| Today's Election Day across the country, such as it is in Oregon with only local races on the ballots in-state. But there's another one coming up in January that you may not be thinking about, and it's an important one--the key question will be an attempt at repeal of the tax fairness measures established by the Legislature last session. The astroturf Freedomworks affiliate in Oregon, strongly assisted by the Oregon Republican Party, secured more than enough signatures to place the question on the ballot, and so here we go playing Russian roulette with basic services again. Most ballot questions are at least a little convoluted in their makeup, written as they are in legislative legalese and designed to explain something typically very complex in a few vague, catch-all phrases. Make it a ballot item about taxes, however, and the confusion doubles. Who pays what, and how much? Of course, it doesn't help when proponents of repeal have no compunction about misleading and flatly lying on the specifics. Which businesses are going to be paying more taxes under Measure 67, and which won’t? Which Oregonians will pay more and which Oregonians will get a tax cut on their personal income taxes under Measure 66? Oregonians now have an easy way to answer those questions with today’s release of two flowcharts by the Oregon Center for Public Policy. “The flowcharts are designed to bring clarity to the debate over Measures 66 and 67,” said OCPP executive director Chuck Sheketoff. “We want to help the public and the media understand how the two measures work.” Sheketoff said the impetus for the charts was “widespread confusion about who will be paying more taxes, and how much they will pay.” He attributed the confusion to an opposition campaign that is “banking on fear and misinformed voters to beat the odds.” Those odds, according to Sheketoff, are based on the fact that “people, not corporations, vote.” About 3 out of 100 taxpayers will see their taxes increase while about 270,000 of Oregon’s 1.5 million taxpayers will have a tax cut under Measure 66, according to an analysis by economists in the legislature’s revenue office. “Our flowcharts will break through the campaign noise and dispel the fear created by the opposition,” said Sheketoff. The press release links to the two pdfs showing the flowchart for each measure, but I've got a call in to OCPP in order to get the image versions that I can embed right into the page here. I'll add those when I get them. Edit--how about here and now? 
Also, for a more in-depth review of what M66/M67 do and why, they've got that explanation as well. No excuses now, it's easy! Unemployed? You'll likely GET money. One of the vast majority of Oregonians who make less than $125K by themselves, or $250 in their household? Congratulations, you pay nothing extra and get a host of urgently needed basic services in return. Make more than that? Your taxes will indeed go up, but by 2% on just the marginal amount--that is, just the part OVER 125/250K. Are you a corporation? The numbers are different, but the same principle applies--those who can most afford it are the ones taking on the burden (and it finally puts an end to the ridiculous $10 tax bill for corporations privileged to operate in Oregon). There are just over two months to make sure folks are aware of the election, the ballot measures at hand, and what they mean. But you can distill it into one simple phrase, which I carved into a pumpkin this weekend: 
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