For the 45 years I've lived in Oregon I've supported the development of a "progressively structured" sales tax to provide the third leg of a system of taxation.  Of course you know how sale tax proposals have fared when presented for adoption.  Oregon is one of the four states with no sales tax and refusal to adopt one has become part of the Oregon lore...we're "proud" of it.  

So long as we continue to reject a sales tax as part of a sensible, balanced system of taxation our property taxes and income taxes will remain high AND our public services will be underfunded.  A sales tax is not, by definition, regressive. It is as regressive or as progressive as it's written.  But we have all those "NO SALES TAX" buttons in the drawer and automatically grab one when anyone mentions the need for that "three-legged" tax plan.  Many of my liberal colleagues have a "knee jerk" aversion to sales tax as regressive and unfair and immediately dismiss any discussion of one....that's too bad.  G. Crum