Oregonians Footing the Bill for Hefty Tax Breaks

The New York Times ran a massive story about massive tax subsidies on Sunday. In the online version, the paper provided readers with a useful tool to see how generous each state has been in forking over corporate tax breaks.

Oregon, as many readers will recall, has provided Intel some large benefits and cemented the presence of its largest private employer, in return. The many Business Energy Tax Credits Oregon used to promote renewable energy and conservation in recent years have had far less impact, at least in terms of job creation.

The key figures the Times provides for Oregon (in addition to listing six pages of individual subsidies) are the following: $865 million annually in corporate tax breaks which equates to $226 per capita and 12 cents for every dollar of the state budget.

A helpful graphic shows that we are far less generous than states such as Texas and even Washington but far more generous (relatively) than California, Nevada and Minnesota.

You'll be hearing a lot about tax giveaways in the upcoming 2013 legislative session, so remember this Times link as lawmakers debate Oregon's relative generosity.

WWeek 2015