To be frank, we don’t completely buy the line coming from either side of the debate around Measure 97, the hugely contentious $3 billion corporate tax that’s become the state’s most expensive race ever. If enacted, the measure would have an enormous effect on state finances, ballooning Oregon’s general fund by roughly one-third.

On the one hand, some of the country’s wealthiest companies have gathered to clutch pearls at what they say is a “sales tax” in disguise. They argue Measure 97’s increased tax burden—2.5 percent on all Oregon sales over $25 million for so-called “C corporations”—would have catastrophic impact on low-income families, who will be disproportionately forced to eat the higher prices spurred by the tax.

Proponents, largely made up of public sector labor unions, dismiss this as a possibility. They bald-facedly wave off any suggestion that the public might see the business end of higher corporate taxes (in their power bills, for instance).

There are economists who’ll cop to each side of this debate, and the reality is somewhere in between. It is highly unlikely you, consumer, won’t see some price increases if 97 passes. It is also unlikely that companies would pass every cent of that $3 billion onto you.

But let’s get to the reason Measure 97 is being debated in the first place, and one thing that big businesses, unions, and everyone else can agree on: Oregon has a revenue problem.

Past ballot measures have limited how much property tax the state can collect, and income taxes are notoriously sensitive to economic ebbs and flows. Since Oregon has no sales tax, it’s on a tenuous budgetary footing that legislators have worried about for more than two decades.

There’s an immediate example looming right now, actually: Current estimates place the state’s budget shortfall for the 2017-19 biennium north of $1 billion. Either we find new cash or we slash services—including, potentially, cuts to a state education system that already lags behind the rest of the country.

By all accounts, Measure 97 is an enormous tax increase. It’s also blunt and pandering, the way revenue measures hoping to pass a public vote tend to be. The labor types backing Measure 97 make plain their disdain for large corporations at a time of rising wealth inequality.

Analysts say the tax would affect roughly 1,000 businesses, most of them headquartered outside of Oregon, some of which have been found to stash money overseas to avoid paying tax.

Those aren’t the only businesses that would be affected, though. One of the things we struggled with in this endorsement is the potential hazards the measure could create for businesses that sell lots of product without necessarily reaping huge profits from those sales.

There’s also concern for how the money would be spent, and whether it’s fair to hike taxes only on C corporations. The measure says revenue would be dedicated to health care, education, and senior services, but there aren’t hard-and-fast safeguards to make that happen. As much as proponents seek to dismiss these blemishes, they are real.

But here’s something else that’s real: The revenue problem that legislators have been unable to fix for 20-plus years. Part of their inaction has to do with Oregon rules that require a three-fifths majority to pass new taxes, a rarity in the country.

Opponents of Measure 97 point out its flaws, but they’re also not talking about other options. And the detractors’ arguments seem more than a little familiar: We could not be more fucking numb to complaints from groups like the Portland Business Alliance that purport to be full of concern for the little guy but are actually smokescreens for business owners who don’t want to pay more tax.

Since Oregonians have repeatedly shot down a sales tax, Oregon has the lowest corporate tax in the country, according to one oft-cited analysis.

It’s clear, given both our state’s challenges and basic fairness, that large companies should pay more. We’re not sure Measure 97 is exactly the right type of “more,” but it’s something—which is more than Oregon has been able to accomplish on this issue in far too long.

Read the rest of our endorsements here.