Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - St. Louis Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority required to raise taxes to send the billto Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s desk. Beavertonb Democrat Mark Hass voted against the Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measur byamending it, possibly by writinb a sunset into the “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’ss most powerful business group. “Hass made it cleadr in his floor statements thathe didn’t thinki it was a fair option to increase taxew permanently.
” Such a sunset could lead othet Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallyt tabled — which would allow the measure, as written, to come up for anotheer vote if leaders so choose — majoritgy leaders could also lobby moderates Republican members to support the corporate tax hikee as presented. At the close of Wednesday’zs session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrag and co-chair of the Ways and Meanss Committee, gave an impassioned benediction that seemedx 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 requesf that the matter be tabled, ostensibl y so they can reconsider theie vote.
Sen. Richard Devlin, the majoritt leader, used the move in an effort to have themattedr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raise personal incomw taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came up short I really believed that the packaged brought forward by the chairs of the Revenue Committees would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systejm and help fill the unprecedented gap in our state said Senate President Peter Courtnet in anews release. “We won’t, however, let this setbaclk derail the session. We are goingb to move forward toward adjournment byJune 30.
” House Speake r Dave Hunt issued a similar statement. “Wer passed this revenue package because we believe it is balanced and protects critical serviceslike education, health care and publicd safety,” Hunt, a Democraft from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect thosse core services of education, health care and publi c safety. Without it, the cuts we will have to make willshuttedr schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the service s Oregonians care about greatly.
” The House on Tuesdat voted to increase the current corporate minimumm tax from $10 to betweeb $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax rates would have risem from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure woule have raised $261 million over the 2009-111 biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015. All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paid more Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individualp filers earning morethan $125,000 and joinft filers earning more than $250,000. The billa combined would have raised $582 million over the next two yearsand $1.
2 billion over the next six years. Lawmakers contended the measuree could help reducethe state’d $4.2 billion budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists trackeds meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senatorss Margaret Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believede to be swing votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increases wouldbecomde permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporatwtax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for comment. “Hee had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregoh Industries.
AOI recently organized the Alliance of OregonbBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,00 0 businesses across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlesx of business size or Evenbefore Hass’ vote, businessa groups had expressed concerns that Democrats were seekingg a permanent tax not a temporary one. Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretar ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-basesd CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upsegt that Democrats sought to make the corporat e income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percentf to 7.9 percent, permanent.
“We were told it woulf be temporary,” Keisling said of the earlyy talks regarding theproposed hikes. “And we aske d them this week, ‘Wha part of temporary don’t you understand?’”