Oregon
USA Today: Time to tweak gas taxes? States weigh options
January 25, 2013
(Original Post) Larry Copeland, USA TODAY7:47a.m. EST January 25, 2013 A great tax debate is breaking out in state capitals from Vermont to Texas: How do we maintain and expand our vital-but-aging networks of roads, bridges and urban transit systems? For nearly a century, the nation has funded projects primarily with revenue from gasoline taxes. […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: No Special Treatment: Seven Reasons Why Oregon Should Not Reduce or Eliminate the Income Tax on Capital Gains
January 15, 2013
This issue brief examines seven reasons why giving special treatment to income from capital gains is a terrible idea: it would not stimulate additional economic growth, it would not attract much venture capital, it would waste millions chasing after the few Oregonians who move to Washington to avoid Oregon income taxes, it would mainly benefit […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: The 2007 Kicker: Wrongheaded, Unjust, Costly, and a Federal Tax Increase
January 15, 2013
The “close of session” economic and revenue forecast released in late August by the Office of Economic Analysis confirmed that personal income tax revenues for the 2005-07 budget cycle exceeded the 2005 close of session forecast by 2 percent or more.1 Under Oregon law, the Department of Revenue will send – or “kick back” – […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: No Gain, Just Pain: Most Oregonians Would Not Benefit from Measure 59, But They Would Lose Public Services
January 15, 2013
Measure 59, which would allow an unlimited deduction of federal income taxes on state tax returns, offers no tax break to more than three out of four Oregon taxpayers. And yet the measure’s hefty price tag — more than about 9 percent of General Fund revenues, each budget cycle — would force deep cuts in […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: No Contest: Why Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit is Better for Working Families and Oregon than the Tax Bracket Increase
January 15, 2013
Next year, the Oregon Legislative Assembly may face two different income tax measures purporting to help working families. One plan, proposed by Republicans in the legislature, would double the size of Oregon’s two lowest income tax brackets, doubling the share of income that is taxed at 5 and 7 percent (hereinafter, the “Tax Bracket Increase”).[1] […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Will Poor, Working Families Be Roadkill?
January 14, 2013
The Jobs and Transportation Act’s Regressive Tax and Fee Increases Will Set Back Low-Income Working Families With Children Unless the Legislature Enacts a Modest EITC Expansion Read the Full Report (PDF)
Oregon Center for Public Policy: A Step Toward Balance: Measures 66 and 67 Move Oregon Closer to a Tax System Based on Ability to Pay
January 14, 2013
Today, low-income Oregonians pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than wealthy Oregonians. In fact, the highest-income Oregonians pay the lowest share of their income in state and local taxes. In addition to raising needed revenue, Measures 66 and 67 begin to address this imbalance. Facing a revenue crisis brought […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Undocumented Workers are Taxpayers, Too
January 14, 2013
Recent public discussion emerging from Oregon’s gubernatorial race focuses on, and at times exaggerates, the costs to Oregon of providing certain public services to undocumented immigrant workers and their families. Relatively little has been mentioned about the contributions undocumented workers make to Oregon. Read the Original Full Report
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wisconsin’s tax burden gets lighter but not for all
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By Dave Umhoefer of the Journal SentinelPosted: April 12, 2010 | At the end of last year, one Midwestern state emerged carrying its lightest total tax burden since the early 1960s. Only six states nationwide saw a bigger drop in the percentage of taxpayer income taken for government spending over an […]
Lewiston Morning Tribune: Slapped Down
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) LEWISTON MORNING TRIBUNE, IDAHO | Fri, Mar 12, 11:16 AM Mar. 12–CHEERS … to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. When Idaho Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter ridiculed the Evergreen State’s refusal to gut every last program in the name of avoiding any and all tax increases, Gregoire slapped him down. With good cause. […]
The Seattle Times: Initiative 1077 would make state taxes fairer and create opportunity
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By Bill Gates SrSpecial to The Times THIS year, a typical middle-class family in our state will pay more than 11 percent of its hard-earned income in state and local taxes. Poor families will pay at an even higher rate. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses, already struggling in the current […]
McClatchy Washington Bureau: One rich guy who wants to pay higher taxes: Bill Gates Sr.
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) Brad Shannon | Tacoma News Tribune last updated: January 18, 2011 07:24:02 PM Bill Gates Sr., the retired lawyer and wealthy father of the Microsoft co-founder, thinks Washington state’s tax system is out of whack and needs repair. The poor pay too much tax, the rich pay too little, Gates says. […]
KEPR TV: WA Pays Highest Cell Phone Tax in Nation
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By Chelsea Kopta Story Published: Jan 25, 2011 at 5:46 PM PST PASCO, Wash. — Perhaps nothing is certain in Washington State but taxes and complaining about taxes. Now there’s a new hike to gripe about: your cell phone. Cell phones are the tax man’s latest target. And if you didn’t […]
Richmond Times-Dispatch: States Taxing the Rich: A Very Bad or Good Idea
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) NEAL PEIRCE © WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUPPublished: September 20, 2009 WASHINGTON In a dramatic break from tax trends of recent decades, eight states have voted this year to push up the percentages of income that their wealthiest citizens must pay. Connecticut is the latest to take this step, following Delaware, Hawaii, […]
Williston Observer: Taxes and the wisdom of our forebears
January 7, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) July 16, 2009 BY BRIAN MILLER One hundred years ago, on July 17, 1909, Sen. William E. Borah, R-Idaho wrote the words, “The income tax is the fairest and most equitable of the taxes. It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the […]
The Bulletin: Measures 66 & 67: Here’s the story behind the numbers
January 7, 2013
(PDF of the Original Post) By Nick Budnick / The Bulletin Published: January 14. 2010 4:00AM PST SALEM — Both sides of the tax battle over the Jan. 26 ballot argue that they, and not their opponent, are the champions of tax fairness in Oregon. The union-backed coalition that is supporting Measures 66 and 67, […]
Real Clear Politics: Mystery of the Missing Millionaires
January 7, 2013
(PDF of the Original Post) By Froma Harrop A daffy Wall Street Journal editorial about the “vanishing millionaires” of Oregon lit a spark in a fairly humorless week. It offers the usual boilerplate about the rich fleeing to tax-friendlier provinces because their state raised taxes, but this time with a great visual: “One-quarter of the […]
MinnPost.com: Minnesota taxes- Where do we go from here?
January 4, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By Sharon Schmickle | Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Sure, you’ve heard it before: Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoes yet another DFL bid to close the state’s budget chasm by raising income taxes on high earners. But the tax issue has many lives in this election year when the Independence Party’s gubernatorial endorsee, […]
Stateline: Md. ‘millionaire’s tax’ debate is back
January 4, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009 By Stateline.org Staff Reports A headline in this morning’s Baltimore Sun — “Maryland lost nearly 30% of millionaires last year” — is sure to revive a debate over the higher tax rates that Free State legislators imposed on millionaires in 2008. At least eight other states this […]
Frederick News Post: Huntin’ millionaires
January 4, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) Elizabeth Marsh Cupino Originally published December 10, 2009 Set up a roadblock. Put out an APB. Maryland’s comptroller has reported that the number of millionaires in the state dropped by 30 percent in 2008 and that some wealthy residents might be trying to make a break for it. We can’t have […]
Huffington Post: The Millionaire Migration Myth: Don’t Fall for This Anti-Tax Scare Tactic
January 4, 2013
(Original Post) Posted: 03/31/11 09:21 PM ET Virtually every state in the country has a tax system that heavily favors the rich. Despite this fact, only a handful of states responded to the revenue slump brought on by the Great Recession with any sort of tax increase on this favored group. What gives? With so […]
Press Democrat: Your taxes are going up this week
January 3, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) 1-cent hike in sales tax taking effect Wednesday, vehicle license fee jumps in May; income tax already went up By GUY KOVNER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 2:32 p.m. The rancor in Sacramento over balancing California’s budget has subsided, at least for the time being. Now Californians […]
Oregonian: TAXING THE RICH It’s not class warfare, it’s just common sense
December 21, 2012
(Original Post) The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) September 20, 2009 SundaySunrise Edition TAXING THE RICH It’s not class warfare, it’s just common sense NEAL PEIRCE In a dramatic break from tax trends of recent decades, eight states have voted this year to push up the percentages of income that their wealthiest citizens must pay. Connecticut […]
New Haven Advocate: Connecticut Can Still Raise Taxes on the Rich, Even if Washington Doesn’t
December 21, 2012
Original Post By Mark EnglerMay 24, 2011 In 2009, when then-New York Gov. David Paterson signed a temporary tax increase on the state’s wealthiest individuals — one of the so-called “millionaire’s taxes” that have passed in recent years in select states across the country — at least one multimillionaire was not happy. Rush Limbaugh proclaimed […]
NPR: Report Shows Many Profitable Companies Pay No State Income Taxes
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) by Chris Lehman December 6, 2011 Dozens of Fortune 500 companies paid no net state income taxes over the past three years, including one in the Pacific Northwest. That’s one of the findings of a report issued Wednesday by a liberal think tank. The report examined federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings from […]
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