Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Washington Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes a supermajority required to raisetaxess — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted against the Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measurse byamending it, possibly by writing a sunsetf into the bill. “It all depends on him,” said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyist for Associated Oregom Industries, the state’s most powerful business group. “Hasd made it clear in his floor statements thathe didn’tf think it was a fair option to increasre taxes permanently.” Such a sunset could lead othedr Democrats to vote againsyt the bill.
However, because Housee Bill 3405 was technicalltabled — which would allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leaders so chooswe — majority leaders could also lobby moderatr Republican members to support the corporatee tax hikes as presented. At the closr of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portlanf Democrat and co-chair of the Ways and Meansd Committee, gave an impassionecd benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” The measure was tabled as a procedural Senators can call for a revote on a measure that change their own vote to a “no” and then request that the matter be tabled, ostensiblyt so they can reconsider their vote.
Sen. Richarfd Devlin, the majority leader, used the move in an effort to have themattetr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raised personal income taxeson high-incom individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came upshoryt today. I really believed that the packagwe brought forward by the chairs of the Revenus Committees would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systekm and help fill the unprecedented gap in ourstatd budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setback derail the We are going to move forware toward adjournment by June 30.
” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a simila r statement. “We passed this revenues package because we believe itis fair, balanced and protects criticakl services like education, healt care and public Hunt, a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billioj deep cuts to the budget. This revenue package ensurews that we can protect those core services of education, health care and public safety. Withouty it, the cuts we will have to make willshutterd schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicezs Oregonians care about greatly.
” The Hous e on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporatwe minimum tax from $10 to between $150 and depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax rates would have risen from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent beforew reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measurwe would have raised $261 million over the 2009-11 biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,00o Oregon corporations would have paid more Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and joint filersz earning more than $250,000. The bills combined would have raised $582 million over the next two yearssand $1.
2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measuresx could help reduce the state’s $4.2 billion budgetg shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margaret Schrader andJoannde Verger, who were believe to be swing votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increases wouldbecomse permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporatestax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregoj Industries.
AOI recently organized the Alliancde of OregonBusiness Associations, which representd more than 40,000 businesses across the It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardle s of business size or income. Even before vote, business groups had expressed concernz that Democrats were seekint a permanenttax hike, not a temporar one. Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretary ofStatew who’s now an executive with Beaverton-basec CorSource Technology Group, confirmeed that many businesses were upset that Democrate sought to make the corporate income tax rate from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent.
“We were told it wouled be temporary,” Keisling said of the earlu talks regarding theproposed hikes. “And we askedr them this week, ‘What part of temporary don’tf you understand?’”