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Oregon Measure 118 - $1,600 for every Oregonian, paid for by giant corps who mostly pay less taxes than you do. (www.yesonmeasure118.com)

submitted 1 month ago by pdxfed@lemmy.world to c/portland@lemmy.ml

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I posted about this 3 months ago and it was $750--glad to see the measure is going for it. The $1,600 is per person, not household. Minors count.

Large corps ($25m in revenue minimum) pay.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So wayyyyyyyyy back in the day, there was this thing called "Renter Refund". Anyone who rented filed how much they paid in rent and got a portion kicked back by the state. I qualified for the very last year of it.

In this case, I can't tell what the $1,600 is for. Existing? So it's a Robin Hood bill? Rob from the rich and give to everyone else? It's sure to be popular, but I don't see how it's sustainable.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

If sustainability is your concern, look at the current system that has massively concentrated wealth into corporations, their limited shareholders, while they pay menial or zero taxes thanks to loopholes and writing the laws themselves--while the middle class has disappeared. that's not sustainable. The only answer, since corporations own the legislatures both state and federal, is to distribute wealth through popular vote--if we must.

Having people who have to work more hours than their parents did, maybe through in an extra job--only they aren't even getting ahead, this is just to pay usurious car insurance, price gouging groceries, companies forcing non-competes on employees so they can't leave to get better wages, algorithymically-aligned rents violating anti-trust that's not been enforced for decades, topped off by the supreme court limiting even class action suits against major companies...that's not sustainable.

Seriously, this has to be among the simplest of solutions for a simple problem that people keep trying to make complex by obfuscation.

[–] huskypenguin@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you think we have a housing crisis now just wait until the $1600 per household rebate becomes law. I imagine there's a million ways to abuse this as well.

[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh man, while I'd usually be on board with redistributing corporate revenue to the general population and while I was initially feeling in favor of this bill I think I'm going to vote against it. This breakdown is what ultimately convinced me for anyone interested.

The video explains these points a lot better than I will, but to summarize:

This bill will inadvertently redirect funds paid for by existing corporate taxes from public services into taxable cash payments, a portion of which will be going to the federal government. I.e. A percentage of Oregon's current tax revenue will become federal tax revenue.
Oregonians receiving these cash payments could end up getting disqualified from income-limited services. There is a provision that aims to reimburse anybody who loses these services due to the rebate but that could cause further disqualification from services and so the cycle continues.
This bill doesn't target those most in need but rather flatly distributes the funds, reducing the effect it could have on struggling Oregonians in exchange for giving money to those who really don't need it.
If this were to pass we likely won't see another corporate tax being considered for a long time. And while I generally think good now is better than perfect later with these things, this bill seems to have some significant inefficiencies and I believe we can do better.

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