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by Dan Lucas
In response to a query [2] from state Sen. Doug Whitsett, Oregon Legislative Revenue Officer Paul Warner replied [3] on August 18, 2016, that it was safe to say that Oregon’s total state tax collections are at a historical high.
That’s consistent with historical data on Oregon tax collections in a February 2014 research report from the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office (LRO) that I wrote about two years ago [4]. That data from 1970-2013 showed “During the 40+ years, income taxes have outstripped inflation and population growth by about $2.5 billion – ending up at $6.7 billion rather than $4.2 billion.”
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It’s also consistent with the continuing rapid growth of the Oregon budget. As I noted in April [6] “this General & Lottery Funds budget ‘reflects a staggering increase of $2.1 billion from the previous $16.8 billion budget.’ That was on top of another staggering increase of around $2 billion from the previous budget cycle.”
In that same article, I also pointed out that charts produced by the State of Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office “show the General & Lottery Funds [biennial] budget grew over $6.5 billion in just the past 10 years – from around $12.5 billion in 2005-07 to $19 billion now!”
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To read more from Dan, visit www.dan-lucas.com [8]