When I first posted on the “Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes” discussion at NedSpace Old Town—which is being held tonight starting at 4:30—it sparked an interesting conversation in the comments.
Well, as much as I love the blog comments, I’m hoping that a fruitful conversation can occur in person, as well. That’s why I’m encouraging you to attend the talk tonight, regardless of your stance on the subject.
For context:
Oregon’s 2009 legislature passed two tax increase measures that will have a serious negative impact on startups, both directly and by affecting their sources of capital. One of the measures added a new gross receipts tax on unprofitable corporations (like startups). The other measure raises Oregon’s top personal income tax to 11 percent – the highest in the country – thereby adversely affecting the angel and venture investor community’s ability to fund startups. This serves as a double-whammy to the Oregon entrepreneurial community. What we need is more reasons for companies, entrepreneurs and investors to come and stay here – this is just one more reason they will stay away, or if here now, relocate.
Portland execs and entrepreneurs like Tim Boyle CEO of Columbia Sportswear, Bill Kelly CEO of Learning.com, Bob DeKonig CEO of Routeware, and Bob Wiggins Managing Partner of Mt. Hood Equity are all expected to be in attendance.
For more information or to RSVP for this discussion, visit Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes.
(Image courtesy blmurch. Used under Creative Commons.)
Comments are closed.
You’d have to be a damned idiot to believe that these TINY tax increases will cost Oregon even one job. This is about politics, not tax policy. They’re using lies based on emotional arguments to gather support behind a strictly political action coming out of the extreme right wing. Frankly, if I’m supposed to care about someone making a MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR paying an extra $13,000 in taxes this year and $9000 in 2012, I know I’m being lied to, but let’s look at the figures.
These lying political charlatans say that these taxes will kill up to 70,000 jobs. Think about that for a second. Let’s say that those jobs each cost businesses $25,000, including taxes and benefits. That’s a nice low figure that gives them the benefit of the doubt, right? So the total cost of the tax increases in lost dollars in the Oregon economy would have to be on the order of $1.75 Billion. So since this tax increase is pulling $750 million out of the pockets of the rich, and dumping it into the pockets of the middle class government employees (who, I should add, are more likely to spend their money here than put it into wall st investments), what they’re saying is that for every dollar the rich don’t pay in taxes, $2.30 is kept in the local economy somehow. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Of course not. These people are LYING TO YOU. Treating the situation like the two camps had any sort of intellectual equivalency whatsoever is frankly ridiculous.
This tax increase doesn’t just pay for needed services. By putting money into the pockets of people who spend more than they save, it directly stimulates the economy in a way that protecting the interests of the politically motivated does not. This isn’t about job-killing taxes. This is about making sure that the legislature doesn’t get it into their heads that they can tax the rich without an uproar. No one is gonna spend $100,000 donating to a group like this when their taxes are only gonna go up $9000. You’d have to be pretty stupid to do something like that. What this is all about is making sure taxes don’t go up $100,000 on that million dollar income the next time the subject is brought up. It’s about forming a bulwark. It is a cynical, political campaign, utterly divorced from their real agenda, and their willingness to lie and distort the facts bears this out.
Oregon doesn’t need a couple thousand more $125k+ jobs. That won’t improve the economy or the livability of the state. It needs a hundred thousand more $50K jobs. We need a bigger, stronger middle class. And just points out the obvious: the people behind this campaign are intellectually and morally bankrupt, whatever their bloated bank accounts say. When asked how to overcome the budget deficit, they simply say ‘that’s the legislature’s problem’, as if it wasn’t the legislature’s very effective solution to the problem that they’re fighting against. SOMEONE has to pay for it. It can be the rich, as the Oregon legislature correctly decided. Or it can be the middle class and poor Oregonians, in the form of either sales tax or other broad-based taxes, or in reduced services. In either case, solutions other than taxing the rich negatively and disproportionately affect those least capable of rolling with the punches. There is simply no valid argument here. It’s a sad statement that money buys an argument in this country when there is none to be made. It’s true of climate change, and it’s true of this load of rich twits.
Someone needs to slap these idiots.