Oregon ranks 42nd in 2026 business ranking, 43rd on cost of doing business, and 49th on corporate taxes. It was 17th overall in 2017. Employment in the state fell in 2025 while the country grew. The Tax Foundation has Oregon 35th on tax competitiveness, down 28 places since 2019.
Kotek’s own Prosperity Council told her the code is already too heavy on income taxes and that effective rates on modest earners are higher than in California or Washington. It asked for lower effective income-tax rates, a CAT overhaul, and estate-tax reform.
A 9.6 percent payroll tax and a 10.1-point income surtax cut directly against that advice. Washington has no income tax. Idaho is cheaper. Semiconductor, manufacturing, and professional firms can put the next site across the river. A payroll tax that large is a hiring tax.
A household just over the exemption does not pay 10.1 percent of all income.
A single earner at $80,000 does pay 10.1 percent on nearly $50,000, on top of the ordinary state tax. A two-earner household well into the middle class pays it on a large share of income, whether or not they use much care. Payroll taxes are mostly borne by workers through lower wages. Economists have measured that incidence for decades. Calling the 9.6 percent an “employer contribution” does not move it off the employee.
Federal Medicaid and Medicare money is the foundation. That requires CMS waivers. A future administration can refuse, narrow, or condition them. If those dollars shrink, the state has three options: higher taxes, thinner benefits, or both. Critics of the draft also flag two design choices that add cost and political risk, folding people here illegally into the same comprehensive benefit, and pulling seniors toward the state plan rather than leaving traditional Medicare alone.
The honest version of the cost is a permanent double digit tax on work, levied in a state that is already bleeding competitiveness, sized to an estimate the board itself has not closed, and enforced by a monopoly buyer.
The process shows the governance problem.
Vote Tina out and dissolve this!
Oregon is quietly working on one of the largest tax increases in state history.
The state’s Universal Health Plan Governance Board has modeled funding Oregon’s proposed single-payer healthcare system with:
• 10.1% healthcare income tax
• 9.6% employer payroll tax
• Higher corporate income taxes
• Higher Corporate Activity Tax
• Higher lodging taxes
The income tax would apply to income above 200% of the federal poverty level and is intended to replace premiums, deductibles and copays.
But here’s where this gets even more interesting:
Oregon law required the board to present a comprehensive implementation plan by September 15, 2026.
That deadline has come and gone.
Instead, the state is now talking about “draft plan models,” with lawmakers considering the issue in 2027.
Whether you support single-payer healthcare or not, Oregonians deserve to know:
What happened to the plan the Legislature required by September 15—and why are we discussing potential double-digit new taxes without it?
This deserves far more public scrutiny than it’s getting. Thank you
@RepYunker for bringing this to light. Can Oregonians afford another 10% of their income to go to taxes?
Below is the state’s own modeled rates. And no, those aren’t typos. Oregon’s Universal Health Plan board is modeling an ADDITIONAL 10.1% healthcare income tax and 9.6% employer payroll tax to finance its universal healthcare proposal.