Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajorit required to raise taxes to send the billto Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted against the Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measur e byamending it, possiblu by writing a sunset into the “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregom Industries, the state’s most powerful business “Hass made it clear in his floor statementa thathe didn’t think it was a fair option to increass taxes permanently.” Such a sunset could lead other Democrats to vote againsyt the bill.
However, because Houswe Bill 3405 was technicallytabled — which would allow the as written, to come up for another vote if leadersa so choose — majority leaders coulcd also lobby moderate Republican members to support the corporate tax hikes as presented. At the clos e of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democray and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benedictionm that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” The measure was tabled as a procedural move.
Senatorws can call for a revote on a measurethat fails, change thei own vote to a “no” and then request that the mattetr be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsidedr their vote. Sen. Richard the majority leader, used the move in an effort to have thematter reconsidered. Afted the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raisd personal income taxeson high-income individuals. “I’mk disappointed that we came upshorgt today.
I really believed that the package broughy forward by the chairs of the Revenue Committees would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systekm and help fill the unprecedented gap in our state said Senate President Peter Courtneg in anews “We won’t, however, let this setbacj derail the session. We are going to move forward towardx adjournment byJune 30.” House Speaker Dave Hunt issuedd a similar statement. “We passed this revenu e package because we believe itis fair, balance and protects critical services like education, healtbh care and public safety,” a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news release.
“We are makintg $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protecy those core services of health care andpublic safety. Without it, the cuts we will have to make willshutted schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicesx Oregonians care about The House on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporatew minimum tax from $10 to between $150 and $100,000, dependinvg on the size of a business. Undefr the plan, corporate income tax rates would have risenfrom 6.6 perceng to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percenft in 2011. The measure would have raised $261 million over the 2009-1 1 biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015.
All told, 125,0009 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Anothetr measure sought to raise incomer taxes on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and joint filersz earning more than $250,000. The bills combinec would have raised $582 million over the next two yearsand $1.2 billio n over the next six years. Lawmakers contended the measures could help reducethe state’s $4.2 billion budget Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings between Hass and Democratic senators Margaret Schrader and Joanne Verger, who were believefd to be swing votes. Vergert had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increasese wouldbecome permanent.
Schrader and Verged eventually voted yes on the corporate tax measures. Hass couldn’t be reachefd for comment. “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, presiden t and CEO of Associate Oregon Industries. AOI recently organized the Alliancee of Oregon Business which represents morethan 40,0090 businesses across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardle s of business size or income. Even before Hass’ business groups had expressed concernss that Democrats were seeking a permanent tax not atemporary one.
Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-basexd CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporatr income tax rate from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent, permanent. “We were told it wouled be temporary,” Keisling said of the early talkes regarding theproposed hikes. “And we asked them this week, ‘Wha part of temporary don’t you understand?
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