They Always Want More: Voters Face at Least a Half Dozen New Taxes in 2020

With this year’s “short” session of the legislature, the $700 million a year cap-and-trade bill is on everyone’s mind.
As they say on the infomercials: “Wait, there’s more.” Way more. Way more taxes. This year, Portland area voters are facing at least six new tax measures.

First, we have Metro’s transportation package that will amount to more than $400 million a year in new taxes.

This week, Metro is also looking to move forward with another set of taxes for homeless services. That’s expected to cost about $300 million a year.

Then, we’ve got Portland Public Schools’ billion dollar plus school construction bond, where $200 million will be used to pay for cost overruns from the last bond measure.Wait, there’s more.

In November, Portland voters will be asked to renew the city’s 10-cents per gallon gas tax.

In the Portland area alone, voters will see at least six new taxes totaling more than a billion dollars a year.

Also in November, ballots will go out for a $2 per pack increase in Oregon’s cigarette tax plus a massive new tax on vaping products.

Wait, there’s one more.

In response to House Speaker Tina Kotek’s call for a housing emergency in Oregon, Governor Kate Brown is pressing for a new tax on home sales. That’s right, the state with a housing affordability crisis is looking at a tax to make homes more expensive.

No matter how much they spend, they always want more. It’s time for Oregon voters to pick up their ballot and tell their politicians, “Enough is enough.”

Eric Fruits, Ph.D. is Vice President of Research at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.