Three Oregon Tax Measures: What They Would Do

With less than a week to go in this election cycle, Oregonians are faced with nine statewide ballot measures.

Here are my thoughts on the three that are primarily tax measures.

Measure 79 bans future state or local real estate transfer taxes. Only Washington County imposes such a tax now, as anyone who has sold a home there knows. The realtors who put Measure 79 on the ballot don’t want to see such taxes spread to the rest of the state. Government always looks for ways to raise revenue, but taxing home sales isn’t a good idea now or later. I voted Yes.

Measure 84 phases out Oregon’s estate tax and forbids taxes on property transfers between family members. Working all your life to build up an estate valued over the $1 million estate tax exemption should not give government the right to tax what you or your family have paid taxes on all your lives. I voted Yes.

Measure 85 takes any future corporate kicker money from the companies that earned it and places it in the state General Fund. Nothing in the measure assures that the money will benefit public education as the public employee unions that put it on the ballot claim. Special interests will be in Salem lobbying for that money just as they do now. Measure 85 simply takes money from the private sector and grows government. I voted No.

Steve Buckstein is founder and Senior Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.

Learn more at cascadepolicy.org.