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

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority required to raiswetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’w desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againsftthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convincwe Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possibly by writinvg a sunset into the bill. “Igt all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’es most powerful business group. “Hasz made it clear in his flooer statements thathe didn’t think it was a fair optio n to increase taxes permanently.” Such a sunset could lead othe r Democrats to vote against the bill.
because House Bill 3405 was technicallytables — which would allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leaderd so choose — majority leaders couldx also lobby moderate Republican member s to support the corporate tax hikes as At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrat and co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican voters. The measure was tabled as a procedural Senators can call for a revotde on a measurethat fails, change thei own vote to a “no” and then request that the mattedr be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsider theirt vote. Sen.
Richard Devlin, the majority leader, used the move in an efforf to have thematter reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a related measure to raise personal incomer taxeson high-income “I’m disappointed that we came up short today. I reallyu believed that the package brought forward by the chairsx of the Revenue Committees would brin g greater fairness and equity to our tax system and help fill the unprecedenteed gap in ourstatse budget,” said Senate President Pete r Courtney in a news “We won’t, however, let this setback derailp the session. We are going to move forward toward adjournment byJune 30.
” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a similat statement. “We passed this revenue package because we believw itis fair, balanced and protectds critical services like health care and public safety,” Hunt, a Democraft from Clackamas, said in a news release. “Wed are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect thosre core servicesof education, health care and public safety.
Withouft it, the cuts we will have to make will shutter harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicese Oregonians care about The House on Tuesday voted to increase the current corporate minimum taxfrom $10 to betweeb $150 and $100,000, dependinvg on the size of a business. Under the corporate income tax rates would have risenfrom 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measured would have raised $261 million over the 2009-11 biennium and $775 millioh between 2009 and 2015. All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes.
Anothedr measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filerws earning morethan $125,000 and joint filers earninh more than $250,000. The bills combined would have raised $582 million over the next two yearesand $1.2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measures could help reduce the state’s $4.2 billioj budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetingx between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senatorzs Margaret Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believeds to be swing votes. Verger had expressef reservations, like Haas, that the tax increases woulr become permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually votexd yes on the corporatetax measures.
Hass couldn’g be reached for comment. “He had to have a lot of couragse to castthat vote,” said Jay Clemens, president and CEO of Associatef Oregon Industries. AOI recentlgy organized the Alliance of OregonhBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,000 businessea across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlew of business size or Evenbefore Hass’ vote, business groupw had expressed concerns that Democrats were seekingh a permanent tax hike, not a temporaruy one.
Phil Keisling, the formert Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-baseds CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businesse s were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporate income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent, “We were told it would be temporary,” Keisling said of the earlyy talks regarding the proposed hikes. “And we asked them this week, ‘What part of temporary don’g you understand?
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