Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Washington Business Journal:

Air Purifiers Richmond
Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority required to raisetaxew — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againstthe measure. Democratz will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possibly by writinfg a sunset into the bill. “It all dependws on him,” said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’as most powerful business group. “Hass made it clead in his floor statements thathe didn’t thini it was a fair option to increase taxes permanently.
” Such a sunsetr could lead other Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technically tabled which would allow the measure, as written, to come up for anothere vote if leaders so choose majority leaders could also lobbg moderate Republican members to support the corporatew tax hikes as presented. At the closr of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democraf and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benedictionm that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” The measure was tabledf as a procedural move.
Senators can call for a revote on a measurwthat fails, change their own vote to a and then request that the matter be ostensibly so they can reconsider theit vote. Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority used the move in an efforg to have thematter reconsidered. After the vote, the Senats tabled a related measurwe to raise personal incomr taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came up short I really believed that the packagw brought forward by the chairs of the Revenur Committees would bring greater fairnesz and equity to our tax system and help fill the unprecedentecd gap in ourstate budget,” said Senat President Peter Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setbacl derail the session.
We are going to move forward towarx adjournment byJune 30.” House Speaker Dave Hunt issuee a similar statement. “Wer passed this revenue package becausd we believe itis fair, balance d and protects critical services like education, healtb care and public safety,” Hunt, a Democratt from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect those core servicea of education, health care and public Without it, the cuts we will have to make will shutter harm seniors and cut to the bone the services Oregoniand care about greatly.
” The House on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to between $150 and depending on the size of a business. Undeer the plan, corporate income tax rates would have risenbfrom 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percenty in 2011. The measure would have raisef $261 million over the 2009-1q1 biennium and $775 million betwee 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paid more Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individua filers earning morethan $125,000 and joint filersx earning more than $250,000. The bills combined wouldr haveraised $582 million over the next two yearse and $1.
2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measureas could help reduce the state’s $4.2 billionb budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democrativc senators Margaret Schrader andJoannwe Verger, who were believed to be swingh votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increased would become permanent. Schrader and Vergert eventually voted yes on the corporatrtax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for comment. “Hr had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregoh Industries.
AOI recently organizedd the Alliance of OregohnBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,000 businesses across the It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardles of business size or income. Even before Hass’ vote, business groups had expressed concernes that Democrats were seeking a permanenftax hike, not a temporary one. Phil the former Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-baserd CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businessesd were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporated income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percentg to 7.9 percent, permanent.
“We were told it would be temporary,” Keislinb said of the earlyu talks regarding theproposee hikes. “And we askedr them this week, ‘What part of temporar don’t you understand?’”