I have talked to a couple of friends in the last couple of days—smart, generally right-thinking people—who want to and maybe even plan to vote against Oregon's Ballot Measure 67. A major argument I've heard is that raising Oregon's corporate minimum tax from $10 to $150 would have a huge impact on small entrepreneurs, causing some to fail and some to not start…
I hadn't realized how important $150 could be to a small business. Thinking about it, I've kind of come to the conclusion that a $10 corporate minimum tax may not be low enough. It is obviously vital to foster small, nearly profitless businesses. True, such businesses admittedly employ no one except their owners, and don't actually pay even them. But a few such businesses take off every year, transforming themselves into marginally profitable businesses that might earn their owner thousands of dollars. Besides, small entrepreneurship is part of the American Way Of Life. As such, it is the responsibility of Oregon government to give it full support, no matter how stupid this becomes.
My proposal is to lower the corporate minimum tax to -$150. The State of Oregon would mail you a check for $150 along with your licensing information for a new business, and would send you a check for $150 every year thereafter.
I think the benefits in terms of small business formation and perpetuation would be immediate and obvious. Oregon's entrepreneurs would surely be highly encouraged by this new tax structure. I anticipate that the most ambitious of them might start as many as several new businesses per day!
This sudden blossoming of small businesses around Oregon would surely create an economic boom. The program would pay for itself, as predatory businesses took the $150 payments from these new entrepreneurs and were taxed at the normal rate by the State. One can imagine that service industries such as drugs, gambling and prostitution would be an especially rich source of new tax revenue—revenue that could be used to pay the taxes resulting from the formation of still more businesses. The end result would be a "virtuous cycle" of small business creation that would make Oregon an economic utopia.
Alas, I suspect that the dimwit politicians in Salem will be unable to grasp my grand vision. For now, we will just have to live with the foolish folk wisdom that $10, a number passed down by our elders since 1938, is the perfect minimum tax on Oregon businesses. (B)