BY SARAH ROSS
PORTLAND- A recent attack by the Chris Dudley campaign against rival candidate John Kitzhaber’s newest campaign ad brings into question how each candidate hopes to spur job growth in Oregon and their positions on reducing the capital gains tax.
The ad pictured John Kitzhaber saying that his number-one job as governor will be to create jobs.
“John Kitzhaber had his chance to sign legislation to help businesses create jobs and show Oregon is open for business, but instead he vetoed it,” said Dudley’s Communications Director, LeRoy Coleman.
This legislation to reduce Oregon’s capital gains tax passed the state legislature in 2001 before being vetoed by then Governor Kitzhaber.
In his veto letter to the legislature, Kitzhaber said, “This tax cut would primarily benefit Oregon’s higher income households without a demonstrated benefit to Oregon’s economy. At the same time it would further constrain a future legislature’s ability to address the demand for public services.”
He added that the legislation was coming at a time when the “existing tax system may soon be tested by a recession.”
Dudley’s campaign, however, has argued that this legislation would have encouraged businesses to come to Oregon and that reducing the state’s capital gains tax is part of Dudley’s Jobs First Plan.
“Oregon’s failing economy of today is a direct result of John Kitzhaber’s failure to prepare Oregon for our economic future when he had the chance – and the responsibility,” said Coleman.
In an e-mail to the Oregon Politico, Jillian Schoene, spokeswoman for the Kitzhaber campaign, said that Kitzhaber “is open to adjustments in capital gains taxes if tied to job creation.”
“John Kitzhaber is the only candidate with experience creating jobs and working with the private sector to grow Oregon’s economy,” said Schoene. “During his time as Governor, compensation of employees rose by 49%, Oregon GDP rose by 48% and 128,000 new jobs were created.”
The Dudley campaign was quick to point out the problems during Kitzhaber’s time as governor, saying “unemployment rose 65% and was above the national average for 80 consecutive months, Oregon ranked 40th in job growth, and per capita incomes have been falling since 1997.”
“John Kitzhaber had his chance to lead and he failed,” said Coleman.
Who is running for governor? Is it Chris Dudley vs John Kitzhaber OR Leroy Coleman vs Kitzhaber? Dudley doesn’t seem to know much and continues to use the same trite statements that say nothing.
By reading Kitzhaber’s explanation that you’ve linked to, it sounds like he was being responsible. How many jobs did Bush’s tax cuts create? The Right keeps touting tax cuts and we’ve learned “that dog don’t hunt”.
This article proves how out of touch Dudley’s ideas are. They don’t work! As usual, the Dems have to fix the mess Republicans cause while they redistribute the wealth to their rich, fat cat friends. Dudley will continue the Corporate Socialism if he is elected. No thanks.
The thing most people fail to recognize is the jobs that are usually created are ‘government’ jobs. And who pays those salaries? You can’t create more jobs that are funded by taxes. Jobs NEED to be in the private sector so we can stop the never ending cycle of increasing taxes.
@bujeeboo - The Right keeps touting the tax cuts because “that dog does hunt”. If you are a unique liberal who values evidence I provide this link which makes the argument and has a rich number of links to scholarly papers that clearly refute the current liberal fallacy that tax cuts don’t work.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/paul_krugman_gives_up_1.html
It is well researched that tax cuts have a multiplicative effect while government transfer payments have the opposite effect. Have you studied the multiplier effect of tax cuts? I have.
Example:
In other words, give a billion dollar tax cut you get 1.5 billion effect and the resulting tax receipts.
Do a government transfer payment of a billion and get .6 billion dollar effect.
Have you seen the headlines that the stimulus spent an average of over 1 million to create or save each job claimed?
That is your solution for recovery to continue this nonsense?
Keynes lost this argument decades ago to Laffer.
Your argument may empower you to argue with the uninformed but it is simply not supported by history and evidence.
If you cared about “fairness” and jobs instead of mindlessly repeating the current liberal catechism you would do your homework. I have and I support solutions that work and I care about jobs and I care about people having the opportunity to raise themselves out of poverty rather remaining on government handouts because of government mismanagement.
i want to know what are the spacific ideas and changes chris wants to make other than the old lower taxes, smaller gov. that the gop line takes. i am an independent voter and am tired of the party line on both sides. this is the worst housing problem we ever had and i don’t hear any one talking about it. where were the gop when this started? Why isn’t someone helping these poor people who are now loosing their house thru no fault of their own while the bankers and wall street are pocketing big money. if all uou smart people would have done something 3-4 years ago(bought out a million homes and got them off the market this would never have happened)but no one would listen to what many of us knew and tried to get leaders to understand. why doesn’t chris talk about that, about how devestated those people now are and how long it will take for them to get righted if ever. talk about the real issues etc.
sincerely joe