Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - East Bay Business Times:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority requirede to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’es desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voteds againstthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convincee Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possiblh by writing a sunset into the “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’ s most powerful business group. “Hassw made it clear in his floorf statements thathe didn’t thinjk it was a fair optionj to increase taxes permanently.
” Such a sunset coulr lead other Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technicall y tabled — which wouldc allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leaders so choosr — majority leaders could also lobby moderate Republican memberzs to support the corporatew tax hikes as presented. At the closse of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democratf and co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassioned benedictiojn 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 matte be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsider thei vote.
Sen. Richard Devlin, the majorityh leader, used the move in an effortt to have thematter reconsidered. Afted the vote, the Senate tabled a related measurd to raise personal income taxeson high-income individuals. “I’mk disappointed that we came upshort today. I really believed that the package brought forwarcd by the chairs of the Revenue Committeeas would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax system and help fill the unprecedenterd gap in ourstate budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setback derail the We are going to move forwar toward adjournment by June 30.
” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a similar statement. “We passed this revenue packagde because we believe itis fair, balance and protects critical services like education, healtgh care and public Hunt, a Democrat from said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensured that we can protect those core services of health care and public safety. Withougt it, the cuts we will have to make willshuttet schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the service s Oregonians care about greatly.
” The House on Tuesda y voted to increase the current corporate minimukm tax from $10 to between $150 and depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax ratezs would have risen from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percen before reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measurew would have raised $261 millionh over the 2009-11 biennium and $775 million betweeb 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,000 Oregon corporationsd would have paid more Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filerzs earning morethan $125,000 and joint filersz earning more than $250,000. The billas combined would haveraised $582 million over the next two yearsx and $1.2 billion over the next six years.
Lawmakerws contended the measures could help reducdethe state’s $4.2 billion budget Throughout the day, lobbyistxs tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratix senators Margaret Schrader and Joanne who were believed to be swinyg votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increases wouldbecome permanent. Schrader and Vergerr eventually voted yes on the corporate tax Hass couldn’t be reached for “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that said Jay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries. AOI recently organized the Alliance of OregonhBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,00o businesses across the state.
It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlee of business size or income. Even before Hass’ business groups had expressed concernx that Democrats were seeking a permanenttax hike, not a temporaryu one. Phil Keisling, the former Oregonh Secretary ofState who’s now an executiv with Beaverton-based CorSource Technology Group, confirmeds that many businesses were upset that Democrates sought to make the corporatwe income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent. “We were told it would be Keisling said of the early talka regarding theproposed hikes. “Andc we asked them this week, ‘Whatg part of temporary don’rt you understand?
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