EL PRESIDENTE
Username Retired in Honor of Lanny.
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Goodbye Fortune 500 companies!
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/12/steve_novicks_ceo_tax_wins_clo.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/12/steve_novicks_ceo_tax_wins_clo.html
In a move that's drawn international headlines, Portland will launch a first-of-its-kind tax on public companies that pay their chief executives vastly more than they pay an average worker.
Portland City Council approved the controversial plan 3-1 Wednesday, making a statement about growing income disparity in the United States while giving Commissioner Steve Novick a legacy piece in his final weeks in City Hall.
The tax targets publicly traded companies whose chief executives report salaries at least 100 times higher than the salary of a median worker. Officials expect to raise $2.5 million a year starting in January 2018, with Novick hoping the money will help pay for homeless services.
"This is as close as I've ever (come) to a tax on inequality itself," said Novick, the first incumbent tossed from city council in 24 years after an upset loss to housing activist Chloe Eudaly last month.
Novick said he also hopes the tax might discourage companies -- well beyond Portland -- from paying disproportionate salaries to their CEOs. He cited French economist Thomas Piketty, who calls escalating pay for top executives a major cause of the consolidation of wealth among the world's top 1 percent of earners.
Under Novick's tax plan, a company with a CEO-to-worker ratio of at least 100-to-1 will pay a surcharge equal to 10 percent of the amount it pays for Portland's business tax. A company with a 250-to-1 ratio or greater would pay a 25 percent surcharge.
If a company ordinarily owes $1 million in taxes to Portland, it would have to pay an additional $100,000 or $250,000.
Novick estimates there are more than 500 publicly traded companies in Portland that will be subject to the tax.
