Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority requirefd to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’x desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againsthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convincew Hass to vote for the measurw byamending it, possibly by writing a sunsey into the bill. “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associate Oregon Industries, the state’s most powerfulp business group. “Hass made it clear in his flootr statements thathe didn’tr think it was a fair option to increasr taxes permanently.” Such a sunset could lead otheer Democrats to vote against the bill.
However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallutabled — which would allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leaders so chooss — majority leaders could also lobby moderate Republican members to suppory the corporate tax hikes as At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margarert Carter, a Portland Democratg and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benediction that seemefd to imploreRepublican “nay” voters. The measurwe was tabled as a procedural move.
Senatorss can call for a revote on a measure that change their own vote toa “no” and then request that the matter be tabled, ostensiblt so they can reconsider their Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority leader, used the move in an efforrt to have the matter Afterthe vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to rais personal income taxes on high-income “I’m disappointed that we came up short today.
I really believedd that the package brought forward by the chairs of the Revenu e Committees would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systemk and help fill the unprecedenter gap in ourstatse budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setbackl derail the session. We are going to move forwarc toward adjournment byJune 30.” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a simila statement. “We passed this revenue package because we believe it is balanced and protects critical serviceslike education, health care and public safety,” Hunt, a Democraft from Clackamas, said in a news release.
“We are makingh $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protectg those core servicesof education, health care and publicx safety. Without it, the cuts we will have to make willshutter schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the serviced Oregonians care about greatly.” The House on Tuesdayt voted to increase the current corporate minimuk tax from $10 to between $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax ratexs would have risen from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percengt before reverting to 7.6 percentf in 2011. The measure would have raised $261 million over the 2009-11q biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015.
All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paid more Another measure sought to raisr income taxes on individual filers earningv morethan $125,000 and joinyt filers earning more than $250,000. The billsx combined would haveraised $582 million over the next two yearsx and $1.2 billion over the next six years. Lawmakers contended the measures could help reducethe state’s $4.2 billionm budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists trackedc meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democrativc senators Margaret Schrader and Joanne who were believed to beswingh votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increases wouldrbecome permanent.
Schrader and Vergert eventually voted yes on the corporatwetax measures. Hass couldn’gt be reached for comment. “Hed had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries. AOI recentlt organized the Alliance of Oregon Business which represents morethan 40,000 businesses across the It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlesz of business size or income. Even beforre Hass’ vote, business groups had expressed concerns that Democrats were seeking a permanenttax hike, not a temporaru one.
Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretarty ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-based CorSourcse Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upset that Democratsw sought to make the corporater income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent. “We were told it would be temporary,” Keisling said of the earlt talks regarding theproposecd hikes. “And we asked them this ‘What part of temporary don’t you understand?
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