The Portland Arts Tax, formally the Arts Education and Access Income Tax, is a $35 tax paid by residents of Portland, Oregon to support school teachers and art focused nonprofit organizations. Residents age eighteen or older with $1,000 or more of taxable income are required to pay the tax. [1] The tax was instituted when Portland voters passed Oregon Ballot Measure 26-146 in November 2012. [2]
Portland residents were initially required to pay the tax by April 15, 2013. However, the deadline was moved to May 15 when the city amended the tax to exempt residents who earn less than $1,000 of taxable income but live within a household with income above the federal poverty line [3] However, on May 15, the online payment system crashed as a result of too many last-minute payments. The website to submit payments was functional one week later; June 10 became the third and final deadline to pay the tax. [3] [4]
The administrative-costs cap of 5% has been exceeded in every year of the tax's existence. From 2013 to 2018, the Portland Revenue Bureau reported administrative costs of 8%, with approximately 25% of Portland residents refusing to voluntarily pay. In 2018, the City Council voted unanimously to lift the administrative cap of 5%, and presented no administrative cap in its place. [5]
On March 7, 2013, Lewis & Clark Law School professor Jack Bogdanski filed a lawsuit against the City of Portland in Oregon Tax Court, claiming the arts tax was a head tax and therefore violated Article IX, section 1a of the Constitution of Oregon. [6] [7] On March 18, Mayor Charlie Hales asked Portland City Council to pass an "emergency" ordinance amending the language of the tax to exempt residents with an income under $1,000. [6] [8]
On June 4, the Oregon Tax Court dismissed Bogdanski's lawsuit. [7] The Court did not uphold the tax's constitutionality, but rather ruled that the city tax was not within its jurisdiction. The ruling stated: "The court concludes that it does not have the statutory authority to hear Plaintiff's challenge to the City of Portland's tax. That is so because jurisdiction must start with a challenge to a tax law administered by the state and the Portland Arts Tax is not a tax law of the state, but rather a municipal tax law." [7] Bogdanski vowed to appeal the decision to a regular judge of the Court, or even to the Oregon Supreme Court. [7]
On March 6, 2017, retired attorney George Wittemyer argued the constitutionality of the tax before the Oregon Supreme Court. On September 21, 2017, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled against Wittemeyer, saying the tax was not unconstitutional. Wittemeyer, like Bogdanski, had also argued that the art tax constituted an unconstitutional head tax. The court disagreed, saying that because the tax takes income into account (i.e., no tax for under $1000 taxable income), "the city's art tax is not a prohibited 'poll or head tax.'" [9]
Frivolous litigation is the use of legal processes with apparent disregard for the merit of one's own arguments. It includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly fail, or acting without a basic level of diligence in researching the relevant law and facts. The fact that a claim is lost does not imply that it was frivolous.
Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 United States Census, the county's population was 735,334. Its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city. Multnomah County is part of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and though smallest in area, it is the state's most populous county.
The Oregon Constitution is the governing document of the U.S. state of Oregon, originally enacted in 1857. As amended the current state constitution contains eighteen sections, beginning with a bill of rights. This contains most of the rights and privileges granted in the United States Bill of Rights and the main text of the United States Constitution. The remainder of the Oregon Constitution outlines the divisions of power within the state government, lists the times of elections, and defines the state boundaries and the capital as Salem.
The Oregon tax revolt is a political movement in Oregon which advocates for lower taxes. This movement is part of a larger anti-tax movement in the western United States which began with the passage of Proposition 13 in California. The tax revolt, carried out in large part by a series of citizens' initiatives and referendums, has reshaped the debate about taxes and public services in Oregon.
Bill Sizemore is an American political activist and writer in Happy Valley, Oregon, United States. Sizemore has never held elected office, but has nonetheless been a major political figure in Oregon since the 1990s. He is considered one of the main proponents of the Oregon tax revolt, a movement that seeks to reduce taxes in the state. Oregon Taxpayers United, a political action committee he founded in 1993, has advanced numerous ballot initiatives limiting taxation, and has opposed spending initiatives. Sizemore made an unsuccessful run for Governor of Oregon in 1998. He also announced his intention to run for governor in 2010, but was indicted by the state on charges of tax evasion. The charges were later amended to failure to file tax returns.
Portland Mercury is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. The newspaper's revenue is almost entirely dependent on advertising and sales of tickets for events and concerts with nearly 95% of its revenue coming from advertisements.
John A. "Jack" Bogdanski is a professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, United States. He has taught at Lewis & Clark since leaving practice as a partner with the law firm Stoel Rives LLP in Portland in 1986. In fall 1992, he was a visiting professor of law at Stanford University, and in the fall of 1999, he was of counsel to Stoel Rives on a full-time basis. His primary teaching and research emphasis is on federal taxes. He is a five-time winner of Lewis & Clark's Leo Levenson Award for excellence in law teaching, most recently in 2003.
Ballot Measure 58 was a citizen's initiative that was passed by the voters of the U.S. state of Oregon in the November 1998 General Election. The measure restored the right of adopted adults who were born in Oregon to access their original birth certificates. The measure passed with 609,268 votes in favor, 454,122 against. It was immediately challenged by several birth mothers who had put children up for adoption, which delayed instituting the measure for a year and a half.
Multnomah County, Oregon, the city of Portland, Oregon, and Metro held elections on May 16 and November 7, 2006.
The Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) was a conservative Christian political activist organization, founded by Lon Mabon in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded in 1986 as a vehicle to challenge then–U.S. Senator Bob Packwood in the Republican primaries, and was involved in Oregon politics from the late 1980s into the 1990s.
Andrew A. Wiederhorn is an American businessman from Portland, Oregon. He founded Wilshire Credit Corporation and served as its CEO, by the age of 32 amassing a fortune estimated to be worth $140 million. Currently he is CEO and majority shareholder in Fog Cutter Capital, which had been listed for a time on NASDAQ, but was delisted for failing to file its financial reports in a timely fashion.
Katherine Brown is an American politician and attorney serving as the 38th governor of Oregon since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th district of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997, three terms as the state senator from the 21st district of the Oregon Senate from 1997 to 2009, three terms as Majority Leader of the Oregon Senate from 2003 to 2009, as well as two terms as Oregon Secretary of State from 2009 to 2015. She assumed the governorship upon the resignation of John Kitzhaber in 2015. She was elected to serve out the remainder of his gubernatorial term in the special election in 2016 and was reelected to a full term in 2018.
Steven "Steve" Novick is a former politician in the U.S. state of Oregon and a lawyer and political activist. Most recently he served a four-year term as a Portland City Commissioner – a member of the City Council of Portland – from January 2013 to January 2017. He was elected in May 2012 and assumed office on January 1, 2013. In 2008, he ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for the United States Senate, for the seat then held by Republican Gordon Smith, but narrowly lost to Oregon House speaker Jeff Merkley. On the Portland city council, he was in charge of the city's transportation department, among other responsibilities. Novick ran for re-election to the city council in 2016 but lost to Chloe Eudaly. Starting in 2018, he works as an attorney for Oregon Department of Justice.
Oswego Lake is a lake in Clackamas County, Oregon that is completely surrounded by the city of Lake Oswego. Though the lake is naturally occurring, it has been significantly altered because of the concrete dam that has increased its size to 431.7 acres (1.747 km2). The United States Geological Survey records the official name as Lake Oswego and, because of its artificially increased size, classifies it as a reservoir. To distinguish it from the city, however, the lake is usually called Oswego Lake.
Cannabis in Oregon is legal for both medical and recreational use. In recent decades, the U.S. state of Oregon has had a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding use of cannabis. Oregon was the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis, and among the first to authorize its use for medical purposes. An attempt to recriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis was turned down by Oregon voters in 1997.
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. The 42° north parallel delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada.
The Oregon and California Railroad Revested Lands, are approximately 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha) of land located in eighteen counties of western Oregon. Originally granted to the Oregon & California Railroad to build a railroad between Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California, the land was reconveyed to the United States government by act of Congress in 1916 and is currently managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management.
Charles Andrew Hales is a former American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Portland City Council from 1993 to 2002.
Mark Allen Callahan is an American politician and perennial losing candidate. He was the Republican nominee in the 2016 United States Senate election in Oregon. He is an information technology consultant based out of Portland, Oregon.
The Mid-county Memo was a monthly newspaper serving the Gateway and Parkrose neighborhoods of east Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded in May, 1985.
