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Oregon Initiative Case Study

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Portfolio Milestone 3
For this project I have selected to analyze an Oregon Initiative that will be subject to vote from Oregon residents in November of this year. As always is the case when a measure is subject to voters, proponents and opponents have emerged. It will be up to Oregonians to analyze and evaluate the possible outcome if implementation is approved. Unfortunately, vital information that would, in my opinion help with in obtaining a fair resolution, is not available in public records. In a way, financial data provided gives the interpretation that it is being hand-picked.
Initiative Petition 28 This Oregon initiative proposes a change to the state’s minimum corporate tax law. This measure will be subject to vote by Oregon residents …show more content…

The article’s main idea is to point out the negative effects a raise in taxes for corporations will have in Oregon residents. A potential increase of $2.5 billion per year in tax revenue would result in better funding for public services. Such financial resources are portrayed in this article as both having job creating and job eliminating outcomes. If their data is accurate, the public sector would see an increase of 6,000 new positions. However, in the private sector, the effects are the complete opposite with an estimated reduction of at least 15,000 jobs, resulting in a 9,000 difference. Tax supporters would like voters to believe that only big corporations would be affected by the tax, but small businesses would pay more for the goods and services they bought from big corporations that paid the tax (The Oregonian, …show more content…

When the issue was first introduced back in January, financial data was mostly based on hypothetical events that lacked, in my opinion, credibility. The table provided by Kaeding (2016) allows us to see that the reduction on income would be almost unnoticeable by Oregon residents with decreases ranging from $31 to $106 dollars from house hold incomes.
However this article fails to mention or provide the names of the corporations affected as well as the amount of their tax burden. My view is that they explain the possible consequences hoping that readers will vote against the petition.
Opponents raise $5.2 million to fight corporate tax plan (Achen, 2016).
Achen is a journalists that provides the two perspectives in the same article. Based on the information obtained by her, opponents of a tax increase have raised $5.2 million dollars to defeat the ballot measure while proponents have only raised $450,000 dollars. This article caught my attention due to the statement provided by Rebecca Tweed, campaign coordinator for “Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales”, where she

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