Gov. Brown’s 7 Deadly Tax Sins invade capitol

By Taxpayer Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Governor Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek have proposed a flurry of very dangerous tax bills.  Here are the seven worst.

1. 40% Property tax increase on homeowners: Removing Measure 5 property tax cap (limits $15 per thousand) will increase our property taxes by 40%. If lawmakers remove the Measure 50 tax limits (limits 3% assessed rate), your property taxes will increase 300%! (HJR 3, HJR 4, HB 2167).

2. $800 million beer, wine, tobacco & soda tax: Governor Brown has tried to hide her $800 million beer, wine, and tobacco tax from the public, but now it has been accidentally leaked. The state has already made tax model estimates on how much a soda tax would bring into its coffers.

3. 16-cent gas tax increase. The $600 million carbon tax (HB 2020) is expected to raise gas taxes by 16 cents—that’s on top of the 12-cent tax increase two years ago. To add insult to injury, the politicians refuse to call a tax a tax. Instead, they are calling it a “Carbon cap and invest” bill and a “Green Jobs Bill” . . . that magically raises $700 million! The Carbon Tax is also projected to raise natural gas prices by 11%.

4. Stealing your $336 kicker tax refund that is coming to you in 2020. The Constitution requires over-collected tax revenue to be returned to taxpayers. Right now, the Oregon Legislature is sitting on a pile of $686 million dollars of over-collected tax revenue. (SJR 3).

5. ‘Hidden’ billion dollar sales tax. Oregonians have rejected a sales tax nine times. Nine. But in this tax-rampage of 2019, Oregon’s politicians have decided simply to hide the next sales tax . . . by charging businesses on their sales behind the scenes, instead of on the receipt where customers can see it. Mere days after the election, the plotting began behind closed doors to draft this secret attack on the will of the people.

6. Taxing small business at higher tax rates than big corporations. There are bills right now that would increase the tax rate of small businesses so that they would pay higher tax rates than large big corporations in Oregon. (HB 2155, SB 211)

7. A 7% Cell phone tax: As cell phones have become more popular, politicians have realized what a cash cow cell phone taxes can be. They have plans to tax your cell phone and use the money to subsidize landline internet users. Cell phone taxes should be used only for cell phone services. Other bills are targeting taxing the internet when people make calls using internet software. It is a backdoor internet tax. (HB 2184).

Speaking of taxes….tax revenue is surging—so why raise taxes?

From the fall 2018 forecast, personal income tax collections were up 6%, Business income tax revenue was up 32% and lottery revenue up 5%. Yet politicians are proposing billions in new taxes.

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