Kotek PDX panel: Ask Clackamas, Washington to stop raising taxes

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

For several months, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has convened a secret panel of people to work behind closed doors to create a plan to save Portland.

The Oregonian listed three ideas that have been discussed so far by this secret panel.

– Enact a 3-year moratorium on new tax measures issued by jurisdictions in the tri-county Portland region.
– Expand the city’s new business license tax credit with a state and/or Multnomah County match.
– Eliminate a planned 0.8% increase of Multnomah County’s Preschool for All tax beginning in 2026;

All three ideas relating to taxes seem to admit that Portland is over-taxed.   The call to freeze all tax increases in the tri-county area (Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas) is a direct result of several tri-county taxes passed since 2018 (property tax increase, income tax increase, business tax increase).  Please note, it was Multnomah County that supported these taxes more than the other counties.

In fact, when it came to the tri-county Ballot Measure 26-210 (2020), which raised both income taxes and businesses taxes to fund homeless programs, Clackamas voters rejected it, but were out-voted by Multnomah and Washington County voters which caused the measure to go into effect for Clackamas voters who didn’t want it.

Now we have Multnomah screaming “We can’t control ourselves, we need intervention, please Clackamas and Washington County save us by stopping our bad behavior!”

These three tax cutting options come just a few weeks after one secret panel member suggested Portland raise a City sales tax.  It looks like they are doing damage control.

Gov. Kotek has already been on record as saying that she wants this panel to start passing out ideas just in time for the 2024 May election.

The epic crisis plaguing Portland must be fixed or the consequences will felt across the State in the 2024 elections — Gov.Kotek knows this.

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