http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/measure-97-seeking-to-raise-corporate-taxes-splits-oregon-voters.html 2016-09-08 11:52:47 Measure 97, Seeking to Raise Corporate Taxes, Splits Oregon Voters The measure has also become a dividing line in the governor’s race, with the question being: Can government be trusted to do the right thing? === PORTLAND, Ore. — Senator “Our corporations have to be held accountable!” shouted Kayse Jama, the executive director of a group called If approved by the voters here in November, Labor unions, led by teachers, are leading the fight for passage, arguing that decades of erosion in education funding are the cause of the state’s dismal The fight comes against a backdrop of economic boom. Job growth this year is ahead of every state’s but Idaho’s, according to federal figures. Personal income is rising at the seventh-fastest rate in the country. But state budget officials warn of “It’s time for corporations to pay their fair share,” said Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat who “It is absurd and ludicrous to me that we would cut early childhood education programs that we just made investments in, that we would rip away those programs from the families that need it the most, that we would increase class sizes under these circumstances, that we would reduce access to college and make college less affordable,” said Ms. Brown, who is running for her first elected term. Her opponent, William C. Pierce, a Republican, is against Measure 97. He has hammered Ms. Brown and the Democrats on a question that is swirling through politics across the nation: Can government be trusted to do the right thing? “Are you going to get what you really want?” said Mr. Pierce, who is known as Bud. “Are you really going to get a prosperous society with people employed and a bright future, or are you going to end up with more and more money centralized in government hands? And frankly, government doesn’t have a good track record of using resources efficiently and getting us the result we want.” He agreed with Ms. Brown, though, that this year’s vote will be a decisive moment for the state. “It’s time to move our state from the hard left toward the center,” he said. If the ballot measure passes, not every company will be affected. Out-of-state corporations, and those with $25 million or more in revenue, would pay the new tax. Smaller businesses would not. Powell’s Books “It’s poorly written,” Ms. Powell said, sitting in her office on a recent morning as customers swarmed through the bookstore. Inexact language about where the money would go, she said, is one reason for her opposition. “That’s in some ways the most worrisome part: We don’t know what the impact is going to be. It may or may not accomplish the ends that it hopes to, and it will certainly negatively impact us, as well as a lot of other businesses in the process.” Across town, the Hawthorne Auto Clinic is equally storied in its local history, with roots going back to the horse and buggy days of transportation, and still in the same building. A co-owner, Jim Houser, gestured to the shadowy curved outlines on a brick wall as he showed a visitor through the shop — the old hearth was there, he said, where iron was heated for horseshoes. With only 13 workers, Hawthorne is too small to be affected by the tax, though Mr. Houser said he would be happy to pay more in taxes if the law was changed. He is strongly for Measure 97, he said, partly because it would put money into the community colleges and the tech training programs he depends on to get workers. “K-12, postsecondary and higher education have been slashed, slashed, slashed, and so what it’s done is it’s hurt our ability to recruit and retain trained technicians,” Mr. Houser said. “We don’t have the capability to set up our own advanced training program.” Numbers are weapons in the Measure 97 fight. One example: 3.4 percent, Oregon’s “total effective business tax rate,” tied with Connecticut for Another number is $600, from the nonpartisan An Oregon Public Broadcasting/Fox 12 Ryan Horn, a hotel manager in Portland, said that rent was the main number for him. The cost of housing, he said, is climbing beyond his reach. “They give them these tax breaks,” Mr. Horn said, referring to companies that are being drawn to places like Portland. “So then they bring in their people who make more money, and there’s our housing shortage,” said Mr. Horn, 32. Will companies paying more taxes pass that on to consumers? “Absolutely, I just expect it,” he said. But he said he plans to vote for Measure 97 just the same. “I will vote for any tax hike against major corporations every day of the week,” he said.