This press release from the Oregon Senate Republican Whip might be slightly over the top. Full disclosure: I’m the UAUO Union Bagman, a.k.a. Treasurer, and I’m going to assume he meant to write “Big Union bogeymen”:
 from the office of SENATE MINORITY WHIP
DENNIS LINTHICUM
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VICE CITY – SALEM: Dems kill Republicans’ effort to safeguard academic faculty from being exploited by thuggish Unions
SALEM, Ore.-Democrats are now aiming at academic faculty after last week illegally passing an illegal, unfair $667 million, 41 percent tax surge on Oregon’s smallest businesses, even mom-and-pops and family businesses like farms with less than ten employees. Dems are also holding hostage a bipartisan, record-breaking classroom funding package, and they are threatening to derail bipartisan work on a transportation package and more, but as if that weren’t enough, the hostage holding spree isn’t over.
Today, Democrats killed Republicans’ efforts to prevent professors and university staff from being exploited by being coerced to give money to unions. The Republican effort was bolstered by filing a minority report, a procedural move to change a bill while maintaining its key focus or goal. Extending coercive collective bargaining authority to college faculty, without an opt-in provision, will increase the administrative and personnel costs for Oregon’s severely underfunded public universities, in turn, further burdening our broken PERS and health care systems.
Senate Minority Whip Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, released the following statement:
“Union bosses and their political bagmen are holding up academic faculty to pinch their money. Oregonians are witnesses to a gangster government mugging everyone it possibly can to feed its financial appetite. Senate Republicans will not support stealing rights and stealing money from innocent Oregonians. We must expand workers’ rights in this state, it is a grave issue, and it is only going to get worse.”
House Bill 3170 B unacceptably mandates academic faculty pay against their will huge dues to Big Unions, even if they voluntarily choose to not submit to the forced membership. Many people object to being forced against their consent to pay expensive, immoral Union dues, some because they object to the profligate political purchasing that goes on by the Unions.
To fix the bill, Republicans tried to make it so that academic faculty could have choice and freedom in Union membership and to not be forced to fork over the associated, forced Union dues. Republicans contend that under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution public university employees should not be required to join or pay so-called fair share dues to an organization to which they do not want to be associated. Republicans say it is a fundamental precept of our Constitutional system and the Democrats’ exploitation of academic faculty abrogates a liberty interest.
The minority report was defeated by 17 Democrats voting NO and HB 3170 B was passed 17 to 13.
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For follow-up commentary please contact Senate Minority Whip Spokesman Jonathan Lockwood at [email protected], or 971-645-2140.
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I am struck less by the puerility of his (non) arguments against HB3170, than I am by his throwaway characterization of another legislative bill as “an illegal, unfair $667 million, 41 percent tax surge on Oregon’s smallest businesses, even mom-and-pops and family businesses like farms with less than ten employees.” Hogwash at every level.
Four years ago, as part of our own small-scale “grand bargain”, Oregon cut the tax rate on those whose income comes from Subchapter S corporations, which predominantly are closely-held corporations (similar to partnerships, but operating with a corporate charter) predominantly owned by lawyers, doctors and other professionals. The argument was that their tax rate should be reduced, as it was higher than that being paid by other corporations. But what no one in Oregon seems to understand is that the whole point of a Sub-S corporation is to avoid business taxes altogether – the profits are just passed through to the shareholders, who pay only personal income tax on it.
The legislation passed in 2013 said that this personal income should be taxed at the corporate tax rate, a lower rate than on other personal income, leading to the astounding circumstance whereby some of the state’s richest residents pay much lower personal tax rates than everyone else. (I considered forming a Sub-S corporation with some of my colleagues, so we could contract with the university to provide teaching and research services, so then we would pay much lower taxes.)
Thankfully, someone finally figured this scam out, and the legislature seems to be on the way to correcting it, but not without the necessary foaming at the mouth by the business toadies. I’d suggest you contact your senators to tell them that you’ve seen through the long-running obfuscation on this issue, and that in this state which has one of the most regressive income tax structures in the country, you’d like to see some equity on at least this minor issue.
Professor Keyes is correct. Oregon’s tax forms generally treat income as the IRS does, but they include a special adjustment for partnerships etc. To quote from the Miller Nash website:
http://www.millernash.com/tax-breaks-for-oregon-partnerships-llcs-and-s-corporations-12-05-2014/
Unfortunately it seems like the Oregon Senate is going to let this giveaway continue: http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-business-tax-hike-senate-roadblock/