6A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • OCTOBER 31, 2018
creased property taxes but only
aft er voters approved the mea-
sure.
MEASURES from A1
private businesses means those
bonds can’t be utilized by pri-
vate housing developers, elim-
inating the chance at a public/
private partnership between
the city of Portland and a pri-
vate housing development
company. Measure 102 would
change that, allowing the part-
nership.
Th e case for each project
would still have to be made
to voters in order to issue the
bonds and should the bonds be
approved, the measure requires
a yearly audit of the funds and
a report on how they’re being
spent.
Th e measure has received
support from both sides of the
aisle with both gubernatorial
candidates saying they sup-
ported the measure. Oregon
AFL-CIO and IBEW Local 48,
both union groups, voiced their
support of the measure in this
year’s voter pamphlet along
with AARP Oregon and the
League of Women Voters. Th e
sole argument against the mea-
sure included in the voter pam-
phlet was state senator Alan
Olsen arguing that “aff ordable
housing” wasn’t defi ned in the
measure and said he believed
the measure could cause prop-
erty taxes to increase.
Measure 102 would not in-
crease property taxes on its
own. If approved, voters would
decide if bond measures could
be implemented and those
funds — once green-lighted by
voters — could be utilized by
private housing developers. In
Cottage Grove, the South Lane
School District asked voters to
pass a $35 million bond in 2016
to construct a new elementary
school, remodel the communi-
ty pool and improve technol-
ogy and security around the
district. In 2015, South Lane
County Fire and Rescue asked
voters to fund the purchase of
new equipment including a wa-
ter tender and fi re engine.
Th ose bonds, in turn, in-
Measure 103
Measure 103 seeks to prohibit
sales tax on groceries
By Damien Sherwood
For The Sentinel
Oregon sits uniquely in the
Pacifi c Northwest as a state
without a sales tax. When
struggling Oregon families plot
out their food expenditures,
they can rely on their super-
markets’ price tags without any
surprises at the cash register.
Still, in September this year,
more than 620,000 Oregonians
received help from the Supple-
mental Nutritional Assistance
Program (SNAP), according
to the Department of Human
Services. With hundreds of
thousands of households living
on thin margins, many can ill
aff ord price hikes in basic ne-
cessities.
A measure on the Oregon
ballot this year will challenge a
perceived threat to these neces-
sities.
Measure 103 would amend
the Oregon Constitution by
adding a 16th section to Article
IX. It proposes to prohibit taxes
and fees based on the transac-
tions of groceries, which would
extend to sellers and distrib-
utors such as supermarkets,
restaurants, farmers markets
and food banks.
Th e bill defi nes groceries as
“any raw or processed food or
beverage intended for human
consumption,” but does not
include alcohol, marijuana or
tobacco products.
Th e proposed amendment
has drawn strong support from
food and beverage distribu-
tors, but fi nds dissent among a
wide range of critics concerned
about the bill’s sprawling defi -
nitions and lack of necessity.
Oregon does not currently
have a statewide sales tax on
any items — including grocer-
ies — although two Oregon
cities, Ashland and Yachats, do
have a fi ve percent tax on pre-
pared food and nonalcoholic
drinks, which essentially apply
to restaurants.
Both were voter-approved.
Ashland fi rst approved its
local tax in 1990 to help fund
costs associated with the con-
struction of a wastewater treat-
ment plant and to purchase
land for parks. In 2009, voters
chose to renew it.
Yachats fi rst started collect-
ing its food and beverage tax
in 2007, also to pay for a new
wastewater treatment facility,
and modeled their tax policy
on Ashland’s, letting businesses
keep fi ve percent of any sales
tax they collect to off set ac-
counting costs.
“It has, by and large, been a
positive eff ect on the commu-
nity,” said Yachats Mayor Ger-
ald Stanley.
Outside of Yachats and Ash-
land, Oregon does not tax food
and beverages, although such a
tax was proposed in Grants Pass
in 2006 and residents turned it
down. Th is year in Jacksonville,
an eff ort was made to bring a
similar tax to ballot, but failed
to garner the required signa-
tures.
As these local negotiations
have taken place, however, big-
ger stakes are on the table in the
state legislature.
In support of Measure 103,
campaign contributions are
currently around $4.2 million,
compared to the opposition’s
roughly $2.8 million.
Th e American Beverage As-
sociation has poured more
than $1 million into the sup-
port campaign and other ma-
jor donors include Albertsons,
Safeway, Kroger, Costco and
the Northwest Grocery Asso-
ciation.
When the initiative received
enough signatures this spring
to be placed on the Nov. 6 Gen-
eral Election ballot, Joe Gilliam,
president of the Northwest
Grocery Association, hailed the
moment as a “major milestone.”
A leading proponent of the
bill, he said, “Since statehood,
Oregon has never taxed gro-
ceries, yet politicians in Ore-
gon continue to push for a tax
on grocery sales. Th is initiative
will end these eff orts and oth-
er future eff orts by proactively
prohibiting the taxing of gro-
ceries from farm-to-fork.”
Th e Grocery Tax ‘Push’
Gilliam’s claim that Oregon
politicians have continuously
sought to impose grocery taxes
echoes similar claims made by
the Yes on 103 campaign and
its supporters — that Oregon
politicians have tried several
times over the years to institute
a grocery tax.
Evidence for this, however, is
sparse.
On the Yes on 103 campaign’s
website, an advertisement cites
specifi c political moves as proof
of such attempts.
First among them is House
Bill 2830 from 2017. Th is bill
proposed to increase the state’s
corporate income tax; however,
there is no mention specifi cally
of food or beverage.
Th e advertisement also refers
to Oregon’s Measure 97, which
failed to receive a majority vote
in the General Election in 2016.
Th e measure would have re-
moved the cap on the corporate
gross sales tax — again, how-
ever, with no specifi c language
targeting food or groceries.
Also listed as an attempt at
a grocery tax is Senate Joint
Resolution 18 in 2015, but gov-
ernment records show that this
resolution proposed to amend
the Oregon Constitution in re-
lation to an education support
fund, wholly unrelated to food
or beverage.
House Bill 2330 from 2017
is also found among propo-
nents’ examples of grocery tax
proposals, but this bill was “re-
lating to charges for electric-
ity delivered to the public for
electrically powered motor ve-
hicles,” according to state doc-
uments.
Other cited attempts at the
local level are Ontario’s failed
Measure 23-58, a broad sales
tax, and St. Helen City Coun-
cil’s unanimous rejection of a
proposed sweetened-beverage
tax earlier this year.
Th e lack of proposals to spe-
cifi cally target groceries and the
thematic thread of general sales
taxes cited among objection-
able proposals leave the im-
pression that the bill’s backers
are concerned mainly with an
overall sales tax — not grocery
tax.
Still, in a KTVZ television
interview, Yes on 103 campaign
spokesman Dan Floyd said that
the measure would prevent
lawmakers from imposing a
burden on the people most af-
fected by grocery costs.
“I think that (the opposition
is) in full support of taxing your
food and beverage,” he said.
“Th ey believe state and local
government need the money.
And we understand that reve-
nue is important, but we don’t
think it should be a regressive
tax on the people who can af-
ford to pay it the least, and it
shouldn’t be on your food and
beverages.”
Regressive as it might be, lit-
tle evidence suggests that any
state politicians are in favor of
a grocery tax or that the needy
live under its perpetual threat.
Others believe the real threat
lies in a subsection of the bill
referring to the “corporate min-
imum tax.”
Corporations vs. Local Control
When Oregon businesses
pay taxes, they must pay the
greater between two options:
(1) roughly 0.1 percent of sales,
known as the corporate mini-
mum tax; or (2) 6.6 percent on
taxable income up to $1 million
or 7.6 percent over $1 million.
Th e minimum tax on sales is
capped at $100,000.
A subsection of Measure 103
addresses the corporate min-
imum tax specifi cally, stating
that the prohibition against
imposing taxes applies to this
tax as well, eff ectively protect-
ing the corporate minimum tax
from future increases.
Th e Yes on 103 campaign
fl atly rejects that the bill is a
corporate tax break on its web-
site’s FAQ.
However, in a December
2017 petition to place this ini-
tiative on the ballot, the Oregon
Attorney General’s offi ce con-
sidered an objection raised by
the chief petitioners of the bill.
In draft ing the “yes” and “no”
vote result summaries for the
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