Did Portland make charging a real estate tax a top priority this year ...

The
chief backers of Ballot Measure 79 submitted a voters' pamphlet
statement this summer brimming with reasons to enshrine a ban on real
estate transfer taxes in the Oregon Constitution.

The tax is already prohibited in Oregon, with the exception of Washington County, but advocates want to make sure the state doesn't implement a tax or allow local governments to impose one.

The reasons put forth by the Oregon Association of Realtors basically boil down to this: Home prices are down, property taxes are high enough, and you don?t want another tax -- or two or three? -- that would make it harder to buy or sell a home. ??

The group also plants a bug of fear in tax haters with this:

"Politicians have considered the idea of charging or allowing multiple layers of transfer taxes each and every legislative session for the last decade, and in fact one of the state's largest governments made charging this tax one of their top priorities just this year." (our emphasis)

PolitiFact Oregon checked it out. Find out how we ruled in "Did the City of Portland make charging a real estate transfer tax a top priority this year?"

Read the ruling and return to OregonLive to tell us what you think in this story's comment section.

-- Janie Har

Follow me on Twitter/janiehar1
Follow OregonianPol on Twitter too!

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/09/did_portland_make_charging_a_r.html

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