An Open Letter to the Oregon Legislature

Dear Legislators:

You must reconsider the new $1 billion per year tax you are about to pass for schools.

The type of tax you are proposing, a tax on the revenue of businesses, will without question be passed along to each business’ customers in the form of higher prices, until ultimately all consumers will pay. This tax would harm low- and middle-income consumers the most, since they spend the largest percentage of their incomes on consumption. The wealthiest Oregonians would barely notice, but the rest of us most certainly would.

In a time of economic inequality not seen in over 100 years, letting high income people off the hook yet again makes no sense.

According to official Oregon income tax statistics, there are approximately 20,000 Oregon income tax filers in the top 1 percent of incomes. The average gross income of these filers is over $1 million. This is an increase of nearly $700,000, adjusted for inflation, since 1980, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy, or about 200 percent.

How have middle income taxpayers fared in Oregon? Since 1980, the median income has increased by $1,850, or about 5.5 percent adjusted for inflation. That’s not 5.5 percent per year. That’s a total of 5.5 percent over nearly 40 years.

According to reporting by Bloomberg, the average Trump tax cut received by the top 1 percent was $62,000 per year. So at this moment, the top 1 percent of Oregonians have an extra $1.24 billion in their pockets. And next year, they will have another $1.24 billion, then another.

Contrast this with middle income taxpayers, who got an average tax cut of $1,090 per year, or about $20 per week. Courtesy of Mr. Trump, middle income taxpayers can enjoy a couple of extra lattes per week.

Why do you want to tax people whose incomes have stagnated for years and got a latte for a tax cut, while hardly touching people who have an extra $62,000 in their pockets and whose inflation-adjusted incomes have tripled since 1980?

The fact is, the top 1 percent in Oregon could fund the entire proposed tax increase out of their Trump tax cut and still have an average of $12,000 per year left over, more than 10 times what median income taxpayers got.

Most recently fueled by the Trump tax cuts, a torrent of wealth has flowed to the very rich over the last 40 years, entirely bypassing the middle class. Your proposed tax would only add to this inequity.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Claw back some of that $62,000 windfall for the rich. Raise income taxes on the top 1 percent. Add a state payroll tax on high incomes so that the rich are taxed on most of their income like the rest of us. Put luxury taxes on high end cars, boats, RV’s, and airplanes.

Take a stand against inequality. Do not pass your consumption tax. Give the middle class a long-overdue break. Tax the people who can afford it, not those who have struggled for a generation just to stay even.