Intel wants you and me to pay for schools

The O actually had a good piece yesterday on Oregon's dwindling tax collections from corporations doing bidness in the state.  The title and subheading said it in a nutshell:

Feeling taxed?  Not big business
Two decades of cuts have slashed Oregon's corporate tax burden, and households are footing the bill

Yup.  In fact, Oregon's corporate tax collections are the smallest, percentage wise, in the nation.  No other state asks so little of its corporate players.  And what's that about cutting business taxes to attract business... and didn't we have the highest unemployment in the nation during the worst part of the recent recession?   

The irony of it all is how corporate big wigs complain how Oregon needs to provide better schools and services in order to attract quality employees to their companies.  That's why they always support local school levies and household income tax increases.  It's not coming out of their pockets, but they receive the benefits.

What's worse is that both Dems and Repubs in Salem have pushed through these tax cuts for corporations.  And when they turn around and pass tax legislation that pushes the bill onto you and me, they wonder why in the hell we vote it down when anti-tax groups put it on the ballot.  Then we get state senators like Ginny Burdick complaining in a recent debate about how it's the voters' fault that the legislature can't solve school funding issues.  I suppose one could argue that case, but when legislators have cut corporate taxes by more than half over the past two decades it's hard to put the blame solely on the voters.

Anti-tax activists and legislators claim that if we increase taxes on these corporations that they'll leave the state.  Intel has become famous for using these threatening tactics.  But which state will they go to?  Oregon has the lowest corporate tax burden in the nation!

Comments

[Ralph Ritchie]

Resume for our "Environmental" President:
>
> GEORGE W. BUSH
> 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
> Washington, DC 20520
>
> EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
>
> LAW ENFORCEMENT
> I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the
> influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's
> license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost"
> and is not available.
>
> MILITARY
> I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take
> a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the
> Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.
>
> COLLEGE
> I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a
> cheerleader.
>
> PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
> I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil
> business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find
> any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
>
> I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that
> Took and using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in
> The oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of
> Texas.
>
> ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
> I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies,
> Making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston
> replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut
> taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed
> money. I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American
> history
>
> With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's
> appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by
> over 500,000 votes.
>
> ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
> I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a
> criminal record. I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of
> over one billion dollars per week. I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively
> bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual
> deficit in U.S. history. I set an economic record for most private
> bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record
> for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I set the all-time record for
> the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
>
> In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs
> and that trend continues every month.
>
> I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any
> administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza
> Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her. I set the record for most
> campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and
> world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My
> largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends,
> Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S.
> History, Enron.
>
> My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to
> assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision. I
> have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or
> prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica
> Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate
> rip- offs in history.
>
> I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused
> to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I
> presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed
> the U.S policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government
> contracts. I appointed more convict! ed crimi nals to administration than any
> President in U S. history. I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest
> bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
>
> I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S.
> history. I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations
> remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S.from the
> World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. "prisoners
> of war detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
> I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election
> inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election). I set the record for fewest numbers
> of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I
> set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period.
> After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst
> security failure in U.S. history. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S.
> after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S.
> the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world
> history.
>
> I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to
> simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record
> for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
>
> I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked,
> pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so
> against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the
> world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and
> support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their
> families-in-wartime. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for
> attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends. I am the first
> President in his! tory to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my
> presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I am
> supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I
> have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to
> justice
>
> RECORDS AND REFERENCES
> All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's
> library sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC
> investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in
> secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that
> I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed
> in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
>
> I am a member of the Republican Party.
>
> PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM
> ELECTIONS FOR THOSE WHO SUPPORTED ME.
>
> PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW.

[Ed Leczek]

I'd rather vote for Willie Horton!

[Ed Leczek]

I'd rather vote for
Willie Horton!

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