The Tax Climate in Oregon

            I read recently that legislators in Oregon want to raise taxes and that this is scandalous.  Ostensibly, people and companies are leaving the state because the state taxes are some of the highest in the nation and Oregon is not business-friendly.

            The Tax Foundation has calculated a State Business Tax Climate Index for 2013.  The ranking is based on five component taxes which are corporate tax, individual income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property tax.  For the detail oriented, the indices for our corporate tax, individual income tax and unemployment insurance tax are relatively high and respectively rank us 31^st, 32^nd and 37^th.  Apparently that was offset significantly by our rank on sales tax (4 – why not one? I don’t know) and 10 on our property tax.  Bottom line:  our overall rank is 13^th out of 50;  not number one but not the stuff of scandal either. 

            The same report showed the State Revenue per Capita for Fiscal Year 2011.  We ranked 27^th out of 50.  Rather than portending a treacherous raid on us poor taxpayers, it appears our tax burden would be well within national norms if we increased it to match our needs.