ELECTION RESULT: 59 percent of Oregon voters said NO to this sales tax on steroids. Only 41 percent voted to impose it on all of us.
Measure 97 on Oregon’s November 2016 ballot would impose the biggest tax increase in Oregon history: a sales tax on steroids, hidden behind the facade of being a $3 billion annual Gross Receipts Tax on business. It will raise taxes by $600 per capita.
Contrary to claims that it is only a tax on big corporations, the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office found that it will act largely as a consumption tax on Oregonians, with lower-income households being hurt the most. Prior to receiving its ballot measure number, Measure 97 was known as Initiative Petition 28.
Below are factual and opinion sites to understand what the measure is and why it is in effect a sales tax on steroids, hidden behind the facade of being a tax on business.
• Text of Measure 97 (IP28)
• No on Measure 97: Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales
The official campaign to defeat Measure 97
• Does Oregon Rank Dead Last in Corporate Taxes? NO
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, October 2016
• Improve Education Outcomes Through ESAs, Not Measure 97’s Hidden Sales Tax
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, September 2016
• Measure 97: A $30 Billion Gamble Oregon Voters Shouldn’t Make
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, August 2016
• Cascade Policy Institute Opposes Measure 97,
the “Sales Tax on Steroids”
Media Release, August 2016
• Like a Sales Tax on Steroids
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, July 2016
• A Sales Tax by Any Other Name
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, June 2016
• Assaulting “Corporate Profits” Will Hit Average Oregonians
by Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute, October 2015
• Shifting the Cost of Measure 97 Forward
The Tax Foundation, October 2016
• Supporters of Measure 97 Mislead On Corporate Taxes
The Tax Foundation, September 2016
• Gross Receipts Taxes: Lessons from Previous State Experiences
The Tax Foundation, August 2016
• Oregon Initiative Petition 28: The Threat to Oregon’s Tax Climate
The Tax Foundation, April 2016
• Oregon Legislative Revenue Office Report on IP 28
(now Measure 97)
• Portland State University Report on IP 28
(now Measure 97)
• Oregon Legislative Counsel Opinion Letter on Measure 97
Concluding that contrary to proponents’ claims, “the Legislative Assembly may appropriate revenues generated by the measure in any way it chooses.”
