Skip to main content
For the second time in the past week, an independent group has weighed in on Measure 97, the proposed $3 billion tax increase on the November ballot.
Over the weekend, the 20-member Citizens' Initiative Review Commission charged with evaluating Measure 97 voted 11 to 9 to endorse the measure.
Here's a summary of what supporters concluded:
The nine committee members who opposed the measure offered this rationale:
The passage of M97 would create a regressive tax. A regressive tax takes a larger percentage of income from low income earners creating an unnecessary burden on many Oregon families. One of the major risks of passing M97 is significant job loss. Another result of passing M97 could be a large increase in costs to corporations resulting in increased costs to consumers. This could lead todecreased economic stability and bring financial harm to all Oregonians. Efficiency, transparency, and fairness are the core values at stake in this matter.
The citizens’ committee’s conclusions will be printed in the voters pamphlet prior to the November election. Lawmakers created the citizens’ committees in 2011 in attempt to provide an unbiased, layperson’s analysis of ballot measures.
The conclusion the panel reached on Measure 97 echoes the narrowly favorable opinion a City Club of Portland committee produced last week on the measure, which would impose a 2.5 percent tax on Oregon sales above $25 million recorded by corporations.
Willamette Week