Oregon Passage of Taxes on Business and High Income Earners (school, utilities)

[Smiled]

I'd prefer not having a gross receipts tax, but that is what we now have. I voted for 66 and 67 to fill the budget hole - we're the only West Coast state to do so, it appears. I think 66/67 could be rolled back in a trade for kicker reform and/or a small sales tax+corresponding drop in income tax.
Time will tell.

[Dangerous Dave]

We'd all like to think that could happen, Smiled, but history shows that once something like this is enacted it's the closest we'll ever seen to eternal life.

[Dangerous Dave]

There may not be a sales tax in Oregon but taxes are high overall. Property taxes and state income tax comes to mind. That lack of sales tax isn't going to be any help to you when you don't have anything left to spend. Other states have found out how to do more with less, I think Oregon is just attracting the wrong people. Maybe we can start being less hostile to businesses, large and small? Farmers? Logging? Do you realize how much it hurt Oregon to sit out the housing boom? We could have had a ten-fold increase in logging and still had a net increase in timber growth, and then cut back down after the bubble burst.

Anyone that produces a tangible product in Oregon (except maybe for weed, sand candles and ale) is in the crosshairs of those who are now in charge of the state. Southern Oregon seems to be getting the right Californians while the I-5 corridor from Wilsonville on north is attracting the wrong ones. Dittos for Eugene. The best thing to happen to Oregon is the annexation to Washington of Portland. Unfortunately it's Washington that's doing the best out of the Pacific states so I doubt they would point that gun at their foot.

[Ultrarunner]

I've known a few that migrated to OR in search of a better life and to put legal problems behind...

One of the reasons is no sales tax... so the money they have goes farther...

The two families I'm thinking of didn't have much to bring with them and were headed for the Portland area...

No doubt about it... OR is still seen as a place to escape too for ex Californians of modest means.

[Dangerous Dave]

Ultra, most of the western states are seen that way. I don't have a problem with it, I just don't really appreciate those who helped cause California's problems going elsewhere and trying to start mini Californias elsewhere and setting those areas up for failure. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Right now Oregon's result looks about the same as California's, so I hope nobody is surprised that we have high unemployment, high taxes, and crappy schools.

[Ultrarunner]

I never understand why people will move some where and then complain about it either... seems like just moving on would be more productive...

Maybe, it's just a coincidence... I really have heard a lot of people here in the Bay Area single out OR as a destination... kind of ironic because some have never visited... yet, they are bound and determined to move there.

I don't know any businesses that have moved... zero. I do know several that have moved from CA to Nevada, Idaho and Texas and one medical company moved to one of the Carolinas

[SonicsFan93]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I never understand why people will move some where and then complain about it either... seems like just moving on would be more productive...

Maybe, it's just a coincidence... I really have heard a lot of people here in the Bay Area single out OR as a destination... kind of ironic because some have never visited... yet, they are bound and determined to move there.

I don't know any businesses that have moved... zero. I do know several that have moved from CA to Nevada, Idaho and Texas and one medical company moved to one of the Carolinas

Not anymore you don't.

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/02/15/story1.html?b=1266210000^2876931

Comnet Marketing Group Inc., a Medford-based telephone survey group, will move most of its 150 jobs within four years. It is also foregoing expansions that would have added another 150 jobs to its Oregon work force.

Blue Line Transportation Co., a Portland trucking firm, will likely move a division that generates $2 million in annual sales to Idaho. The hikes would have boosted the division’s yearly taxes to $10,000.

MLS Inc., a 52-year-old publishing firm that specializes in small newspaper printing, is also considering whether to remain in Eugene.

Farmers and agricultural suppliers have also told the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation that they’ve shed workers.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by SonicsFan93

Not anymore you don't.

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/02/15/story1.html?b=1266210000^2876931

I should have been clearer... I don't personally know any business that has relocated from CA to OR... I do personally know a few that have relocated to Nevada, Idaho and Texas.

I also know quite a few individuals that moved to OR... either as retirees or in search of a lower cost lifestyle.

The California based company my Brother works for is heavily invested in WA... with significant holdings in the Vancouver area... the company he works for avoids OR like the plague as unfriendly to business.

[Leisesturm]

Maybe its me, but it seems like the problem isn't the tax, but this: "Blue Line Transportation Co., a Portland trucking firm, will likely move a division that generates $2 million in annual sales to Idaho. The hikes would have boosted the division’s yearly taxes to $10,000." See, your take is that its horrible that a business that clears millions in revenue has to pay 10 grand in taxes. The state should just stand aside and lease them the land and the building and give them Power and Light for free and allow them to abuse labor to the tune of 65 hour work weeks, no sick time, no vacation and early retirement if they squawk and they should have no obligation at all except their shareholders. Where I grew up if you are middle class it is because you once lived in America and made a decent living here and then retired 'home'. You better live in a gated compound or have a 'panic room'. Know what a panic room is? It's an armored closet that you run to (if you can) when a home invasion is imminent and you let the maurauders have anything they can get their hands on but at least they won't be able torture and/or defile you while stealing everything that isn't fixed in place. Places that allow unlimited profit untempered by any sort of taxation devolve into pitched battles between the haves and the have nots. I'm just saying. I have to also say that I am a bit surprised at the amount of "Oregon is Anti-Business" sentiment felt by those who should know better. If you can string cogent sentences together then you have the ability to read and to reason. I read about parts of the world where profits are untaxed and a social safety net is non-existent and then I read about parts of the world where people are taxed, corporations are taxed and taxed to levels that would incite mass suicide if they were implemented here and I am believing, on the evidence of my eyes and ears, that on balance, taxing the populace to improve the quality of life for all is a better system than every man (woman) for himself (herself).

H

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Maybe its me, but it seems like the problem isn't the tax, but this: "Blue Line Transportation Co., a Portland trucking firm, will likely move a division that generates $2 million in annual sales to Idaho. The hikes would have boosted the division’s yearly taxes to $10,000." See, your take is that its horrible that a business that clears millions in revenue has to pay 10 grand in taxes. The state should just stand aside and lease them the land and the building and give them Power and Light for free and allow them to abuse labor to the tune of 65 hour work weeks, no sick time, no vacation and early retirement if they squawk and they should have no obligation at all except their shareholders. Where I grew up if you are middle class it is because you once lived in America and made a decent living here and then retired 'home'. You better live in a gated compound or have a 'panic room'. Know what a panic room is? It's an armored closet that you run to (if you can) when a home invasion is imminent and you let the maurauders have anything they can get their hands on but at least they won't be able torture and/or defile you while stealing everything that isn't fixed in place. Places that allow unlimited profit untempered by any sort of taxation devolve into pitched battles between the haves and the have nots. I'm just saying. I have to also say that I am a bit surprised at the amount of "Oregon is Anti-Business" sentiment felt by those who should know better. If you can string cogent sentences together then you have the ability to read and to reason. I read about parts of the world where profits are untaxed and a social safety net is non-existent and then I read about parts of the world where people are taxed, corporations are taxed and taxed to levels that would incite mass suicide if they were implemented here and I am believing, on the evidence of my eyes and ears, that on balance, taxing the populace to improve the quality of life for all is a better system than every man (woman) for himself (herself).

H

Not certain... but the gist I get is comparing the business climate in Oregon to that of neighboring States... WA, ID, CA, NV

There may be business that relocates to other countries... often, it's the manufacturing segment that moves offshore.

Time will tell how things work out Oregon and a new entrepreneurial generation could very well be loyal to the region.

US History has been influenced by and reacted to taxation going all the way back to our inception.