By Jan Meekcoms
Oregon NFIB
The nonpartisan Tax Foundation today released its 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index, and the report ranked Oregon a seemingly respectable 12th best in the nation. But don’t stare too long at that number warned the state director for Oregon’s largest small-business association. It’s not what it appears.
The index measured a state’s corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property-tax rank to come up with an overall score. Oregon came out No. 12 in the nation. “The absence of a major tax is a common factor among many of the top ten states,” wrote the index’s authors.
“Yes, we have no sales tax,” said Jan Meekcoms, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, “which is our only advantage, but look at our ranking in the other index components: 36th in corporate taxes; 31st in individual income taxes; and 30th in unemployment insurance taxes. These are dismal figures negatively affecting business and therefore our economic future. We see the results in our higher-than-average unemployment figures for almost two decades and in our income per capita being consistently below our neighbors. Go figure.”
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