An article in Thursday’s Chicago Sun-Times called the taxes “head-scratching” and said Daley plans to send economic development officials to Oregon to recruit businesses.
“It will help (Chicago’s) economic development immediately,” Daley told the Sun-Times. “You’d better believe it. We’ll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago. I’ll be very frank. I make no bones about that.”
Daley has a track record of recruiting Pacific Northwest businesses. In 2001, the Fortune 500 company Boeing Inc. moved its headquarters from the Puget Sound area to Chicago.
On Tuesday, Oregon voters approved two taxes. The first is a tax on Oregonians who earn more than $125,000. The second is an increase in the minimum tax on Oregon businesses.
“I’ve always thought America stands for [rewarding success]. You finish high school. You work hard, go to college and you hope to succeed in life," Daley told the Sun-Times. "I never knew it’s a class war—that those who succeed in life are the ones that have to bear all the burden. I never realized that. It will be a whole change in America that those who succeed and work hard [that] we’re gonna tax ‘em more than anyone else.”
Late Friday, a spokeswoman for Mayor Daley said the remarks were made in jest at the end of a press conference about tourism and other issues. Mayor Daley has not proposed a formal program to recruit Oregon companies.
Nonetheless, Pat McCormick, the spokesman for the campaign against the tax hikes, said he isn’t surprised that other states are interested in recruiting Oregon companies.
Also on Thursday, The Columbian, the daily newspaper in Vancouver, Wash., published an editorial that “put out the welcome mat” to businesses interested in moving across the river to Washington.
“Our community has always been a great place to do business; as of Tuesday, it just got better,” wrote the newspaper’s editorial board.
The Wall Street Journal also published an editorial about the tax increases on Thursday, saying the taxes run "contrary to the current public mood about spending and taxes."
"The real victims of these taxes won't be wealthy business owners, who can always move away or shelter income, but less mobile Oregonians who will find it harder to get or keep a job," the Wall Street Journal wrote.
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