Vote 'no' on Measure 97

Measure 97 is an ill-conceived tax that will hurt economic growth and negatively impact all Oregonians - not just the corporations it is designed to target.

The measure would impose a 2.5 percent tax on corporations doing more than $25 million a year in sales in Oregon. The measure is expected to raise $3 billion a year.

"Make the corporations pay their fair share" may be an attractive slogan to anybody who isn't a corporation, but unpacking the impacts of the measure demonstrates that it's not just "the corporations" that will be hit. By taxing sales, the likely impact would be passing additional costs down through the production chain until it hits everybody in the pocket.

The Oregon Legislative Revenue Office analysis of the impact of Measure 97 pegs its per capita impact at roughly $600 to $4,501 based on the most recent census figures. It's a de facto consumption tax and by nature regressive. And, based on 2012-13 census data, it would push Oregon to the ninth-highest taxes-as-a-percent-of-income ranking versus an actual ranking of 26th.

Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) has come out strongly against the measure.

Sisters, in partnership with EDCO, is doing its best to attract businesses that pay family-wage jobs. Measure 97 throws up a roadblock. Sure, "more state funding for education" sounds great - but what Sisters really needs is families that can afford to live and work in the area to move here and send their kids to school. An increase in per-student state funding will not help Sisters schools nearly as much as robust enrollment - which will only come with a robust economy.

While it's highly unlikely that a company with gross receipts in excess of $25 million (the type that would be directly affected by M97) would move here, it is also likely that out-of-state companies that consider Oregon an unfavorable business environment will have second thoughts. Any measure that makes Oregon as a whole less competitive will hurt Sisters.

The LRO predicts that M97 will slow private-sector job growth, accelerate public-sector job growth and raise consumer prices. That does not sound like a good deal for Oregon.

Jim Cornelius, News Editor