Blue Oregon tries to defend Merkely tax record

Yesterday, our good blog friends at Blue Oregon disagreed with my article on Rep. Jeff Merkley voting to raise billions in new taxes. They say that I “fail to mention the tax breaks that Jeff Merkley helped shepherd through in 2007.”

I suppose if you try to raise billions in new taxes you can call yourself merciful by handing out a few million to select target groups. Rep. Jeff Merkley grew the state budget by 21%, and now we are supposed to thank him for not growing the budget 22%? Interestingly enough, Rep. Jeff Merkley held a press conference during the 2005 Legislative Session attacking the concept of billions of dollars of runaway tax breaks that are poking holes in our state budget.