Letters

On taxes, we should go green

My View • Land-only levy system would drive sustainability

By Charlie Dickinson

, Sep 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (11 Reader comments)

For more and more Oregonians, the word “sustainability” rolls off the tongue in that tone peculiar to true believers.

Weekly, our neighbors, like us, dutifully take yellow recycling bins to the curb, keeping our landfills sustainable. My co-workers collect banana peels and other wet garbage to start composting beneath the break-room sink. I even bicycle to my day job, leaving our up-to-54-miles-per-gallon car in the garage and earning sustainability merit points, for whoever’s counting.

Too often, I find that sustainability initiatives are just well-intentioned, voluntary window dressing. I’d like to see Oregonians take steps to implement a green economy in Oregon, something beyond what we now know.

I’m not convinced that volunteer sustainability efforts will check the larger woes of progress: rampant real estate speculation, traffic congestion by driver-only cars, shoddy stick houses … the list goes on.

I believe real sustainability won’t gain purchase without shifting our tax structure over to green taxes.

I interpret green taxes simply: If the resource is a gift of nature such as land, water, air, forest or mineral (often referred to as the “environmental commons”) and it is used by an individual or corporation, then it is taxed to benefit the community and preserve the resources.

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