Oregon Tax Fight: Did We Win the Battle to Lose the War?

Yes, Oregon voters raised taxes on the rich. Voters approved the measures by 54 percent. Taxes on families earning more than $250,000 will increase slightly. And the corporate minimum tax, paid by 70 percent of Oregon corporations, including some of the biggest, will go from $10 to $150 a year. Wow.

After all is said and done, Oregon’s corporate taxes will go from third lowest in the nation to fifth lowest. And the amounts raised, maybe $750 million, will not close Oregon’s budget deficit. In fact, even before the vote, the public worker unions accepted 10-14 furlough days, job cuts, and pay and benefit cuts. More are coming.

Still, we won, which is good. Losing would have been devastating. Unfortunately, I fear we won the battle in ways that contribute to losing the war. We never really attacked the main argument of big business: taxes hurt the economy and cost jobs.

How did we win? Partly because we had more money. The public service unions exhausted themselves to raise $6.9 million, and the opposition had only $4.6 million.

We mobilized thousands of canvassers. We blanketed the state with messages about fairness and people needing good schools and medical care. And we put on TV heartbreaking stories of nice-looking people, with the unspoken message that they would probably die if they lost their medical services under the Oregon Health Plan.

But instead of countering right-wing fear-mongering about taxes, we almost seemed to agree. We kept saying that the tax was very small, it would hardly hurt either rich people or the companies. Besides, they could easily afford it.

We implied that yes, the anti-taxers have a good point, high taxes would reduce investment and motivation and lead companies to move away. But really, in this case, just vote with your heart.

Our message may have been successful this time, but affirming the right’s economic ideas is a disaster in the long run. It’s a mistake to reinforce the idea that government is the problem, that public investment is money down the drain, that only private investment creates jobs and a healthy economy.

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We need to tell people why taxes, always defined as the price of civilization, have now become even more necessary. We shouldn’t be shy about backing higher taxes on the rich and corporations; we should be demanding them!

We need to learn how to challenge the right’s preposterous economics, and forcefully demonstrate that much higher taxation of the rich would protect and create jobs and start us on the path towards a sustainable economy.

Thus in tax campaigns we could remind people that roads, transportation, clean water, and disease control are fundamental to building a healthy economy.

We could show that countries with much higher taxes on the wealthy have higher wages, better medical care and transportation, much less crime, and longer life expectancies. We can demonstrate that this country and the rest of the planet need vast investments in restoring ecosystems, retrofitting cities and transportation, and creating good work.

After all, publicly financed research and development have been fundamental to the U.S.’s most successful industries: agriculture, aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals.

Especially during recessions, taxing the rich is good, because they don’t invest in slim times. Their money flows into offshore accounts and hedge funds busy seeking the financial casino’s next exotic instrument. Public money creates or saves jobs and the people paid immediately put the money back into the economy.

Taxes have now become even more necessary, to maintain living standards for most of us and also to maintain life itself. We have to take back control of the wealth we have created. We need to tell people why that is true.

Bill Resnick works with Portland Jobs with Justice.