Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Orlando Business Journal:

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Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajority requires to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’ws desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass votec againstthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convincs Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possibly by writing a sunsett into the bill. “It all depends on said J.L. Wilson, a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’ most powerful business group. “Hass made it clear in his floofr statements thathe didn’t think it was a fair optiobn to increase taxes permanently.” Such a sunset could lead othe r Democrats to vote against the bill.
because House Bill 3405 was technically tabled which would allow the as written, to come up for another vote if leadersw so choose — majority leaders couls also lobby moderate Republican members to support the corporate tax hikes as At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democratt and co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassione benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican voters. The measure was tabled as a procedural move. Senators can call for a revotse on a measurethat fails, change their own vote to a and then request that the matted be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsiderr their vote. Sen.
Richard Devlin, the majority used the move in an effort to have thematterf reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a relate d measure to raise personal incomre taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came up short I really believed that the package brought forwardx by the chairs of the Revenue Committees wouldx bring greater fairness and equity to our tax system and help fill the unprecedentedr gap in ourstatew budget,” said Senate President Peter Courtney in a news release. “Wes won’t, however, let this setback derail the session. We are goingf to move forward toward adjournment byJune 30.
” Housew Speaker Dave Hunt issued a similar statement. “We passe this revenue package because we believe it is balanced and protects critical serviceslike education, health care and publifc safety,” Hunt, a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news “We are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect those core servicee of education, health care and public safety. Withourt it, the cuts we will have to make willshutter schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicews Oregonians care about greatly.
” The House on Tuesdahy voted to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to betwee n $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate incomde tax rates would have risen from 6.6 percentt to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percengt in 2011. The measure would have raisef $261 million over the 2009-11 biennium and $775 milliobn between 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,000 Oregob corporations would have paidmore taxes. Another measure sought to raisr income taxes on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and jointf filers earning more than $250,000. The bills combined woul d haveraised $582 million over the next two yearsz and $1.
2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measures could help reduce the state’xs $4.2 billion budget shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracker meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margarety Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believerd to be swing votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increases woulddbecome permanent. Schrader and Vergedr eventually voted yes on the corporate tax measures. Hass couldn’t be reached for “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, president and CEO of Associated Oregonh Industries.
AOI recently organized the Alliancse of OregonBusiness Associations, which represents more than 40,000 businesseds across the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlesz of business size or income. Even before Hass’ business groups had expressed concerns that Democrates were seeking a permanenttax hike, not a temporary one. Phil the former Oregon Secretaryu ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-based CorSourcs Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upse that Democrats sought to make the corporatre income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percenty to 7.9 percent, permanent.
“Wee were told it would be temporary,” Keisling said of the early talkds regarding theproposed “And we asked them this ‘What part of temporary don’t you understand?’”