Illinois Valley News

Voter Pamphlets for Oregon?s Jan. 26 special election were mailed last week, as both sides of the tax debate prepare for the final stretch of the campaign.

Measures 66 and 67 resulted from $733 million in tax increases passed by the Legislature last year to fill growing budget gaps. Immediately after the session adjourned, business groups throughout the state worked with Conservative-leaning organizations to gather enough signatures to refer the hikes to voters.

If passed, Measure 66 would raise the tax on incomes at or above $250,000 for households and $125,000 for individuals. It also would eliminate income taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits received in 2009 and raise an estimated $472 million in revenues for the state during its first year.

Measure 67 would raise the corporate minimum tax from $10 to $150. It would increase the tax rate that some corporations pay on profits by 1.3 percentage points and increases certain business filing fees. An estimated $255 million would be raised in the first year of implementation.

Area Groups Get Organized

At the local level, members of the Illinois Valley-based Social Justice Alliance (SJA) plan to ramp up their efforts relatively soon. SJA?s Barry Snitkin said that the group will engage in phone banking to encourage support for the measures, but will not conduct any door-to-door canvassing.

He added that canvassing in rural areas is difficult.

Bill Ertel, Josephine County Republican Party chairman, said his group?s ?big thrust? right now is to help support phone banking efforts in Medford to oppose the measures. Tax opponents have set up eight call centers throughout the state.

?Were trying to organize our precinct committee people and volunteers from the (John) McCain campaign to support that effort,? Ertel stated. He added that canvassing will kick off around the second week of January.

Statewide Campaign Efforts Also Planned

At the state level, Scott Moore, spokesman for Defend Oregon, said that his group has ?certainly been in full campaign mode for a while now.

?Were taking every opportunity to talk to Oregon voters about what?s at stake in this election,? Moore said.

He added that volunteers have been out ?just about every night making phone calls and knocking on doors? to bolster support for the measures. Pro-tax groups also have been sending literature directly to mailboxes during recent weeks, and have ads on television.

Pat McCormick, spokesman for Oregonians Against Job Killing Taxes (OAJKT), said that group began its advertising after the Thanksgiving holiday. It did not, however, run any TV commercials around Christmas.

?We decided early on that Christmas week was not a week that we needed to be distracting voters from their families and other activities to talk about the campaign,? McCormick said.

Crunching the Numbers

Both sides are using statistics to try and bring voters to their side.

According to figures released by Defend Oregon, approximately 1,617,145 people statewide file taxes. Of those, less than 40,000 would be affected by the tax hikes, Defend Oregon said.

There are approximately 33,727 tax filers in Josephine County, Defend Oregon said, and only 447 would be affected by the measures.

McCormick said that around 137,000 private sector jobs have been lost in Oregon since the recession began in November 2007. During that same time, he said, state government employment increased 12.8 percent.

?In good times and bad times, they continually increased spending,? McCormick said. ?At some point, that kind of spending is not sustainable.?

Defend Oregon has another set of statistics showing how many residents in each county depend on state services. Those figures show that approximately 11,136 children attend public schools in Josephine County. There also are 12,017 county residents served by Oregon Health Plan, 882 receiving long-term care and 864 supervised criminal offenders, Defend Oregon said.

The Money Trail

Running a statewide campaign can be expensive, and both sides of the tax debate are spending and receiving large sums of money to fund their efforts.

According to the Oregon Secretary of State?s Website, Vote Yes for Oregon netted $3.4 million in contributions as of Dec. 29. It posted $2.2 million in expenditures, with a $1.2 million cash balance remaining.

During December, Vote Yes for Oregon received two contributions from the Oregon Education Association (OEA) totaling $800,000. The national America Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) contributed $500,000. Oregon AFSCME Council 75 made two contributions totaling $250,000, an amount matched by Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

SEIU Local 503 kicked in an additional $210,000, and the Oregon American Federation of Teachers Political and Legislative Action Network Political Action Committee (PAC) contributed $200,000.

During November, SEIU Local 503 contributed $200,000 and Oregon AFSCME Council 75 put in $250,000. The OEA contributed $300,000 that month.

In September, SEIU Local 503 gave $75,000 to Vote Yes for Oregon.

OAJKT showed $3.2 million in contributions as of Dec. 29, with expenditures near the same amount and an ending cash balance of around $48,000.

Contributors have included the Oregon Restaurant Association, with four donations totaling $90,000, the Oregon Bankers Association with $125,000 from two contributions, Oregon Forest Industries Council PAC with $25,000, Oregon Association of Realtors with $50,000, the Home Builders Association with $30,000 and Stimson Lumber Co. with $24,000.

Several contributions also were given by Associated Oregon Industries. The Oregon Local Grocery Committee made four contributions totaling $250,000, Weyerhauser Corp. gave $50,000, Qwest Communications gave $25,000, the Oregon Automobile Dealers Association PAC $25,000 and Associated General Contractors of America had seven contributions totaling $99,500.

Final Push Noted

Naturally, both sides are predicting that they will prevail in the election.

McCormick said that an active volunteer base will help defeat the two tax measures.

?From the beginning, I think one of the things that?s been gratifying from our perspective has been seeing how energetic our volunteer base has been,? he said. ?Voters seem to be responding to our message. We?re feeling confident that we will be successful.?

Moore said that he feels quite differently.

?What we know is, the facts are on our side,? Moore said. ?When voters are making a decision based on facts, not based on the misinformation spread by the other side, they will do the right thing.?

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