Editorial

No on Measure 28

Oregon needs fundamental tax reform. Boosting income taxes to fill the state's deep budget hole won't fix what's wrong.

In fact, there is a very real possibility that passing a tax increase to get us by for a few years will take the pressure off the legislature to enact real reform. And, sooner or later, we'll be back in the same dire straits.

Reform of the tax system may not be on the front burner for a legislature preoccupied with fixing PERS and weathering this budget crisis. But action is needed for the long-term health of the state.

Rep. Ben Westlund offers a plan for a 3 percent consumption tax, cuts to individual income taxes and elimination of the capital gains tax. Westlund believes such a plan would bring in $250 million in immediate extra revenue. Better still, it would stimulate the state's moribund economy.

Westlund's plan is simply a proposal -- but it is a good place to start on radical reform.

Make no mistake, Oregonians will suffer real pain without the revenues Measure 28 would generate. The cuts are serious and affect important services such as schools, the Oregon Health Plan, independent living facilities and public safety.

But that pain is inevitable as long as Oregonians avoid deciding what services we want and how to provide stable, long-term funding to pay for them.

A temporary fix through a tax increase just postpones the day of reckoning.

Jim Cornelius, Editor