Let Salem Vote
If you work in the City of Salem, the city council just voted to take your money, and they don't care what you think. But Salem residents can do something about it!
At the Salem City Council meeting on July 10, 2023, in a 5-4 vote, the city council narrowly voted to enact a payroll tax on any wages (over minimum) earned within the Salem city limits in its pursuit of the “Safe Salem” initiative.
It doesn’t matter if you live here or not. If you work in the city limits, with the only exception being minimum wage earners, any wages above $14.20 an hour will be taxed at .814% of your gross wages, starting in July 2024.
Yes, that means that a body of elected bureaucrats decided on their own to tax Salem-area workers, which includes upwards of 70,000 people1 (the city’s figure) who commute to Salem to work and that otherwise don’t have a democratic voice in this fight. They can’t vote for mayor, they can’t vote for a city councilor, and they can’t vote in an election to approve or deny this tax or any other tax like it.
But you, Salem, don’t have to just lie down and take it.
The same democratic process that they should have used by allowing the public to vote on this also allows for the public to refer any decisions made back to the voters. And that process has started for the Safe Salem Payroll Tax.
Go to www.LetSalemVote.com where you can print your own copy of the petition to sign for yourself. And if you have friends or family who would also like to sign, you can print off a sheet that allows up to 10 signatures.
Keep in mind, the signatures need to be from registered voters within the city limits of Salem. There’s more information with detailed instructions on what to do with the petitions on the website.
They need around 4,000 signatures, but they’re targeting 6,000 to cover for errors. If you can’t print the petition, reach out to the Marion County GOP for where you can go to sign.
Let me reiterate: This petition isn’t about whether the tax is necessary. The petition has nothing to do with what the tax is slated to be funding. It is simply a reminder that our elected officials in Salem need to listen to the people, and when hundreds of online submissions and 50 in-person comments were overwhelmingly saying “Let Salem Vote!”, our elected officials ignored them. This petition just gets the payroll tax on the ballot. Whether it should or shouldn’t pass is a matter for another day.
Let’s show ‘em who’s boss!