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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Southern Oregon construction industry finds subcontractors in short supply ... Death of transportation bill costs Jackson County $10 million ... Phoenix downtown in for big changes ... Southern Oregon construction industry finds subcontractors in short supply ... Death of transportation bill costs Jackson County $10 million ... Phoenix downtown in for big changes ... OTHER VIEWS Other Views: Carbon tax, the Cover Oregon of tax reform Comment By The Oregonian MailTribune.com By The Oregonian Posted Sep. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM By The Oregonian Posted Sep. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Social News Watching the Oregon Legislature at work is always instructive and frequently either maddening or impressive. It's not often, though, that Lawmaker World appears to exist, at once, in two contradictory realities. But such was the case this month. In one part of this split universe, lawmakers of both parties intensified the public stoning of Cover Oregon, with some calling for a special session to deliver the coup de grace. There will be plenty of time to do this during the 2015 legislative session, which isn't that far away. The eagerness of lawmakers to act now demonstrates just how toxic the failed health insurance exchange has become. This reality (which corresponds to, well, reality) has been shaped by the collapse of an ambitious and complicated government project. It's one in which the credibility of Gov. John Kitzhaber and all others who've touched Cover Oregon is damaged. It's also one in which lawmakers should consider modesty the best policy. At least if they want to be taken seriously. In the other part of this split universe, lawmakers who'd gathered in Salem this week for committee meetings received an update, some enthusiastically, on a carbon tax study that will be completed later this year. Thus, even as the Legislature decides how to move beyond the failure of one complex and overly ambitious project, there's talk of effecting what one state industry group has called "the most far-reaching tax change since the founding of the state." It's almost as if Cover Oregon, and its lessons, never happened. There's a simple explanation for this disconnect. Gov. Kitzhaber signed Senate Bill 306, which mandated the carbon tax study, on Aug. 14, 2013. A month and a half later, on Oct. 1, 2013, Cover Oregon famously failed to launch. The carbon tax update lawmakers received this week is an echo of a political reality that disappeared along with all of those perky and hopeful Cover Oregon ads. You'd like to think lawmakers realize that times have changed, but, well, you never know. SB 306, which passed largely along party lines, mandated a study of "the feasibility of imposing a clean air fee or tax statewide as a new revenue option that would augment or replace portions of existing revenues." In other words, tax reform, the global warming edition. This finished study, to be presented to lawmakers by Nov. 15, will be plopped into the midst of a long-running reform effort by Gov. Kitzhaber. If he and his legislative colleagues are still serious about tax reform, they should put the study on a high shelf somewhere in Salem and move on. Significant tax reform won't happen without the support of voters across the state, who historically have been skeptical of broad-based tax hikes. Time and again, they've defeated proposals to create sales taxes, which would be particularly effective at stabilizing Oregon's revenue stream - the best argument for messing with the tax code. Sales taxes are so unpopular that Gov. Kitzhaber has signaled that any reform proposal that includes a consumption tax would be almost impossible to sell to voters. Whether assessed at the producer or consumer level, a carbon tax would act like a very specific kind of consumption tax. It would be a tax on energy — the gas you put in your car, the electricity with which you heat your home — that would be determined by greenhouse gas production. And for what? It's one thing to tax fuel to pay for roads, but it's another to do so for reasons that are more ideological than practical. The harm would be obvious, especially to those with less money. Meanwhile, the effect of such a tax in a single state on global warming would be negligible, and perhaps nonexistent. As a component of a tax reform effort, then, taxing carbon has all of the drawbacks of a broad-based sales tax — and perhaps more. In addition, it has the uncertainty that comes with trying something new. Plenty of states have sales taxes, but none have carbon taxes. Ambitious, complex and burdened by uncertainty, it's potentially the Cover Oregon of tax reform. And for all of that, it's not geared to address the most serious problem with the state's tax code, its instability. So shelve it. Instead, lawmakers and the governor should continue the long and difficult process of building up the credibility they'll need to sell Oregonians on even a modest tax reform proposal that doesn't include a sales tax of any flavor, let alone something as exotic as a carbon tax. By The Oregonian MailTribune.com By The Oregonian Posted Sep. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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