Measure 118 trashed by nation’s largest newspaper

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The nation’s largest subscription newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, just had their Editorial Board trash Oregon’s Measure 118 and the measure’s  massive corporate tax and rebate give-a-way.

Here is a part of what they said,

“There are bad ideas and then there are ideas so lousy that even liberal Democrats disown them. Count in the latter category an Oregon ballot measure that would stick companies with the highest corporate tax burden in the country while pitching it to voters as a “rebate.”

Under Ballot Measure 118, Oregon would enact a 3% corporate minimum tax on gross receipts over $25 million, then kick some money back to Oregon taxpayers. In fiscal years 2025 and 2026, according to the Department of Administrative Services, the new tax would bring in $14.7 billion in revenue. While corporate income taxes take a percentage of final profits, gross receipts taxes take their cut from total revenue without considering costs, margins or profits.

Corporations with more than $1 million in income already pay a 7.6% corporate income tax in Oregon as well as a 0.57% gross receipts tax. That’s on top of the 21% federal corporate income tax and Portland’s 6.6% cumulative tax burden on local business. Oregonians think they have no state sales tax, but residents will pay more as businesses pass their tax costs along to consumers in order to survive.

According to the Tax Foundation, if an Oregon company’s profit margin is 7%, the proposed gross receipts tax would be the equivalent of a 42.9% corporate income tax. It’s especially punishing for industries with thin profit margins, such as supermarkets, and would apply to companies that lose money.

The tax is structured as a minimum tax, so corporations would pay the greater of the gross receipts tax or the state’s existing corporate income tax. It also takes a percentage from every business in the production chain. That leaves companies with the choice of shifting production out of Oregon to reduce their points of contact with the tax or vertically integrating to bring as many parts of production as possible in-house to minimize transactions…

The ballot petition was led by former American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Antonio Gisbert, who is a proponent of a universal basic income. The Yes on 118 website says a yes vote will “get yearly rebates of $1,600 for yourself and every Oregonian, kids included.” Sure, until businesses flee and the tax pool shrinks.”

Read more.

 

You don’t have to take the Wall Street Journal’s opinion on this.  Instead you can read our commentaries:

 

• Every rapist, wife beater, car thief to get $1K check from Measure 118

• Measure 118 tax ($2B) almost entirely funded from California

• Chart dispels both Measure 118 and Kamala’s plan

• 2 absurd lies Measure 118 is selling

• Measure 118: New tax to give $$ to homeless, dead people

 

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