The Portland State University board of trustees has passed the first reading of a plan to put a citywide payroll tax proposal on the November 2016 ballot. The tax would, supposedly, go to the university.
The measure, which university officials are terming a “college affordability proposal,” would aim to offer scholarships to local students and hire new faculty and support staff.
The tax would need to voted on by residents in order to pass, via ballot measure. The proposal would create a payroll tax paid by businesses within the Metro. The tax would charge roughly one-tenth to two-tenths of 1 percent of payroll. PSU officials said they estimated the tax would raise between $30 million and $70 million per year.
Portland Tribute adds:
Portland State University President Wim Wiewel told the Portland Tribune in October that he began floating the idea after getting fed up with low state funding levels. Wiewel said asking businesses to pay to educate the workforce they rely on makes sense.
If the board approves the proposal on a second read in January, PSU will need thousands of signatures to push the plan to the ballot in 2016.
This is the same university that regularly hosts marxism and anarcho-communist conferences, spending thousands of dollars to bring in radical leftist, and often times criminal speakers, and coddles several student groups pushing domestic terrorism and other wackjob leftist ideologies.
