AFL-CIO ready to unfurl tax fairness initiative for '98 ballot

SEASIDE, OR -- It wasn't a political convention, but delegates to the 1997 Oregon AFL-CIO gathering here stepped up to the plate to begin getting ready to promote tax reform in Oregon.

The main thrust will be an initiative petition that labor plans to file before the end of the year, followed by a signature-gathering campaign to qualify it for the November 1998 ballot.

Several drafts are in the works, but the gist of the intiative is to make large corporations carry a tax burden equal to that shouldered by individuals and small businesses. For every dollar in Oregon taxes paid by individuals, businesses pay only 64 cents. Large corporations also pay a lower income tax on their profits than individuals pay on wages.

The result, say union officials, is that the lower rate for corporations has shifted more of the responsibility for supporting Oregon's schools and public services onto the backs of wage earners and small businesses.

"The time has come to take a solid, firm position on tax policy," said Sam Dominy, a former state legislator from Cottage Grove who is president of the Lane County Labor Council. "This is something we can explain to our members and to the general public."

AFL-CIO affiliates are ready to expand on the success of an initiative petition campaign labor spearheaded in 1996 that raised the state's minimum wage.

A special Tax Reform Committee has been meeting for months pulling together ideas for what type of tax reform intitiative might pass. Polls have been taken and a large majority favors equalizing corporate income taxes with the rates now paid by personal income taxpayers. As the draft initiatives are being finalized the AFL-CIO is reaching out to other organizations that will work actively in a coalition to gather signatures. More than 73,000 signatures are required to qualify for a statewide ballot measure.

A resolution in support of this November's Measure 52 -- to provide school districts with $150 million from state-financed bonds that will be repaid by lottery dollars -- was forwarded to the AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education with a recommendation to adopt.