Powell’s Books, which bills itself as the world’s largest independent bookstore, is a Portland, Oregon, institution. (Though I’ve always been more partial to nearby Cameron’s.) Its popularity among Portlanders ranks up there with bikes and beer. But now Powell’s finds itself in direct conflict with another Portlandian passion: big government.
This November, Oregonians will vote on the largest tax increase in the state’s history. Measure 97, which is being promoted by Our Oregon, a public-employee-union-funded outfit, would impose a 2.5 percent tax on gross sales for businesses who book more than $25 million a year in revenue. Note, again, that’s a tax on gross sales, not net income. That means that low-margin businesses would be deeply harmed by the tax. Low-margin businesses like . . . well, come to think of it, the new and used books trade.
Emily Powell, the company’s president and owner, is sounding the alarm. She recently told a weekly Portland paper that, “This is about a fifty times increase on our current tax bill. We don’t know how we’re going to pay it . . . Yes, we could shrink the company but we’d still owe 2.5 percent, you have to pay this bill. We want to provide the same service to our customers we always have, to be competitive. I don’t have an answer.” She says she’s not sure at all that Powell’s would even be able to survive the tax.
Powell’s is unionized, so this is a classic case of government unions versus private sector labor—the SEIU wanting to feast on the seed corn of a major Portland employer. You would expect Powell’s union to oppose the tax, of course. After all, their jobs are on the line. I asked the local union representative what his group is doing to fight Measure 97. Here’s his response:
I wonder why private sector unions are in decline?
