It appears to him "th at Oregon has the
economic potentials now, and being a
developing economy, w ill have continu­
ing ability to meet all reasonable de­
mands for the,support of the State and
Local governments.” He shows very
clearly, however^ that Oregori is exert­
ing less' tax effort in I relation to .her
fiscal capacity th a n fs any .other W est­
ern state, except Idaho.
/Tri 1942, the average of tax burdens
(per capita state and local taxes) for
the 11 Western states was $94.87; for
Oregon the average was $78.68. The
average fiscal capacity (per capita in­
come payments) for the Western states
,was $1,147; fbr Oregon it was $1,075..
Using th e Western States- average as
a base of 100, Oregon’s tax burdens
index is 83, her fiscal capacity index
94 and her tax effort ratio only 88. If
Oregon’s per capita tax burden had
been equal to the average for the W est­
ern states in 1942.,, the total state and
local taxes would have amounted to
$103,408,^0, or H B R H H 1 more
than was estimated to have -been col­
lected, Barrick figures that if Oregon
had exerted the same tax effort as Cali­
fornia, total taxes would have amount­
ed to $12.1,099,000 or $35,360,000
more than were collected. A tax effort
equal to that of Washington (qnly
slightly ahead of Oregon in tax effort)
would have produced $8,023,000 more
than was collected.. 1
Fiscalvcapacity, tax structure and the
functional level o f governmental activ­
ity are cited by this report as the prin­
cipal factors which produce variations
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