Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority required to rais etaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’ws desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass votedf againstthe measure. Democrats will likelt try to convince Hass to vote for the measure by amending it, possibly by writing a sunset into the “It all depends on said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyisgt for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’s most powerfu business group. “Hass made it clear in his floorr statements thathe didn’t thinik it was a fair option to increase taxew permanently.” Such a sunset could lead other Democrats to vote againsty the bill.
However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallttabled — which would allow the as written, to come up for anotheer vote if leaders so choos e — majority leaders could also lobbh moderate Republican members to supportg the corporate tax hikes as presented. At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret a Portland Democrat and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to implorsRepublican “nay” voters. The measure was tabled as a procedurap move.
Senators can call for a revote on a measure that change their own vote toa “no” and then requesft that the matter be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsiderf their vote. Sen. Richard Devlin, the majorituy leader, used the move in an effortg to have thematter reconsidered. After the the Senate tabled a relate measure to raise personal income taxeson high-income “I’m disappointed that we came up short I really believed that the package broughg forward by the chairs of the Revenue Committees would bring greater fairness and equityy to our tax system and help fill the unprecedentedx gap in our state budget,” said Senate Presidenty Peter Courtney in a news release.
“We won’t, let this setback derail the We are going to move forwardc toward adjournment byJune 30.” House Speaked Dave Hunt issued a similat statement. “We passed this revenure package because we believe itis fair, balancefd and protects critical services like education, healthh care and public safety,” Hunt, a Democrat from said in a news release. “We are makinb $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protecyt those core servicesof education, health care and public Without it, the cuts we will have to make will shuttef schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the service Oregonians care about greatly.
” The Housed on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to between $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax ratesa would have risen from 6.6 percent to 7.9 perceng before reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure wouls have raised $261 million over the 2009-11 bienniun and $775 million between 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,00o Oregon corporations would have paid more Another measure sought to raise income taxex on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and join t filers earning more than The bills combined would have raised $582 million over the next two years and $1.2 billioh over the next six years.
Lawmakers contendecd the measures could help reduc ethe state’s $4.2 billion budget Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings betweenm Courtney, Hass and Democratic senatores Margaret Schrader and Joanne Verger, who were believed to be swinv votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increasesa wouldbecome permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporat etax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for “He had to have a lot of courages to castthat vote,” said Jay Clemens, presidentg and CEO of Associated Oregom Industries.
AOI recently organized the Alliance of OregomBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,000 businesse across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardleas of business size or Evenbefore Hass’ vote, business groups had expressede concerns that Democrats were seeking a permanent tax not a temporary one. Phil the former Oregon Secretaryg ofState who’s now an executived with Beaverton-based CorSource Technology confirmed that many businesses were upsegt that Democrats sought to make the corporate income tax rate from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent. “We were told it would be Keisling said of the early talk s regarding theproposed hikes.
“And we asked them this week, ‘Whagt part of temporary don’t you understand?’”