Citizens give lawmakers a clue on taxes.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

SALEM - Most of the 70-plus Oregonians who addressed lawmakers on taxes Monday said they'd be willing to consider something different.

Rather than the adamant or angry "no more taxes" or "no chance on a sales tax," they said they recognize that the state's tax system has to change.

"If you do it transparently and intelligently, we'll go for it," said Johan Maurer, a Portland minister. "We will fund what is necessary. We just don't want that money wasted."

The 5 1/2 -hour hearing brought the total amount of time that the House Revenue Committee has spent on testimony about the tax structure to 15 1/2 hours. Academics, business owners, lobbyists and other lawmakers all got to speak their piece in recent days, before the public was invited in.

Lawmakers launched the discussion in response to the economic downturn that dropped the amount of income tax flowing into state coffers over the past two years.

Revenue fell by $2 billion, and that forced lawmakers into repeated budget-cutting sessions. Some of the losses: school days for Oregon's children and prescription coverage for the state's mentally ill.

"They've got to find revenue," 67-year-old Eugene retiree Jerry Smith said just after he left the witness table. "Last year the state revenue system collapsed, and the school system became a national joke and people lost their services."

Eugene office manager Gweneth van Frank Carlson told lawmakers how it was for her when she went blind at age 29. "People need to get it," she said of her disability, "it could happen to anybody."

Smith and van Frank Carlson, who've formed the grass-roots group Support Oregon's Service Alliance, said a sales tax is not their first choice because it would hit the poor harder than wealthier Oregonians. But they'd take that over nothing, as long as the plan included exemptions for food, medications, utilities and thrift store trade.

The Rev. Dan Bryant, senior minister at the First Christian Church in Eugene, said lawmakers have a moral obligation to fix the system. He quoted Jesus to the panel: "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded."

Bryant told lawmakers that his mentally ill cousin murdered his mother five years ago and how state budget shortfalls closed the Royal Avenue Shelter, the only program that was a help to his cousin. The man died in prison two years ago, Bryant said.

Chris Steele, clinical supervisor at Lane ShelterCare, told lawmakers that state dollars were keeping the mentally ill in housing, in supportive relationships and in worthwhile volunteer work - all alternatives to the isolation and "living hell" of their illness.

Steele described the contrast of watching his clients lose the help, while at the same time seeing advertisements for an $80,000 Mercedes SUV that says the car can qualify as a business expense, and another ad for an RV dealer touting his accountant, who can show buyers how to claim a tax write off.

"Does this really reflect the priorities of the people of Oregon?" Steele asked.

When Eugene resident Bob Cassidy took the microphone he said - like other Oregonians - he'd been opposed to a sales tax almost from birth.

"I'm thinking it's time to start rethinking that," he said.

In the past, Oregonians haven't trusted lawmakers with the money, he said. But that all changes if the sales tax is dedicated to education - from prekindergarten to community college.

"Most people in the state are willing to fund education," the retired credit union consultant said. "A sales tax is regressive, but an even more regressive thing is a poor education."

Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey, who sat listening for most of the hearing, said he doubts that the Legislature will be able to pull off tax reform this session. "It takes a lot of courage to do something like this."

But state Rep. Pat Farr, R-Eugene, said he sees encouraging signs for reform: Conservative House Speaker Karen Minnis allowed the tax hearings to go forward and a group of moderate Republicans are now willing to publicly consider a sales tax.

Farr said he personally hasn't made up his mind, but he, too, is willing to mull the controversial tax. "I'm a Republican," he said, "but I'm a Republican from Eugene."

PUBLIC HEARING

House Revenue Committee to take more testimony, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Hearing Room A, the Capitol