Income Tax Shift from Corporations to individuals

The portion of Oregon income tax paid by Oregon's corporations has declined dramatically since the late 70s. Those tax payments have shifted onto the backs of the Oregon middle class and poor, either as increases in their taxes or in declining services and increasing fees for services provided.

Read all about the specifics on this report from the Oregon Center for Public Policy, http://www.ocpp.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?page=es050520dodge.

"In the 1973-75 budget cycle, corporations paid 18.5 percent of all income taxes. In the upcoming 2005-07 budget cycle, corporations are expected to pay just 4.6 percent of Oregon’s income taxes. By 2009-11, corporations are expected to pay just 4.4 percent of Oregon income taxes."

All progressive people need to talk about the class warfare which has been waged on the people by the national and transnational corporations and by the wealthy in our state as they have promoted and benefited from this shift.

Do you need to look beyond this report to understand why voters continue to vote No on tax measures. The people say, "I will support tax increases as long as its it not my taxes." So lets propose taxes that increase the portion paid by the wealthy and by national and multination corporations.

I believe that we should continue the Multnomah County I-Tax but that it needs to be restructured so that it is truly a progressive tax. Let those who have more ability to pay, pay at a higher rate. Let those who make $20,000, or whatever the figure should be, pay no tax and then step it up in a gradurated manner from there.