Op Ed:Oregonians Granted DeLuxe Umbrella

(SALEM) - Oregonians wakened Friday to find fate had furnished both current and future Oregonians with a fabulous “paper umbrella” fashioned from unprecedented business profits forecast by State economists.

Citizens are set to recoup $1.04 BILLION with $283 MILLION returned to Oregon corporations paying taxes, via 61-percent slash in their 2007 statement.

Immediate attention centered on warding off wasteful return --to out-of-state corporate pockets !-- of a fair share of tax-payments due the State under any possible interpretation of corporate social responsibilities; but now about to be “kicked-back” by the infamously unique Oregon Kicker.

The “umbrella” would be a long-sought --and surely long-overdue-- “rainy-day fund”; established in accessible form avoiding Constitutional embedment demanding complex and delay-embellished, propaganda-vulnerable and politically difficult rapid-action when-needed.

Oregon is the ONLY state to have that notorious and recognized-malignly/made law, authoritatively described as “dumb and dumber” --for origination THEN followed by insertion into the State Constitution.

Many will recall the national laugh-provoking, State-image-damaging reference in the Doonesbury comic strip some years ago --credited with off-putting impact on corporate job- makes headed this way, even if rightfully-earned.

Even the most potent, prestigious corporate-and-Oregon company force here -- Associated Oregon Industries, with Nike and 250 others “inside”-- through its founder and longtime leader, Tom Kelly, strongly supports a rainy-day fund.

Kelly stated (in an OREGONIAN-response 9/1): “Businesspeople who look at our state’s condition over time realize we have to do things like fund schools and fund services if we want to be a good place to do business”.

Kelly is willing to give up the corporate kicker to help set up and fill the rainy-day fund.

State Economist Tom Potiowsky and his colleague Michael Kennedy made very clear that this record-size kicker ($1 BILLION more from individuals, $238 MILLION more from corporations) is mainly due to the unprecedented rate of corporate profits nationwide and big run-ups in Oregon’s housing, developers, contractors, mortgage lenders and real estate investors.

“Maybe this means really good things for education; maybe we get to restore things,” President-Elect Anita Oleson, Oregon PTA, stated (to the STATESMAN JOURNAL 9/1). That rational prognosis for the looming future for all Oregonians involved in education at any level from K-12 through graduate was further bolstered by additional word from these same projections of an additional $154 MILLION for the 2007-09 budget cycle.

But most important for rapid remediating of debacle-level denigration of nearly all State-budgeted programs now is the heavy emphasis on profit-production and rapid return on investments already demonstrated by these dollar-levels reported, further inflating the corpulent corporate side of “the kicker”, even above “the last time”-guessed only a few months ago.

Even allowing for absolute certainty of off-figure finalities due to be encountered with any prognosis in progress a full two years ahead of “the actual performance” --not to be overlooked here-- is the great probability of demanded remediating coming in this next biennium.

What we allow our elected representatives to do with this unprecedented, unexpected economic apple-drop from burgeoning Oregon business-corporate trees - far beyond any harvest in any other biennium-ever !!- is surely the key action we can undertake in this decade.

The consensus is already clearly forming to make sure these massive multiples of dollars-due are not allowed - this time-- to escape rational, reasonable application right where economic and social responsibilities clearly demand.

Example: “Silent Saxton” suddenly climbed on the band-wagon today, with an emailed document proclaiming ‘Immediate Action Items for Improving Oregon’s Education System”, seemingly shaped around the CHALKBOARD Project three-year study. (Complete analysis to follow.)

BUT “the kicker” (no pun intended) is his declaration of support-now for -- “a rainy-day fund”; no reference to Measure 48 OR to “THE Kicker” either. (Surprised ?? !!) So he’s still silent on corporate-share sent out-of= state, while you can bet he’s for individual-refund no matter what...and without any mention of corporate tax reform yet...maybe another emailer sometime around last-day before election ?

Meanwhile, back at the school, the hospitals, the Oregon State Patrol operating bases, and all the other demanded-essential locations where those defamed and deliberately-distorted-image state workers congregate and cooperate for what makes this State go --and grow-- the same slashed/funding situations are still being coped-with constantly.

Each and every program, service, set of workers, and other elements in State operations has already suffered its full share --some even more-than-that !-- of deep damage, done over decades, by Legislative and other forces fueled in full and potent impact by “transactional lobbying”-- with consequences displayed and demonstrated in recent court-connection for some delinquent members.

But this time there is no possible further fable they can tell us about “where the money went” and why they cannot do what should have been done bienniums ago.