Sponsored by: Gerritt Rosenthal, Platform Chair Approved: 03/15/2015
A RESOLUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF OREGON
WHEREAS Gain Share was initiated in 2007 by the legislature to stimulate business investment and compensates local taxing entities (counties and cities but not schools) for a portion of the tax reductions offered as economic incentives under the Strategic Investment Program (SIP); and
WHEREAS Gain Share provides a mechanism whereby the local taxing authorities receive one-half of the total personal income taxes paid by employees at the facilities benefiting from the SIP subsidy; and
WHEREAS this Gain Share program reduces the amount of income taxes going to the state General Fund but can be allocated by the local taxing authorities as they wish; and
WHEREAS, in effect, other portions of the state are subsidizing the local taxing authority in their efforts at business stimulation; and
WHEREAS in 2014, one County (Washington) received $37.8 million in tax repayments under Gain Share and six other counties shared an additional $300,000, while the 29 remaining counties received no Gain Share funding; and
WHEREAS funds not available to the General Fund often result in reductions to critical state services such as education and human services funded by the General Fund; and
WHEREAS taxing authorities receiving Gain Share payments are not required to use these fund to reduce their request for educational services funding:
NOW, THEREFORE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF OREGON RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS:
1. To urge our state Legislators to modify the Gain Share program so that payments to local taxing authorities do not negatively impact the total available funding for critical state services
2. To provide this Resolution to the following entities: the Oregon House and Senate leadership and the Oregon Department of Revenue.
