A sales tax?  The most regressive kind of tax.  To fix PERS?  That's completely nuts!

Oregon Tier One PERS retirees (with their top 1% pensions) are going to suck up a huge slice of government revenue for years to come - until they are no longer drawing pensions.

A generation ago, PERS boards - and elected officials at all levels - made decisions that were dumb as a post and which should have been illegal. But judges (ON PERS) have said that their benefits cannot be reduced.

Therefore, the state population will have to go without needed services for another generation.  And current and future public employees will have to take a hit on their retirements. 

A tax increase is out of the question.

The best solution (ultimately the most decisive and most fair) would be to pass an initiative taking all elected officials - all all levels - out of PERS forever.