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FEBRUARY 17, 2017
WEEK THREE
We are
starting to have a few bills working their way through the system, but at this
point nothing of any major impact. There are, however, the beginnings of
discussions in some subject areas that will have significant implications.
Having said that, the real issues taking front stage are the budget and the
projected deficit. From that perspective I took a look at the bills that
have been assigned to the House Revenue committee to see how many tax increase measures
were there. I counted 38, but I have since been told there are now
more. I was going to list them all, but have now thought better of that
and will just try to give a flavor of what is included.
Several
taxes bills on cigarettes
Several
taxes on business, including a business sales tax
Increasing
the lodging tax
Limiting
deductions on income tax, including some provisions relative to federal taxes
Several
modified sales tax proposals
Increase in
fuel tax
Increase in
state tax on lotter winnings
A sales tax on
art
Increase tax
on sale of a house
Increase tax
on livestock operations
A tax on
coffee
A new higher
tax bracket
A tax on
“old cars”
An increase
in capital gains tax (we already have the highest in the nation)
A tax on
renting construction equipment
Keep in mind
this is not a complete list and I am sure it will continue to grow. I
believe and hope most of these bills will go nowhere, but the fact is there are
people in the House who have never seen a tax they didn’t like. There are
also people who truly believe creating government jobs stimulates the
economy. It points out the fact there may be a general lack of
understanding of basic fee market economics. Honestly, there are people
serving in the Legislature who believe “people would be better off with the
government running their lives.” I would point to the mess we have in most
inner cities in this country where that is actually happening as an example of
why it doesn’t work. We should be empowering people to be the best they
can be rather than continuing to make them dependent on the government.
Meanwhile
the Ways and Means Committee will be heading to eastern Oregon for week two of
their political road show. I call it political because it is designed to
do one thing and that is to demonstrate the NEED for new taxes. What is
being ignored is the fact that state government has grown by 40% over the last
eight years and there is no way we can continue this trend. However, it
appears that is exactly what they are trying to do.
What is also
frustrating is the fact that, because the Democrats have total control of the
process, Republicans are not being included in the discussions. In two
more weeks the Ways and Means Committee will be done with their road show, and
we may actually start to seeing part of their plan. I have been serving
in the minority in the Senate for 12 years and I have never before seen so much
of the “activity” being done in secret. What is likely to happen is they
will bring out their plan, we will object to it, and they will call us
obstructionists. Once again pure political maneuvering. The smart move
would have been to include Republicans in the discussion to at least see where
we could find common ground. But I guess that wouldn’t serve their
political agenda.
I will end
with a quote from Margaret Thatcher. “The trouble with socialism is that
eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Sincerely,
Senator Jeff
Kruse
email: Sen.JeffKruse@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1701
address: 900 Court St NE, S-205, Salem, OR, 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kruse
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