State Sen. Ted Ferrioli predicts Oregon voters will reject a $3 billion-per-year corporate tax hike in the Nov. 8 election, but the John Day Republican also expects he and his legislative colleagues will end up debating the same issue in 2017.

Ferrioli, the Senate minority leader whose district includes Baker City, took an informal two-day tour of Baker County Wednesday and Thursday.

Ferrioli visited Huntington and Baker City on Wednesday and traveled to Halfway on Thursday.

He is running for re-election in November against Democrat Mark Stringer.

Ferrioli thinks Initiative Petition 28 will fail because a majority of voters will conclude that although the petition would impose a 2.5-percent gross receipts tax on corporations with sales over $25 million, the result would be a de facto sales tax that affects all consumers.

“It’s going to drive up prices for basics,” Ferrioli said. “It’s a regressive tax.”

He also cited a study from the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office that estimates the tax would reduce the growth of private sector employment by 38,000 jobs between 2017 and 2022, while boosting public sector jobs by 18,000 during that period.

Ferrioli said he would prefer to see the economy grow by adding jobs in the private sector, which produces tax revenue, rather than in the public sector, which relies on that tax revenue.

“I look at all the communities I represent, and the high percentage of public employment, and most of those communities configured like that are struggling,” Ferrioli said. “I’m not sure that’s the model you want to spread to the rest of the state.”

But even if voters reject IP 28, Ferrioli said he anticipates the Legislature, which has Democratic majorities in both houses, will revive “pieces and parts” of the tax hike proposal during the 2017 session.

“If they want to part out IP 28 and run it at us, there’s little we can do to stop it,” Ferrioli said, referring to the Republican minority.

Republicans also were unable to prevent the Legislature from boosting the minimum wage earlier this year.

Under the three-tiered system, the minimum wage in Baker County and 17 other rural counties rose to $9.50 on July 1. The wage is scheduled to rise by 50 cents on July 1 for the next six years, topping out at $12.50 starting July 1, 2022.

Ferrioli expects the Legislature will change the law, in particular creating exemptions for certain agriculture jobs and tip credits for restaurant employees.

Ferrioli advocated for the tiered system that sets the minimum wage for rural counties at a lower rate than for urban areas.

This idea was prompted in part by the disadvantage the wage creates for businesses in Baker County and other counties that border Idaho, where the minimum wage matches the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

Recently Ferrioli’s legislative colleague, Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, suggested that Oregon strive to adjust land-use rules and other regulations to match those in Idaho. Bentz’s goal is to reduce the disadvantages that plague businesses in border counties.

Ferrioli called Bentz’s idea “genius,” and “an experiment worth trying.”

See more in the July 8, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.