5 bad tax bills to watch as Session ends

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

#1. SJR 26 — Stealing the Kicker: Just a few weeks ago the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee held a hearing on Senate Joint Resolution 26.  Senate Joint Resolution 26 would eliminate the people’s Kicker Income Tax Refund law altogether.  Oregonians are expected to collect, on average, a $1,730 kicker refund, next year due to surplus over-collected taxes being returned to taxpayers like yourself.

#2. HB 2757 —  500% over-cost cell-tax:     HB 2757, a massive new tax that Salem politicians want added to Oregonians’ phone bills.  The $68,520,000 a biennium tax is slated to fund the state’s new 9-8-8 suicide prevention hotline but, as Representative Reschke noted in his testimony before the committee, 44 other states have thus far funded their call centers without adding a new tax on consumers. A tax of $.03, not $.50, should suffice to cover basic costs of the 9-8-8 hotline.  Cell-taxes nationally are the new back-door tax where they are increasing faster than general sales tax rates.

#3. SB 140 — CAT Tax expansion: SB 140-3 raises the Corporate Activities Tax (CAT)  exemption level from $1 million to $2 million to help spare the pain on many  businesses.   Yet at the same time raises taxes on businesses by 16% by reducing expense deductions for certain businesses ($2M to $10M) and raising the tax rate 7% for other larger companies.   So in essence, it makes a bad tax worse for many while letting some escape the tax altogether.  This bill was heard just a few weeks ago, making it a live threat.  Bi-Mart cited CAT tax in their reason they closed their pharmacies.

#4. HB 3409 — Enviro-fees and mandates:  Hb 3409 was a simple three sentence bill. Now at the end of Session and at nearly the last possible minute, environmentalists are working to gut-and-stuff this tiny bill with a massive 112 page amendment.  This amendment allows the Environmental Quality Commission to create their own fee.   The bill gives power to several agencies to enact rules requiring home/commercial construction/transportation projects and heat pumps to follow in order to meet certain arbitrary government benchmarks. We fear that this would give power to un-elected State Agencies the power to force rules on taxpayers without public hearings and a vote by the elected Legislature.

#5. HB 3090 Flavor ban:  HB 3090 bans flavored products like vaping.  Would demolish many small shops immediately.  It would cost Oregonians $179 million in lost healthcare tax revenue.

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