Over at Blue Oregon, Steve Novick draws a parallel between a "yes" vote on 66 and 67 and the golden years of former Governor Tom McCall, whom I (like McCall, a graduate of Redmond High School) allied myself with and knew as a friend when I was majority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives.
McCall’s tax reform plan in 1973, Steve rightly points out, could have been the philosophical twin of Measures 66 & 67. Unfortunately, McCall’s reforms went down to defeat at the polls at the hands of the same interests who today are trying to defeat 66 & 67. Thus began the long slide that has left Oregon with some of the shortest school years in the nation even as Oregon business taxes as part of total raised revenue are among the lowest in the nation.
I can vouch for parallel virtues between McCall and the tax reform measures before us today. Let’s not let those interests beat us again in 2010. I knew Tom MCall; no one loved Oregon more. And I loved him. If you love Oregon as Tom did, vote “Yes”on 66 and 67!
(I left a comment at Novick’s Blue Oregon post, giving some historical background about the 1973 McCall tax reform plan and some of the people involved in it and in today’s “No” effort on 66 and 67. It may surprise you. Check it out!)
