Citizen group a front for antitax businesses

Aren’t words wonderfully deceptive? Citizens for a Sound Economy sounds like it really cares for Oregon. Actually, it is a conservative Washington, D.C., lobbying group funded by donations from Qwest, Philip Morris, Koch Industries, DaimlerChrysler, GE, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, and other corporations and foundations with very deep pockets. It wants less government, lower taxes, and more freedom. The Northwest director of CSE hired a California company to provide signature gatherers to put a initiative on the ballot to defeat the needed income-tax increase the Legislature worked long and hard to pass. Is it a coincidence that a 10-cent cigarette tax will be rescinded if the public defeats the income-tax increase? I wonder if Philip Morris knows that?

Let’s see. Less government: state agencies that cannot perform essential services due to no money, overcrowded public schools with inadequate funds to educate our diverse student population, social service agencies forced to turn away those who need a helping hand to pull themselves out of a bad place in their lives.

Citizens for a Sound Economy wants the freedom to meddle in our affairs, and degrade the quality of life in Oregon. Don’t let them.

-DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW

Salem