At BlueOregon, Steve Novick writes a man-bites-dog story of Washington businesses forming a "stampede" to relocate to Oregon:632 Washington business owners announced today that they were moving their businesses across the river to Oregon, after the Washington Legislature announced plans to increase the Business and Occupation Tax - in effect, a gross receipts tax - on service businesses from 1.5% to 1.8% in order to balance the state budget.
"Many of us started thinking about making this move a few months ago, when we started reading about the Measures 66 and 67 campaign and discovered that Oregon was planning to adopt an alternative minimum tax that looked sort of like the B&O tax, but was only 0.1% or a flat $150," said Vancouver dermatologist Jim Dunning. "We had no idea that before this, Oregon had nothing like the B&O tax at all. Now that Washington's raising the B&O tax even higher, we'd be fools - not just in April but year 'round - to stay in Washington State another minute."
Interesting story ... And all the more interesting because there appears to be no one by the name of Jim Dunning licensed to practice dermatology in the entire State of Washington.
Over at Oregon Business, managing editor Ben Jacklet has dropped the gauntlet to any businesses who claim that Measures 66 & 67 have caused them to relocate out of state.
Once I get such a name, on the record, I promise to explore in great detail the specific reasons behind that person's departure .... I think that would make a great story, but to get started I'll need some proof that people are indeed leaving because of the taxes.
Let's see if Mr. Jacklet turns his attention to report all sides of the story.
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