Tax raise challenges planned
From our weekly issue dated June 24, 2009
Oregon legislators approved a series of tax increases earlier this month, but plans are already being made by others to put them up for a public vote.
Jeff Kropf, Oregon state director for the national grassroots organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and a former legislator, said that his is one of many groups intending to challenge the tax hikes.
“We are getting organized along with a lot of great freedom-loving groups to be ready to go and gather signatures all over the state to repeal these job-killing tax increases,” Kropf said.
In order to refer the tax increases to voters, opponents would need to gather approximately 75,000 signatures. Jack Swift, coordinator of AFP’s Josephine County Chapter, said that groups like FreedomWorks likely will take the lead in those efforts.
Swift added that AFP will be able to assist because it has grown this year following the April 15 Tax Day protests that occurred throughout Oregon and many other states.
“AFP has a grass-roots organization as a carry-over from the tea parties,” he said. “We’ve got the structure and organization to make this happen.”
Kropf said that among all the tax measures, his top priority is challenging House Bill 2649, which raises the personal income tax on individuals earning more than $125,000 per year. That bill will “hit small businesses especially hard,” he said.
Swift described HB 2649 as “terrible” legislation.
“It sounds great to say they are only going to tax a person who makes more than $125,000 per year,” he said. “That guy is, in all likelihood, a small business operator. That would go to all kinds of people that we really don’t want to be hammering in this economy.”
Kropf said that AFP also plans to gather signatures to overturn HB 2116, a 1 percent premium that will be assessed to health-care providers, including hospitals and insurance companies.
“The tax on health insurance premiums will cause a lot of small businesses to drop health insurance and pay for adding more low-income people to the health insurance rolls,” Kropf said. “This will hurt middle-income, working Oregonians and create more dependency on government-run health care.”
Alhough AFP takes exception to the gasoline tax increase contained in HB 2001, the Jobs & Transportation Act, Kropf said that the organization lacks the capacity to challenge many measures simultaneously.
“That’s what I’m concerned with, because the Legislature is increasing the cost of referring any tax increase to the ballot with legislation so that we can only do maybe a couple of these successfully,” he said. “That’s why no one really knows how difficult it’s going to be with these new restrictions on signature gathering to be able to qualify anything for the ballot statewide.”
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HB 2005 passed the House last month and made its way through the Senate on Monday, June 15.
It would allow officials to prohibit someone from registering as a paid signature gatherer if they’ve ever been convicted of fraud or forgery. It also would allow for the imposition of a $100,000 fine against leaders of campaigns who fail to stop fraud. And it would require campaigns that use paid canvassers to submit signatures to the state monthly for inspection.
Kropf said that while the provisions of HB 2005 would be detrimental to groups using paid signature gatherers, it will have less effect on AFP.
“They may be able to delay us so we have maybe only 45 days total with which to actually gather signatures,” Kropf said. “There will be changes in timelines and those types of things, but we can deal with them.”
In order to aid in the referendum efforts, Kropf said AFP plans town hall meetings throughout the state. They would be held to explain the tax increase harms and train people how to be effective volunteer signature gatherers.
Swift said that “I fully anticipate that’s what we’re going to do here in Josephine County.”
Once the signatures are gathered, Swift said he anticipates a “classic showdown” between tax-weary citizens and groups such as the Oregon Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Service Employees International Union.
“These people have all kinds of money to finance a referendum campaign or fight a referendum campaign,” he said. “By contrast, our people are the people that are hammered by this -- small business folks who are already on the ropes.
“We’re going to have a very short budget and very little money to fight this, but what we do have is grass-roots representation of the people who care. It should be a classic confrontation of grass-roots individual interests versus well-heeled, well-financed special interests.”
For more information on the tax increase referendum, visit revivetherevolution.com
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