Tax Confusion at the Oregonian

Rogue pundit wonders about the Oregonian Editorial staff's inability to pierce the fortification of Oregon citizens' obstinance toward raising taxes. The Oregonian decries the Legislature's latest move, which is to put the money out there and let various programs and functions of state government fight for it, instead of just allocating the money themselves.
Basically, all these programs, like public safety and child welfare, have to fight for the last 150 million in the budget, and convince the powers that be that they need it more than the schools, who would get it otherwise, do.

There are other choices. Oregon could choose between more school cuts, or raising its indefensible $10 minimum corporate income tax. It could decide whether to reduce alcohol and drug treatment services, or maintain one of the nation's lowest taxes on beer. It could debate reinstating a 10-cent per pack cigarette tax, or slashing health care for the poor.

If we just paid more, Salem could do more. Duh, that's always the case. But, why don't we look at all the trade-offs before defaulting to the usual answer, seeking more taxes.

Our government employees (including teachers) make salaries and receive benefits that are above the national average, funded by taxpayers that make below the national average. Few states cover as much of the health insurance costs for state employees as Oregon does. Many employees and retirees are guaranteed PERS pension increases of a whopping 8 percent per year--better than the stock market historically returns and higher than inflation has been since 1982.

Why are we cutting schools, seniors, prisons, rural healthcare, etc. but continuing to compensate state employees so well? They get more while the needy get less...how does that make sense?

The Rogue man points out that some of the arguments the editorial staff is making have been refuted by articles in the news section of their own paper.

And we finish with that dishonest BS about our tax burden, something The Oregonian itself has recently exposed. The measure that matters is what we pay for government...taxes, fees, and other charges. Using the full bottom line, we pay above the national average for government in Oregon, and Salem spends it all and borrows to spend more...and they're still cutting services.

He also notes that there wasn't a word about the power of unions and how it relates to the mess that we're in, but that was also covered by an article in the Oregonian.

The Oregonian's solution is to have taxpayers spend more for the same amount of government. About the unions, not a peep...again, not long after the paper ran a story on the power of unions (in this case, the OEA) in Salem. It notes that Oregon's teachers have the 14th best salaries and the top benefits in the nation.

Maybe the editorial staff needs to start reading the news section of the paper.

Ouch.