Our History

Our Inception

It was New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston's 2003 book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—And Cheat Everybody Else, that got Tax Fairness Oregon started. After reading a synopsis, we invited Johnston to speak in Portland. During his presentation we collected contact information for people who wanted to work on tax loophole and enforcement issues, and that group became Tax Fairness Oregon. Johnston has spoken in Oregon nine times, most recently in April of 2008. He has met informally with state legislators and other leaders. He provided some of the stimulus, not only for our group, but also for new tax enforcement legislation to close Oregon tax loopholes. (Read an interview with David Cay Johnston at Democracy Now!)

Shortly after organizing, Tax Fairness Oregon decided to focus on Salem legislators, not the general public, since talking to 90 legislative decision makers is both easier and more effective than talking to 1.7 million Oregon voters. We also work with our congressional delegation on selected issues.

The 2005 Legislative Session

In the 2005 legislative session we began talking about the Oregon Tax Gap. Our first estimate of Oregon's Tax Gap—what is legally due, but not paid, in Oregon income tax—used IRS statistics and applied them to Oregon tax revenue. We reported that 20% of taxes owed, or $1 billion, goes uncollected each year, because tax law is not voluntarily followed by all, and not enforced for all. A more recent analysis, in 2006, places the tax gap at $1.5 billion a year, $44 million of that in unpaid capital gains taxes.

Representatives Greg Macpherson and Mark Hass each sponsored a tax enforcement bill. The two bills were combined into SB480 and sailed through the Senate Revenue Committee, passing easily on the floor. But when it got to the House Revenue Committee, suddenly lobbyists appeared. Bankers and truckers fought the provisions to close down abusive tax shelters—California had great success with similar legislation, gathering $1.4 billion in tax revenue that had been hidden from state tax—while title companies fought the collection of estimated payments from out-of-state sellers of Oregon real estate. The Department of Revenue worried about a possible legal backlash of listing on the Department of Revenue's website folks who are delinquent in their taxes, despite the fact that numerous other states successfully do this. Others sabotaged the bill with concerns that something was wrong with asking that individuals who have Oregon professional or occupational licenses issued by the state be cross-checked against tax filers to make sure they were voluntarily paying taxes. The bill was damaged significantly with amendments in the House, and died in the reconciliation committee in the closing days of the session.

But there were lessons learned, and Tax Fairness Oregon established itself in that session as a credible organization, with accurate, well-researched and principle-driven legislative concepts.

2005-2007

Between sessions we interviewed candidates for open legislative positions. Having formed a Political Action Committee, we donated to candidates we endorsed. In addition we met with current legislators and the governor's office, and maintained contact with the Department of Revenue. We sent a member to national conferences of the Federation of Tax Administrators, gathering successful tax enforcement ideas from other states.

The 2007 Legislative Session

The 2007 legislative session was more fruitful than our first foray into legislative action. Two bills we vigorously supported passed: one dealing with abusive tax shelters, the other a successful move to bring non-resident sellers of real estate into tax compliance. It is true, however, that those bills were weakened by lobbyists for poor tax policy. U.S. Bank and Con-way Trucking lobbied successfully to strip parts of the abusive tax shelter bill, and title companies fought against non-resident withholding.

2007-2008

Along the way we've spoken up on lottery commissions, tax reform, the corporate minimum tax, the beer tax, the budget, new authority for the Department of Revenue, the estate tax, pollution control tax credits, and energy tax credits.
Not all our work has been at the state level. We've met with congresspersons and their staffs as well, discussing the tax gap and ideas for shrinking it at the federal level, and we've worked to retain the federal estate tax.
In the summer of 2007 we contributed to the regulation-writing process for the new non-resident real estate sales law.
The 2008 Legislative Session In the February 2008 session we had daily presence in the capitol. We worked to strengthen the Business Energy Tax Credit bill, to stop efforts to weaken the non-resident withholding and estate tax bills passed in the 2007 legislature, and to disconnect Oregon from the Bush bonus depreciation portions of the economic stimulus package. Largely because of our effort, the Senate Revenue Committee successfully sponsored a bill directing the Department of Revenue to study the Oregon Tax Gap and propose efforts to close it significantly.

2008-2009

We have subgroups evaluating a number of legislative concepts on the horizon, and exploring how to fight the bad ones. Other committees are polishing good ideas to be pushed forward in 2009. We are working at building stronger relationships with allied organizations and legislators. We are also increasing the number of individuals who are available and ready to lobby and testify in Salem, and seeking experts with experience in business, taxation, and economic policy.
The Federal estate tax is a high priority at this time, as legislative action to change federal law is on the near horizon.
We are asking questions at candidate forums and meeting with candidates for public office.

We encourage you to join our efforts. There are many ways you can help.