Rep. Maurer talks taxes with Zonta
From our weekly issue dated December 23, 2009
Representative Ron Maurer
Two parallel tax measures were discussed by Rep. Ron Maurer (R-Grants Pass) during the Thursday, Dec. 17 meeting of the Zonta Club of Grants Pass, a chapter of Zonta International service club, at a cafe in Grants Pass.
Approximately 30 people were present for Maurer’s appearance as he discussed measures 66 and 67, which will be on the Jan. 26 ballot for Oregon voters.
Maurer said that he voted against the tax measures during the legislative session in Salem earlier this year. Immediately after their passage, business groups began a drive to refer the $733 million increases to voters, and turned in more than twice the required total of valid signatures needed to do so.
“There’s a big push to get this to pass,” Maurer said. “There’s a lot of pressure on a lot of groups to support this.”
The Grants Pass School District 7 Board of Education, of which Maurer was once a member, is being pressured by state officials to endorse the measures, he said. Maurer added that the perception is that if the measures fail, state support for education will be cut. He said that he disagrees with that assessment.
Oregon’s corporate minimum tax has been set at $10 since 1931, Maurer explained. It was $25 prior to that, but lowered during the Great Depression, he said.
If a company registered as a “C” corporation in the state makes no money, Maurer said, it still pays $10 to the state.
He characterized the corporate minimum tax as a “political lightning rod.”
“There’s no argument to saying it’s really low,” said the representative.
However, he related his experience as the owner of a rural health clinic in the city of Rogue River. That business was a sole proprietorship, he said, which meant that he paid personal income tax on its profits.
“To suggest that businesses pay no taxes, I think, is disingenuous,” Maurer said.
He added that many Oregon businesses operate on “razor-thin margins” and that their owners take “large personal risks.”
“I’m against vilifying businesses in general, as they’re the ones that create jobs in the state of Oregon,” he said.
Measure 66, if passed, would raise $427 million throughout the next two years. Measure 67 would put $261 million in the state’s coffers during that same time.
“That’s coming from somewhere,” Maurer said. “Someone’s writing a check.”
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Maurer said that during the 2009 legislative session, taxes and fees were increased by approximately $1.6 billion. Such spending would make sense if citizens’ average incomes were growing, he said, but businesses have been battered by the national recession.
“We are still hemorrhaging jobs” in the state, he said.
During the 2007-09 biennium, the state budget increased 21 percent, Maurer said, and went up 9.3 percent for 2009-11.
Last July, just after the session ended, Maurer said that Gov. Kulongoski approved $250 million in pay increases for state employees.
Maurer said that during budget 2007 debate, he asked Democratic leaders if those figures were sustainable — and was told that they were.
The state’s Public Employees’ Benefit Board has $145 million in reserves, Maurer said, of which $20 million to $30 million can be reallocated. There also is a $230 million “Rainy Day Fund,” and Maurer said some of that also could be spent.
“I think there is an alternative to cutting services,” Maurer said. “There are a number of other areas we can look at.”
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