1/7/2010
Archdiocese backs tax increase
| |
|
Ed Langlois
The Archdiocese of Portland’s Justice and Peace/Respect Life Office is urging Catholics to vote yes on ballot measures that will fund state services via tax increases on businesses and wealthy Oregonians.
“These are unusual times, which we have not seen in decades, if ever,” writes office director Matt Cato, citing wars, climate change and severe recession.
“Our Oregon economy ranks in the bottom five if we use unemployment, homelessness or hunger as our measuring stick,” he writes. “The Oregon state budget has huge gaps between expected revenue and expected expenses.”
A statewide vote is set to finish Jan. 26. Ballots will be arriving in households in the coming days.
Measure 66 proposes a tax increase of 1.8 percent on Oregonians for income above $250,000 for joint filers and heads of households or above $125,000 for single filers. If earning twice that or more, residents would pay 2 percent more on the income above $500,000 for households and above $250,000 for individuals.
Measure 66 eliminates income taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits received in 2009.
It would raise an estimated $472 million to provide funds currently budgeted for education, health care, public safety and other services.
Measure 67 proposes an increase on corporations. The $10 corporate minimum — unchanged since 1931 — will be replaced with a $150 minimum for small businesses. Corporations with Oregon sales above $500,000 will pay on a scale equal to about one-tenth of one percent of Oregon sales. Profitable corporations will, for the next couple of years, pay an additional 1.3-percent tax on their profits above $250,000. Starting in 2013, the additional tax will drop to 1 percent and will apply only to profits over $10 million.
Both measures were passed by the 2009 legislature to address a $4 billion budget gap, preventing cuts to public education, health care, human services and public safety.
Cato bolsters the yes vote recommendation with the Catholic social teaching principle called “option for the poor and vulnerable.”
“While the common good embraces all, those who are weak, vulnerable and most in need deserve preferential concern,” Cato writes, citing the gospel story of the last judgment. “When budget cuts are made to essential services, the burden of this economic crisis falls on low-income and middle-class families.”
Measures 66 and 67 transfer the load to those who can bear it better, Cato says.
He quotes church documents to back the position, including a U.S. Catholic bishops’ letter on economic justice, which said the “fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.”
More than 97 percent of Oregonians will not see their taxes increase under Measure 67. The boost will affect about 39,000 people. For example, a couple making $260,000 in taxable income will pay an extra $180, but will stay pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than the poorest 20 percent of Oregonians.
About 93 percent of small business owners will see no effect from Measure 66.
A larger corporation making $260,000 in profit will still pay an extra $130 in taxes.
Oregon will move from having the third lowest corporate taxes to the fifth lowest corporate taxes in the nation.
Opponents say the tax increases will curtail business owners’ ability to create jobs.
“Oregon has lost more than 131,000 private sector jobs since the recession started, but legislative leaders still argue that what we need is the biggest tax increase in state history,” say leaders of Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes.
The organization quotes President Obama, who said taxes should not be raised in the middle of a recession.
|
|
