By: Conner Williams Editor-in-Chief
It’s that time of the year again, time for everybody to get into the spirit of giving and show their appreciation for each other. So how do big businesses located in Oregon get into the holiday spirit?
By threatening to take their corporations, and the jobs that come with them, out of state if Oregon taxpayers don’t cut them a break.
Big businesses love Oregon, and we love having them here, for the most part.
They create local jobs that contribute to the growth of the state economy and provide an element of prestige to our state. I mean, how cool is it that Nike’s world headquarters are right up I-5?
But as much as we love having big businesses in Oregon, they love reminding us why they’re here: low taxes.
According to The Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index, which is a collection of data that shows how well states structure their tax systems, Oregon ranked no. 12 on the list, and was ranked no. 4 in the sales tax rank category.
Since Oregon has relatively low property taxes for businesses and zero sales tax that businesses are partly responsible for covering, our quaint Pacific Northwest state has become a safe haven for businesses looking to turn some large profits.
So what do they do when faced with the potential for increased taxes? Threaten to leave, of course.
Our Oregon, a coalition that “fights for economic and social fairness for all Oregonians,” recently introduced a potential ballot measure that would increase state funds by an estimated $2.6 billion a year, money that is purported to be designated for schools and other services.
Many in favor of the potential measure say that the money generated could be used to pay off the majority of our crippling PERS debt, which is set to cost the taxpayers of Oregon billions come 2017.
But there is no clear indication yet of what the funds would explicitly be used for.
The tax is what is a called a gross receipts tax and would charge businesses to pay a tax rate of 2.5 percent on their Oregon sales that totaled $25 million or more.
The whole point of the proposed measure is to target larger chain businesses that also conduct sales outside of Oregon, such as large grocery stores and corporations like Nike and Intel. However, the measure claims that the tax would only be on sales that are made in Oregon.
The intent of the potential measure is a noble one; it charges large businesses that have seen huge profits in the state of Oregon from repeated tax breaks and leniency from taxpayers to begin to pay their fair share.
Corporations holding taxpayers hostage is a despicable act that has been seen before.
Think of sports franchises – billion-dollar corporations in their own right – that threaten to leave their respective cities if they do not get a new playing arena built, with the taxpayers footing the bill, of course.
It is also curious that a decision like this is being put forth as a potential ballot measure instead of one that is made in the state legislature, but I suppose that legislators don’t want to upset their corporate donors that help to ensure they get reelected.
It comes down to a simple question: on whom do the voters want to place the burden of our state’s financial woes?
Should the taxpayers continue to vote themselves into a hole, or should big corporations that use our state as a profit-haven be held accountable to pay their fair share back into the state in which their businesses thrive?
