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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2002)
Page A4 February 20, 2002 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f <£l}r|dortknti) Observer The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRi HW CTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART W ITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. 5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 3 3 • FAX5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 1 5 • EMAIL: news@portlandobserver.com subscriDtion^>Doniandobsener.cofn ads@portlandobserver.com The Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication-is a member of the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Repre sentative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. Enron and Oregon’s Revenue Shortfall C harles S heketoff O regonians have good rea sons to be m ad at Enron. Friends and neighbors w ho w ork for E nron subsidiary Portland G en eral Electric saw their retire m ent savings vanish. M oreover, PG E cu stom ers paid electric bills that covered the u tility ’s paym ents to Enron for federal taxes, only to find out that Enron pocketed the money. The recent reports that Enron failed to pay federal income taxes, and actually received payments from the IRS, should not have surprised anyone. An October 2000 report by the Institute on Taxation and Econom ic Policy showed that Enron was among the 24 companies o f the country ’ s 250 largest corporations who got money back from the IRS in 1998. The IRS sent Enron a check using the taxes paid by all other taxpayers, such as you! D isclosure o f these abuses can help close the loopholes. A bout 15 years ago, C itizens for Tax Justice reported that, from 1981 through 1985, G eor g ia - P a c if ic , U .S . B a n c o rp , W eyerhauser, and Boeing were am ong 41 corporations nation w ide that paid no federal taxes or had negative incom e taxes. Federal tax reform in 1986, d e signed in large part by form er U .S. Senator Bob Packw ood, helped close m any loopholes. by By 1988, all but tw o o f the 41 freeloaders from 1981 to 1985 had to pay at least som e federal incom e taxes. Enron teaches us that the “loophole lobby” has been busy ever since. Regrettably, we do not know w hich corporations doing busi ness in O regon pay O regon c o rp o rate incom e tax es and how m uch. W e do know that in 1998 about half o f O regon’s corporate tax collections cam e from only 84 out o f 37,000 D oes this relate to O regon’s current revenue shortfall? When businesses escape paying state incom e taxes, households must pick up a bigger portion o f the tab for governm ent services, even those that create a good business clim ate such as pri m ary and secondary education. O regonians need to know who are good corporate citizens - those w ho pay a fair share in taxes - and w hich corporations are escaping their responsibility A Oregon needs to take on Enron and the “loophole lobby” to protect the small taxpayer who gets “soaked, ” while the “loophole lobby” succeeds in avoiding taxes, i corporations doing business in O regon. But because corpora tions doing business in O regon do not have to report publicly how m uch they paid in state incom e taxes, we have no way o f know ing who pays and who escapes through loopholes or E n r o n - s ty le a c c o u n tin g . O reg o n ’s corporate taxes are “tied at the hip” to the federal tax code. Thus, the E nron news should cause concern am ong O regonians. for funding necessary govern m ent services. Oregonians need a “Small Tax payer Protection and G ood Cor porate Citizen D isclosure Act” that would require disclosure of the tax liability o f O regon’s pub licly traded, regulated, and large businesses. O regon needs to take on E nron and the “ loophole lobby” to protect the sm all tax payer w ho gets “soaked,” w hile the “loophole lobby” succeeds in avoiding taxes. O regon is experiencing a rev enue shortfall, exacerbated by increased dem ands on state ser v ic e s d u e to the re c e ssio n . M oreover, the 2001 Legislature passed a law changing the way m u lti-sta te c o rp o ra tio n s are taxed, giving tax cuts to a hand ful o f large corporations. Politi cians claim this is not the tim e to increase taxes on their friends in the business com m unity. Yet we do not know which o f their friends actually pay taxes. For all we know, businesses’ claim s o f econom ic hardship and high tax burdens are as believable as Linda L ay ’s claim that even she and her husband, Enron execu tive K enneth Lay, are now im poverished. W e know about E nron’s tax m ischief because the federal gov ernm ent requires publicly traded corporations to disclose their f e d e r a l ta x e s . O re g o n ia n s should have access to the same in fo rm a tio n a b o u t tax pay- m en ts-o r the lack thereof-to O regon. Then O regonians can hold corporations like Enron accountable for their actions. Charles Sheketoff is the ex ecutive director o f the Oregon Center fo r Public Policy. He can be reached at csheketoff@ocpp.org, OCPP, P.O. Box 7, Silverton, OR 97381-0007, or by calling 503- 873-1201. LETTER (O i l IE EDITOR Legislature Needlessly Gutting the Oregon Voters Pamphlet Dear Editor, The L egislature adjourned w ithout a House vote on this bill. But it looks as if there w ill be another special session before the end o f February, so my letter to you is still relevant. I have revised the letter slightly to acknow ledge the adjournm ent. The L egislature had so little to do during its first Special Session o f 2002, that it turned to gutting the O regon V oters Pam phlet. SB 1007, w hich the Senate passed by 18-12, would rem ove over 90% o f the argum ents on ballot m easures from the Pamphlet. The expected Second Special Session will allow the H ouse an opportunity to vote on this bill. V oters need more inform ation about ballot m easures, not less. Lim iting each side on a ballot m easure to a mere 650 w ords for “Y es” and 650 w ords for “N o” (w ith each side having one 325- word rebuttal) is far, far too little inform ation. It am ounts to about one full page per side in the Voters Pamphlet. And the m echanism for determ ining the content o f these argum ents concentrates enorm ous pow er in the hands o f the G overnor and leaders o f the House and Senate, who get to appoint the com m ittee that drafts the “No” argum ent. If it is a m easure that office holders like (such as a referral from the Legislature itself), they can appoint people unw illing to craft effective “N o” argum ents. This will only increase the need for ballot m easure cam paigns to rely on expensive paid m edia and to rely on big contributors to pay for that media. Is it a surprise that the R epublicans favored this by a vote o f 14-2, or that the D em ocrats opposed it by a vote of 10-4? Dan Meek; 10949 S. W. 4th Avenue, Portland, OR 97219 Based on Public Response, McDonald’s Out of Place in Eliot Neighborhood Early this m onth, over 700 w ritte n resp o n se s arriv ed at Portland’s Planning Department - O ffice o f Planning and D evel opm ent Review asking the o f fice to reject the proposal to a M cD onald’s d rive-thru restau rant in the E liot N eighborhood. The proposed site is at 3303 NE. MLK, a block south o f Fremont. It is surrounded on three sides by housing in a historic district, w ith all entrances and exits on residential Cook and Ivy streets. The message was that many residents o f N orth/N ortheast Portland feel that the proposal falls short on community guide lines, goals that emphasize neigh borhood character and pedestrian friendly development that does not enhance the historic nature of the neighborhood, and that is sues o f livability and public safety were not addressed. O f the livabil ity issues, residents feel that traf fic and trash will heavily impact A the neighborhood. Friends of MLK is a group of local citizens that is working to foster a vibrant neighborhood by encouraging business develop ment that supports the goals laid out in various development plans: A lbina Com m unity Plan, the Metro 2040 Growth Plan and the I, most recent Fremont/MLK Vision Study. These goals include en hancing the pedestrian environ ment, encouraging mixed-use de velopment, and striving to ‘raise the bar’ for new developments on MLK. Along with the 700 responses, the five area neighborhood as A so c ia tio n s: E lio t, Irv in g to n , Boise and King, have voted to o p p o se th e p ro p o s e d M cD onald’s. Finally, city o ffi c ia ls have e n c o u ra g e d M c D o n a ld ’s to th o u g h tfu lly consider the opinions o f neigh borhood and to w ork w ith the local com m unity on this issue.
