Some seniors may be wondering whether they should support the Legislature’s revenue package, given the changes the Legislature made in Oregon’s special medical deduction for seniors. A recent report by the non-partisan Legislative Revenue Office (LRO) shows that the answer is plainly yes.

In August, the Legislative Assembly enacted a revenue package that included a provision altering the tax deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses incurred by some Oregonians over age 62.

In the final days of its longest-ever legislative session, the Oregon Legislature chose not to let the state slip further into the third world.

More than a month before Halloween, Oregonians were treated to partisan activists clad in Colonial garb “reenacting” the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy, a non-partisan research institute, today called Oregon Republican Party Chairman Kevin Mannix and anti-tax activist Don McIntire “Enron’s lackeys” because they are seeking to reverse the legislature’s decision to raise Oregon’s corporate minimum tax from $10 to a graduated, progressive tax. Under the new legislation, small corporations will pay $250 and larger corporations, such as PGE/Enron, will pay $5,000.

Somewhere near you there’s a highly paid corporate tax accountant sharpening his pencil, trying to figure out how to stick you with part of his company’s tax bill.

Here in Oregon, the corporate income tax paid for just 4 percent of Oregon’s General Fund in the last two-year budget cycle, down from 14 percent in 1977-79. Who has taken up the slack? You and I.