The city tax increase could fund renewable energy projects, raise the profile of a progressive candidate, and complicate state tax efforts. This article was published in Willamette Week (WW).

The key debate in the Oregon Legislature this year is whether to impose a tax on businesses, months after voters rejected a similar idea at the ballot box.

But WW has learned that state lawmakers aren’t the only ones who want to hike business taxes.

In Portland, City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has joined forces with environmental and social-justice advocates on a potential 2018 ballot measure: a 1 percent city tax on the local gross receipts of businesses with national sales over $1 billion, if those businesses do at least $500,000 in annual sales in the city of Portland.

The proposal would spend the tax revenue it raises on renewable energy projects—like solar panels and community food gardens—in low-income neighborhoods, with a promise to create jobs for women and people of color.

Eudaly’s office sent the proposed measure to Portland revenue officials and city attorneys last month. WW obtained it this week through a records request. It does not say how much money it would raise, but backers say it would raise upwards of $10 million annually.

“Housing is my main issue,” says Eudaly. “It could definitely be argued that climate change is at least as urgent, if not more. Who cares if you have safe, stable, affordable housing if you are living in the midst of environmental devastation? This could be a huge boost to these efforts.”

The proposal shows that left-wing advocates have new levels of access at Portland City Hall since Eudaly’s election—and Eudaly is giving them a bully pulpit.

The proposal is a joint effort by the climate-change group 350PDX, environmental group Sierra Club, longtime environmental lawyer Brent Foster and the NAACP of Portland. And it is likely to boost the political ambitions of Jo Ann Hardesty, who is president of the NAACP of Portland and is mulling a bid for the City Council in 2018, against either Commissioner Dan Saltzman or Nick Fish.

Hardesty, who is acting as the public face of  the proposal, says the measure could help meet the city’s climate-change goals while providing renewable energy projects for housing.

 “The first year, we could retrofit every low-income multifamily unit within the city of Portland,” Hardesty says. “Portland has a chance to become a national model to make sure we’re addressing both [climate change and racial justice] simultaneously.” MORE…