Excellent piece. People don't realize that it is ultimately the consumer who is pinched by these so-called business-only taxes; they are more or less pass-thru charges that hurt businesses (impairing their ability to compete with companies not exposed to the same taxes), workers (when costs of being in business go up, companies lay off workers), and consumers who pay higher prices for the same stuff as they did before.  Enough is enough. Perhaps the hostile tax environment may be part of the reason that the economy is so services oriented in Oregon. A lot of the Fortune 500 companies have left. The problem with such a services-oriented economy is that it is not very flexible. So, when economic downturns come around every 8 years, or so, the Oregon and other services-oriented economies (e.g. Arizona) is hit harder than the national average; a lot of the money used to pay for those services is sourced from discretionary income.  In recessions, people have less discretionary consumption.