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

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority requiredf to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’d desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againsrtthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convincew Hass to vote for the measure byamendinhg it, possibly by writing a sunset into the bill. “It all depends on said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyist for Associated Oregon the state’s most powerful business group. “Hass made it clea in his floor statements thathe didn’tr think it was a fair optio n to increase taxes permanently.” Such a sunsett could lead other Democrats to vote against the bill.
However, becausre House Bill 3405 was technicallyttabled — which would allow the as written, to come up for anothe vote if leaders so choose — majority leaderx could also lobby moderate Republican members to supportg the corporate tax hikes as presented. At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrat and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to implorRepublican “nay” voters. The measurs was tabled as a procedurak move. Senators can call for a revote on a measure that change their own vote to a and then request that the matter be ostensibly so they can reconsidertheir vote. Sen.
Richare Devlin, the majority leader, used the move in an effortr to have thematter reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raise personao income taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointefd that we came up short I really believed that the packaged brought forward by the chairs of the Revenuwe Committees would bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systejm and help fill the unprecedented gap in ourstatr budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news release. “We won’t, however, let this setbaclk derail the session. We are going to move forward towarxd adjournment byJune 30.
” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a similar statement. “Wde passed this revenue packag because we believe itis fair, balanced and protect s critical services like education, health care and public safety,” a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news release. “We are makinvg $2 billion deep cuts to the budget. This revenuee package ensures that we can protect those core servicezof education, health care and public Without it, the cuts we will have to make will shutter harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicese Oregonians care about greatly.
” The Houses on Tuesday voted to increas the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to betweebn $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a business. Underf the plan, corporate income tax rates would have risenfrom 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent befor reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measured would have raised $261 million over the 2009-121 biennium and $775 millioh between 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individualp filers earning morethan $125,000 and joint filers earning more than The bills combined would have raised $582 milliom over the next two years and $1.
2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measures could help reducs the state’s $4.2 billion budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyist tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratifc senators Margaret Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believe d to be swing Verger had expressed like Haas, that the tax increases would becomse permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporatretax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for “He had to have a lot of couragse to castthat vote,” said Jay Clemens, presideny and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries.
AOI recently organizedr the Alliance of OregonBusiness Associations, which representd more than 40,000 businesses acrosxs the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardles of businesss size or income. Even before Hass’ vote, businesa groups had expressed concerns that Democrats were seekingt a permanenttax hike, not a temporary one. Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-basesd CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businessesw were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporated income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percentt to 7.9 percent, permanent.
“We were told it woulsd be temporary,” Keisling said of the early talksz regarding theproposed hikes. “And we aske them this week, ‘What part of temporaryg don’t you understand?’”