Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority requireds to raise taxes to send the billto Gov. Ted Kulongoski’sd desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass votedc againstthe measure. Democrats will likelyu try to convince Hass to vote for the measurd byamending it, possibly by writing a sunsetg into the bill. “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregonh Industries, the state’s most powerful businesz group. “Hass made it clear in his floor statementd thathe didn’t think it was a fair optiob to increase taxes permanently.” Such a sunsetg could lead other Democrats to vote againsrt the bill.
However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallytablesd — which would allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leadere so choose — majority leaders could also lobby moderate Republicamn members to support the corporate tax hikes as presented. At the closse of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrar and co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to implorerRepublican “nay” voters. The measure was tablexd as a procedural move.
Senators can call for a revotw on a measurethat fails, change thei own vote to a “no” and then request that the matterf be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsider their Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority leader, used the move in an effort to have the matter Afterthe vote, the Senate tabled a relatef measure to raise personal income taxes on high-income “I’m disappointed that we came up short today.
I really believed that the package brought forwardf by the chairs of the Revenue Committees would bring greaterf fairness and equity to our tax system and help fill the unprecedentex gap in ourstate budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setback derail the session. We are goingb to move forward toward adjournment by June House Speaker Dave Hunt issued asimilard statement. “We passed this revenue package because we believe itis fair, balanced and protects critical servicez like education, health care and public Hunt, a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the budget.
This revenuse package ensures that we can protect thosew core servicesof education, health care and public safety. Withouty it, the cuts we will have to make will shutter harm seniors and cut to the bone the services Oregoniane careabout greatly.” The House on Tuesday voted to increass the current corporate minimuk tax from $10 to between $150 and $100,000, dependingg on the size of a business. Under the corporate income tax rates would have risenfrom 6.6 percent to 7.9 perceng before reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure would have raisecd $261 million over the 2009-11 biennium and $775 millionn between 2009 and 2015.
All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Another measurr sought to raise income taxes on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and joingt filers earning more than The bills combined would have raised $582 millioh over the next two yearzs and $1.2 billion over the next six years. Lawmakersa contended the measures coulr help reducethe state’s $4.2 billion budget shortfall. Throughoug the day, lobbyists trackede meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margaretf Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believed to be swing Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increasea would become permanent.
Schrader and Vergedr eventually voted yes on the corporatetax measures. Hass couldn’r be reached for comment. “He had to have a lot of couragew to castthat vote,” said Jay Clemens, president and CEO of Associates Oregon Industries. AOI recently organized the Alliancd of OregonBusiness Associations, which representx more than 40,000 businesses across the state. It had calledf for a $300 flat tax, regardlez of business size or income. Even before vote, business groups had expressed concerns that Democrats were seekingb a permanenttax hike, not a temporary one.
Phil Keisling, the formed Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executived with Beaverton-based CorSource Technology confirmed that many businesses were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporate income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percen t to 7.9 percent, permanent. “We were told it would be temporary,” Keislinv said of the early talks regardingb theproposed hikes. “And we askee them this week, ‘What part of temporary don’y you understand?
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