Realtors Pony Up Another $2 Million to Kill Phantom Tax

The National Association of Realtors pumped another $1.3 million in support of the Measure 79 campaign, which seeks to amend the Oregon constitution to prohibit real estate transfer taxes. State filings show the Oregon Association of Realtors added an additional $700,000. The two groups have now put up more than $5 million to ban a practice that has already been illegal in Oregon since 1989 (except for a one-tenth of a percent tax in Washington County which predated that 1989 law).

As WW previously reported, proponents of the constitutional ban have produced misleading campaign propaganda that could lead voters to believe that a transfer tax is imminent but repeated attempts to pass such legislation in Salem have met with dismal failure.

WWeek 2015

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