Bradbury won't support sales tax, Obrist will
Note: Scroll to the bottom for links to watch the debate in its entirety.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury said he would not support any proposal for a sales tax in the state of Oregon Saturday night at a Democratic debate for governor with opponent Roger Obrist in the KATU studios.
While Bradbury said a balanced tax system would include a sales tax along with an income tax and a property tax, he said “Oregonians have voted 10 times on a sales tax and they’ve said really loudly, really clearly, No! to a sales tax.”
He said he accepts that Oregon voters don’t want a sales tax; instead, he said he wants to look at other ways to pay for things like schools by taking a look at getting rid of some of the special tax cuts that are in the tax code. He did not, however, elaborate on what special tax cuts he would eliminate.
He also said he thinks a sales tax proposal would fail once again.
“I honestly don’t believe that there is any evidence that Oregonians are ready to vote yes, so why bother?”
Obrist, a retired construction worker, said he would support a sales tax if he thought it would stabilize the state’s tax system.
To a follow-up question from moderator, KATU News anchor Debora Knapp, asking how he would get Oregonians to support a sales tax, Obrist said that “people would have to decide what they want to do - people think that all taxes are bad, they would just have to pick out the one they least like.”
During the hour-long televised debate, Obrist articulated few clear policy ideas and repeatedly said that once he took office he would “have to study further” the issues.
Former Gov. John Kitzhaber, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor, also was invited to participate in the debate but did not attend. His campaign cited a personal conflict. On March 22, his campaign said he would participate in the debate but on April 23 his campaign sent KATU an e-mail stating he would not be able to attend because of a family commitment.
At the beginning of Bradbury's first answer, he said he wanted to make “a very important point that my opponent, John Kitzhaber, has chosen not to participate in this debate. And I feel very strongly that it is important to communicate with people statewide. This gives us a real opportunity to communicate statewide, so I’m very glad to be here.”
Even without Kitzhaber the sponsors of the debate, AARP and the League of Women Voters, said it is their policy to continue with a debate if at least two candidates are present.
Perhaps Obrist’s strongest moment came in his closing statement, which dug deep into the fabric of the American political system: Anyone can run for any office.
“Last September, when I filed for office, I looked at myself and I thought in all humility that even the plainest, poorest person could serve the people if they felt he had the right stuff to do the job.”
He said he will accept the will of the voters in their decision on who they want to be governor.
In Bradbury’s closing statement he said he had overcome several adversities in his life and will use those experiences to help him lead the state.
He said his first personal challenge came when his parents were killed in a car crash when he was nine years old. His second challenge was when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“I really had to decide, am I going to face that disease and carry on or am I just going to become a victim of that disease. And I’ve clearly decided to face that disease and do what I can to get things done for the people of the state.”
Bradbury said his top-three priorities if elected governor would be jobs, fully funding education and “making Oregon the sustainability capital of the world.”
Obrist said his three priorities would be education, health care and crime.
In order to stabilize the state’s tax system Bradbury said the kicker would need to be reformed. The kicker needs "to kick to the rainy day fund,” he said, to help stabilize funding to state services like education.
He also said he would look at the gross amount of tax cheating that he said is happening and cited an audit report from Secretary of State Kate Brown. That report, he said, found about $200 million of personal income taxes have not been paid. He said the state needs to work to clamp down on tax cheats.
Obrist said he would like to see the state income tax replaced or modified by another tax, which he said would be the sales tax.
“I do think it would be a fair way to raise revenue,” he said.
On the question of how to get people back to work Obrist said the private sector will have to recover to provide jobs.
“Government has a very limited business in aiding the economy. So I believe that the private sector will have to step up and do its part. I’m not sure what government can do about it,” he said.
Bradbury said small businesses are the most important element of the state’s economy.
“Seventy percent of Oregonians work for small businesses,” he said.
But he said small businesses right now are not getting the loans from banks they need to ensure small businesses can prosper.
Bradbury then proposed one of his major policy ideas – creating a Bank of Oregon. That bank he said will “work with local banks and credit unions to basically make sure that we don’t send our money to big Wall Street banks but we have money that we can then lend to small businesses and really inspire the economy and really inspire job growth.”
On education Obrist said the most immediate need is to find the funds to “keep it going.” He said he doesn’t have any ideas to solve the problem of funding education.
“It’s something I would be looking at but I’m just not sure about it at all,” Obrist said.
Bradbury, who has been endorsed by the Oregon Education Association, said funding education should be one of the state’s top priorities.
“Oregon has the second largest class size of any state in the union," Bradbury said, "and a lot of schools are no longer offering physical education to their students."
He reiterated his proposals to amend the kicker and go after tax cheats. He also said he wants to have a tax on “tax expenditures, tax credits (and) tax deductions” that will help fund education.
The controversial immigration issue also was discussed.
Both candidates agreed that it is not the job of state government to enforce immigration laws but that of the federal government. And both said they disagreed with the law that was just signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. That law allows police officers to ask people about their immigration status if there is a reason to believe they are in the country without documentation.
“I am appalled at the law that the governor of Arizona has signed,” said Bradbury. “What that law does is say to every citizen – not just to illegal immigrants – every citizen in that state better be carrying their birth certificate or their passport at every moment. Because at any moment a police officer can stop them and say, ‘Prove to me that you’re a citizen, and if you can’t, you go to jail.’ That’s not the America I grew up in.”
He said he hopes the law is found to be unconstitutional.
Obrist said he wouldn’t support such a law in Oregon because it is racist.
“The business of stopping people on the basis of their skin color … is wrong,” said Obrist. “I don’t support it. I hope we don’t get it in this state and I wouldn’t be a party to anything like that.”
All nine Republicans who have filed to run for the office of governor have said they will attend KATU’s debate on Sunday, May 2, which also is sponsored by the AARP and the League of Women Voters.
It begins at 6:30 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. It will also be streamed on KATU.com and on KATU's sister station's website KVAL.com.
Video: The debate in four parts:
