Budget

Last year, Oregon took an important first step towards showing the public whether the hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent on corporate economic development tax subsidies are worth the money. House Bill 2825 went into effect at the close of 2011, requiring disclosure of twelve corporate tax subsidy programs estimated to cost taxpayers nearly $530 million in the 2011-2013 biennium.

Oregon lawmakers should be commended for their action. With scarce public dollars and a slowly recovering economy, taxpayers and lawmakers alike need access to clear information about these programs and their effectiveness.

However, OSPIRG Foundation’s analysis of the newly-required reporting found that Oregon has significant room to improve to give taxpayers the full picture.

To break through the ideological divide that has dominated Washington this past year and offer a pathway to address the nation’s fiscal problems, the National Taxpayer Union and U.S. PIRG joined together to identify mutually acceptable deficit reduction.

Tax havens are countries with minimal or no taxes, to which U.S.-based multinational firms or individuals transfer their earnings to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Users of tax havens benefit from access to America’s markets, workforce, infrastructure and security, but pay little or nothing for it—violating the basic fairness of the tax system.