Candidates assail Oregon tax structure.

Byline: Jim Feehan The Register-Guard

Three gubernatorial candidates on Wednesday night blamed the high cost of college tuition and lack of education funding on Oregon corporations not paying enough taxes, while a fourth cited the state's cyclical economy as a cause.

Democrats Jim Hill and Peter Sorenson, along with Pacific Green party candidate Joe Keating, assailed the tax structure that places much of the burden on individuals during a panel discussion at the University of Oregon.

"I want to stand up to corporations so your tuition will not go up and up," said Hill, a former state treasurer and legislator who lost to Gov. Ted Kulongoski in the 2002 Democratic primary.

Sorenson, a Lane County commissioner and former state legislator, said the tax burden has increasingly shifted away from corporations.

"Thirty-three years ago, corporations paid 18 percent of Oregon's income tax. Today they're paying 5 percent," Sorenson said.

A fourth candidate, state Sen. Ben Westlund of Bend, who is running as an independent, said the state's budget woes were due to the boom and bust cycles of the region's economy and spending-limit ballot measures approved by voters in the 1990s.

"Extreme partisan politics all too often drops the ball for good public policy," Westlund said of his bid to become the first third-party governor since the Depression.

Westlund said access to health care is a fundamental right and advocates for raising the cigarette tax by 60 cents a pack, the proceeds of which would cover every uninsured child in Oregon, he said.

Keating, who won his party's nomination at a convention two months ago, has worked with Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. He favors college students putting some of their tuition and debt aside by serving in a community job corps program.

Lawmakers also need to find other sources of revenue to balance the budget, Keating said.

"Everyone here is familiar with the Bottle Bill," he said. "By collecting 10 cents and keeping 5 cents for yourself and 5 cents for the state, that would raise $70 million for Oregon."

Hill and Sorenson also took a few shots at Kulongoski, who was not present during the 1 1/2 -hour forum.

"This governor is not lifting a finger to make taxes fairer," Sorenson said.

Large corporations in Oregon pay the least amount of the tax burden of any state in the United States, Hill said

"We need a change of governor, someone who will lead the people," Hill said. "The corporations are not paying their fair share of the tax burden."

Courtney Warner, a campaign representative for Kulongoski, attended and provided biographical background of the governor and listed the $72 million in development grants for higher education in the state among the governor's education initiatives.

Jerry Medler, a UO political science professor, was moderator.

The event was sponsored by the Pi Sigma Alpha national political science honor society. Brenden Chaney, public relations director at Pi Sigma Alpha, said all of the Republican gubernatorial candidates declined to attend the forum because of prior obligations.

CAPTION(S):

Jim Hill speaks on the UO campus, as Peter Sorenson (left), Joe Keating and Ben Westlund listen. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard Courtney Warner, a spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, listens to a question from the audience.