Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Democrats needed 18 votes a supermajority required to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’ws desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted against the Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measurwe byamending it, possibly by writing a sunseg into the bill. “It all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’s most powerful business “Hass made it clear in his floor statementse thathe didn’t think it was a fair option to increase taxes permanently.” Such a sunset coulde lead other Democrats to vote againsr the bill.
However, because House Bill 3405 was technicallyhtabled — which would allow the measure, as to come up for another vote if leaderas so choose — majority leaders could also lobby moderate Republicanb members to support the corporate tax hikez as presented. At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democratt and co-chair of the Ways and Means gave an impassioned benediction that seemed to implordeRepublican “nay” voters. The measure was tabled as a proceduraol move.
Senators can call for a revote on a measurwthat fails, change their own vote to a and then request that the matter be tabled, ostensiblyh so they can reconsider their Sen. Richard Devlin, the majoritt leader, used the move in an effort to have thematterr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabledr a related measure to raise personal incomw taxeson high-income individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came upshory today. I really believed that the package brought forward by the chaira of the Revenue Committees would brin greater fairness and equity to our tax systekm and help fill the unprecedentexd gap in our state said Senate President Petef Courtney in anews release.
“We won’t, let this setback derail the We are going to move forwars toward adjournment byJune 30.” House Speaker Dave Hunt issued a similad statement. “We passed this revenue packagd because we believe itis fair, balanced and protectss critical services like education, health care and public Hunt, a Democrat from said in a news release. “Wes are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect those core services of education, health care and publif safety. Without it, the cuts we will have to make willshutte schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicesx Oregonians care about greatly.
” The Housw on Tuesday voted to increaswe the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to betweemn $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax rates woulcd have risen from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent before reverting to 7.6 percentg in 2011. The measure would have raisedc $261 million over the 2009-11 bienniuj and $775 million betweenh 2009 and 2015. All told, 125,000 Oregon corporations wouled have paidmore taxes. Another measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filers earning morethan $125,000 and jointt filers earning more than The bills combined would have raiser $582 million over the next two yearss and $1.
2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measurexs could help reduce the state’s $4.2 billion budget Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings between Courtney, Hass and Democrativ senators Margaret Schrader and Joannee Verger, who were believed to be swingv votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like that the tax increasexs wouldbecome permanent. Schrader and Verger eventually voted yes on the corporatetax measures. Hass couldn’ t be reached for comment. “He had to have a lot of couragwe to castthat vote,” said Jay president and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries.
AOI recentlty organized the Alliance of OregonBusiness Associations, whichu represents more than 40,000 businesses acrosa the state. It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardlesz of business size or income. Even beforse Hass’ vote, business groupw had expressed concerns that Democrats were seeking a permanentttax hike, not a temporary one. Phil the former Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executive with Beaverton-baseed CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businessee were upset that Democrats sought to make the corporatwe income tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 permanent.
“We were told it would be Keisling said of the early talks regarding theproposed hikes. “And we askef them this week, ‘What part of temporary don’t you