Comment on Death of the Grand Bargain
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Oregon Legislature failed to make some needed reforms, but at least tax increases lost, too
By Oregon NFIB [6]
The “Grand Bargain” legislators had hoped to strike died when House Bill 2456-B failed to get the constitutionally required three-fifths vote in the state Senate.
“Small business was willing to pitch in and help out, but when an alternative tax bracket beneficial to Main Street was stripped from the bill, and when prevailing lawmakers succeeded in decoupling public pension reform from the measure – leaving only tax increases in the proposal – we registered our stringent opposition and saluted HB 2456-B’s eventual defeat,” said Jan Meekcoms, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, which has 7,500 small-business owning members in the state.
“Fear not fellow citizens,” added Meekcoms. “The state has enough money for its 2013-2015 budget, but it failed to makes some structural reforms that could have made future uncertainties less likely. For now, however, we dodged a tax increase, and that’s always a good thing.”
Oregon small businesses account for 97 percent of all the state’s employers and provide 57 percent of private sector jobs. Personal tax rates – not corporate ones – matter most to small-business owners, because nearly eight in 10 are single filers. More comment is available from Jan Meekcoms at the information above.