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The thing that this fellow who called from Bend doesn't get is that reforming the kicker and getting a real rainy day fund going would actually make it LESS likely that Salem would "go back to the well" during recessions like this one and the one in 2001 and 2002, because it would make revenues more stable.

Would you rather have to pay a sales tax on such "non-essential" items as toilet paper and basic clothing?  Because that is the other choice for revenue stability, and I for one hate that idea.  Kicker reform doesn't raise anyone's taxes at all.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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Here are our choices:  either reform the kicker to use its funds for a robust rainy day fund, with strict limits on the circumstances and manner of its use, or face yet another attempt at shifting the tax burden down the income scale by instituting a sales tax, which Oregonians have wisely and resoundingly rejected a number of times.

@thx1138 -- talk about being dramatic, right down to your handle.  Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.  Look at the countries in the world that don't have an effective tax collection system and see what hellholes they are to live in.  I'll take Denmark or the like anytime.  At least in a country like that you can't go bankrupt due to a freak medical condition caused by bad luck in the genetic lottery-- that happens every day in our country, which is a freaking disgrace.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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RE: a "consumption" (aka sales) tax-- the only way it's remotely fair is if it's a goods AND services tax, otherwise it's just a way to foist more of the tax burden on people farther down the income scale. This is well documented. The higher your income, the more likely you are to use services of various sorts. So a GST, as they have in Canada, is the only thing I'd support.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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We need to REFORM the kicker so it doesn't "kick" until revenues exceed projections by at least 10%.   The excess up to that point needs to go into a ROBUST rainy day fund that will do two things-- provide the tax money to make up the shortfall from the income tax during recessions, and get rid of any talk of a general sales tax, which is a horrible regressive idea that Oregonians have had the sense to reject time and again.

Also, thank goodness that Oregonians had the sense to reject the Sizemore-ian "government is evil" advertising campaign of the opposition to these measures.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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I second the recommendation of David Cay Johnston's book _Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else_ It's well researched and will truly make your blood boil.

My feeling is that all this talk of an Oregon sales tax is mostly pushed by higher-income people.  The income tax rates do need to be reformed, though, since they haven't really been changed since the 1930's, when making 10K yearly was a decent salary.  The bill proposed above could help, combined with a beefy rainy day fund fed by all the kicker money from real boom years.  Adding a sales tax also creates a whole new bureaucracy to deal with its ins and outs (and is a PITA every time you go to buy something for say, 3 bucks and oops, it's really 3.15 or 3.18 or whatever).

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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First, there should be no sales tax.  Unless they're on both goods AND services, they're extremely regressive and just serve to shift the tax burden down the income scale.  Sales taxes are always sold with the line: "it won't be levied on essentials," but last time I checked, soap, toothpaste and toilet paper were pretty essential, and those basic things are always among the things taxed.  And haven't Oregonians made it abundantly clear that we don't want it?  It goes down in flames by 3 to 1 margins every time we vote on it.

We should instead take all the kicker money (both corporate and personal) and put it into a rainy day fund for use in the bad times.  Put limits on access to it by the legislature so that it can't be raided when times are good.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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Three words:  regressive sales tax-- we Oregonians want to avoid a sales tax, right?  The only way to assure that we'll have the state revenue stability we'll need to avoid it is kicker reform or repeal (and putting the extra money into a beefy rainy day fund).

Otherwise we'll keep having feast or famine state revenues until a regressive sales tax slips through.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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