Good, because when I saw his application for reinstatement in the Bar Bulletin I was afraid he was leaving politics.

right on , bojack ,
RUN STEVE , RUN!

I would donate to his campaign right now if it existed.

As bright and smart as Novick is, the comment in that article about raising taxes on business while we're teetering on the edge of economic collapse is asinine.

We already do a good enough job of chasing businesses and jobs out of state, let's not get better at it, please.

I agree with Fred. This is one of those guys who is so smart he's stupid, so educated he's dumb.

Hey, I'd be willing to listen. I mean we could really use someone besides "Being There" Ted.

I hear the liberals talk of raising taxes on businesses and "the rich" so often I am beginning to wonder if they have a stuttering problem?

Could Novick expect to receive more votes than Gordo?

Um, so how else do we pay for this stuff? Do you really think China is going to continue to buy our debt?

Oregon's tax burden on business is 49th in the country. If low taxes create jobs, where the hell are the damn jobs already?

I know that I couldn't take a double dose of federal and state socialism under Obama and Novick. Please spare us.

Signed: One Of The Few Still Paying Taxes

I'm a DEM and Novick is a good guy. That said we need a moderate repub or dem like Dave Lister to item line the budgets being put out by the house and senate in Salem. Its getting insane down there. Same here in Portland.

Kari, I think there are some very serious defects in the study you refer to that shows Oregon with the second-to-lowest business tax burden. First, the study includes sales taxes supposedly paid by businesses on goods they purchase, but Oregon of course has no sales tax. (This category is the second largest of the study's results, which is the main reason Oregon appears so low relative to other states.) Second, the study almost certainly grossly underestimates income taxes paid by owners of Oregon pass-through entities. Why do I think this? Oregon and Oklahoma have very similar populations. The study shows Oklahoma derives more tax revenue from owners of pass-through entities than Oregon does, but Oregon's personal income tax rate is 9 percent and Oklahoma's is only 5.5 percent. It seems improbable to me that Oklahoma could derive more income tax revenue from pass-throughs with a substantially lower income tax rate. (It would be very interesting to me to see how the study came up with the pass-through numbers it did.) This "Oregon is 49th" thing has definitely made it into John Q Public's consciousness (and probably into the assumptions at work now in Salem), but my strong suspicion is that it's based on bad data. The result of the study supports some people's ideological agenda, but I am concerned that the state will adopt even worse tax policy than we already have based on bad data. Bob Wiggins

Bob, thanks for examining the Oregon is 49th idea. Oregon consistently lags the country in economic terms, and I wish our leadership would seriously examine what changes should be made in tax policy to enhance the economy of this state. Our current tax philosophy of high personal income tax (soon to be the highest in the country, if the legislature has its way), zero sales tax, inequitable property taxes and current business taxes (whether you think they're too high or too low) doesn't seem to be working well.

If low taxes create jobs, where the hell are the damn jobs already?

In the Red States. The five states w/ lowest unemployment all voted McCain. 4 of the 5 states that have the highest rates voted Obama (SC being the exception).

To apply your simplistic logic then, for Oregon to have low unemployment, we need to be much more conservative.

California frequently leads the Western States on tax revenues per capita, yet they just "fixed" the largest deficit in the United States and have over 9% unemployment.

If high tax receipts was the secret to economic prosperity, wouldn't California and New York be in better shape?

Dittohead Bob W did a good job refuting Kari, though can't supply an alternative answer to Kari's tax comment.
---It's "based on bad data" though he can't supply us with good data.

Dittohead MP97xxx seems to think that red states offer the solution, considering that four of the five states that voted McCain comprise four of the five states with the lowest unemployment.
---Do you care to take state population and geography into account, or just the political color?

Dittohead Tee wants to know why NY and Cali aren't in better shape?
---Cali was raped by Enron at the turn of the century and has yet to recover. A Republican is in charge. NY is the financial hub of the country, nay, world. How do you collect tax receipts with a tanking stock market? I don't know the tax laws of NY, but it would make sense that capital gains taxes comprise a large swath of state financing...unless the state is afraid that higher taxes will cause the relocation of the NYSE.

Could lower taxes in Oregon create the ORSE? F*ck no! Just like lower taxes won't cause other businesses to relocate here solely on tax policy.

For Republicans: there are a lot of moving parts associated with doing business, one of which happens to be taxes. But there are plenty of options for corporations to avoid paying taxes; thus, they probably focus on other more important factors that influence business like the labor pool, the location, the purchasing power or wealth of the residents, and the political environment (taxes withstanding) influencing some of the preceding factors.

Novick has held no elected office, has notmanaged anything of any significance and is not qualified to be governor.

In addition his politics and hinderances are are no different than anyone on the Portland City council.

So how in the heck would he be a good governor? Simply by being a very liberal Democrat?

The five states w/ lowest unemployment all voted McCain.

And of the states where the median household income was above the national median, only two (AK and UT) voted for McCain. In fact, you can go all the way through the top 30 states in median household income (ten of which are below the national median) and only six of them voted for McCain/Palin.

So, you can go with a meter of low unemployment with five states (WY, ND, SD, NE, UT) with a total population equivalent to Massachusetts as your exemplars of dynamic engines of job creation or you can look at the fact that most of the states where families are on the average at least near the median household income for the country as a whole, if not above it, rejected the old GOP saws this time around. They may end up getting the same old same old from Obama, but at least he's piping a different tune for the moment.

Mr. Plant

With all due respect, try to garner some context to which comments are being made.

Kari made the asinine statement that since OR has high unemployment and low biz taxes, we must raise taxes to lower unemp.*see blueoregon

I countered with an equally asinine statement that to lower unemp we need to be more conservative, since the 5 states with lowest unemp voted McCain.

Posted by Unanonymouse | March 7, 2009 1:47 AM

Calling me a dittohead is a hoot. I have never even heard Rush and would, given the opportunity, plant my foot up his rotund arse.

Kari made the asinine statement that since OR has high unemployment and low biz taxes, we must raise taxes to lower unemp.

You should learn to read a little better, mp.

Kari didn't say anything in his very brief comment about raising taxes to decrease unemployment, he just said (rather jokingly) that there didn't appear to be a correlation between a low business tax burden and low unemployment rates.

Really, why bother lying about what he wrote when it's right there on the screen?