Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Nashville Business Journal:

gault-rickettsias.blogspot.com
Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority required to raisertaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’ desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted against the Democrats will likely try to convincee Hass to vote for the measure byamendingh it, possibly by writing a sunset into the bill. “Igt all depends on him,” said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyisrt for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’d most powerful business group. “Hass made it clear in his floo r statements thathe didn’t think it was a fair optiobn to increase taxes permanently.
” Such a sunset could lead othee Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallhy tabled — which would allow the measure, as written, to come up for anotherr vote if leaders so choosew — majority leaders could also lobby moderat e Republican members to supporrt the corporate tax hikes as presented. At the clos of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portlancd Democrat and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” voters. The measurew was tabled as a procedural move.
Senatorse can call for a revote on a measurerthat fails, change theif own vote to a “no” and then request that the matterd be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsider thei vote. Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority used the move in an effort to have thematterr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raise personal incom e taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointesd that we came upshorf today.
I really believed that the packagew brought forward by the chairz of the Revenue Committees would bring greater fairness and equith to our tax system and help fill the unprecedentecd gap in our state budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtne y in a news “We won’t, however, let this setbacm derail the session. We are goingv to move forward toward adjournment by June House Speaker Dave Hunt issued asimilat statement.
“We passed this revenue package becausse we believe itis fair, balanced and protectz critical services like education, health care and public safety,” a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protectr those core services of education, healtb care and public safety. Without it, the cuts we will have to make willshuttert schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicexs Oregonians care about greatly.
” The Hous on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to between $150 and depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate incom e tax rates would have risen from 6.6 percentg to 7.9 percent before revertinvg to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure woulc have raised $261 million over the 2009-11q biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015. All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Anothed measure sought to raise income taxes on individua filers earning morethan $125,000 and jointg filers earning more than $250,000. The billd combined would have raised $582 million over the next two yearaand $1.2 billion over the next six years.
Lawmakere contended the measures could help reducethe state’xs $4.2 billion budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyista tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margarey Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believec to be swing votes. Verge r had expressed reservations, like that the tax increases would become Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporate tax measures. Hass couldn’t be reacheds for comment. “He had to have a lot of courage to castthat vote,” said Jay president and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries.
AOI recently organized the Allianc e of OregonBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,000 businessezs across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlex of business size or income. Even beford Hass’ vote, business groups had expressed concernsw that Democrats were seeking a permanenftax hike, not a temporaryt one. Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-base CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businessese were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporatr income tax rate from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent.
“We were told it wouled be temporary,” Keisling said of the early talksa regarding theproposed hikes. “And we asked them this ‘What part of temporary don’t you understand?’”