State of Oregon Archives: on Corporations

Jim Huffman: Moratorium on new federal regulations on businesses

The two went on to outline their plans to foster small businesses in the face of a lousy economy. Huffman said that he believes in a moratorium on new federal regulations on businesses, a payroll tax holiday and an extension of the Bush tax cuts would help small businesses survive the downturn. "I believe small business is the most important employer in this state," he said.

Wyden pointed to his bipartisan work on a bill to help small businesses finance equipment they need to grow and his support of biomass as a job machine that would greatly benefit Southern Oregon. Wyden criticized the Obama administration's lumping biomass in with fossil fuels in terms of pollutants. "(Biomass) is a clean energy source for our state," he said.

Kate Brown: Grow Our Own: develop existing Oregon businesses

BROWN: First, I will partner with business to continue our economic recovery statewide by helping Oregon companies large and small to expand, creating more good jobs for Oregonians. Because we know that 70% of jobs are created when existing businesses grow, it's important that Business Oregon, the state's economic development agency, continue its mission to 'grow our own', making sure businesses are able to thrive in Oregon. Our State should also cultivate more long-term partnerships between public education and the private sector to develop the highly skilled workforce our businesses need and to help ensure good-paying jobs for Oregonians. It is incumbent upon the state to make it as easy as possible to start or expand a business in Oregon, by streamlining regulation and cutting red tape. I passed legislation to expand the Office of the Small Business Advocate to serve more of our job-creating small businesses.

Kevin Stine: Cut corporate handouts & thus raise tax rates on the 1%

A: Strongly support. Corporate-owned politicians have embedded huge giveaways in the tax code to the elite. We need to reduce income-inequality, in part, by eliminating corporate handouts and thus raising the effective tax rates on the 1%.

Kevin Stine: Tax loopholes allow companies to pay meager tax rates

STINE: Our tax system is a mess. Well-funded lobbyists manage to get more and more tax carve-outs for their clients, while the establishment politicians that have been in DC for decades help pass the legislation. When politicians talk about the tax system, they generally talk about the tax rates. That's not the biggest issue. The issue is the pages and pages and pages of tax deductions and loopholes that allow large multinational companies to pay very meager effective tax rates. In a more perfect world, we would strip away the corporate handouts that the wealthy and well-connected receive. An improved tax system will be a progressive system in which wealthy people and corporations pay their fair share, and America can have a larger middle class again.

Monica Wehby: Gov't should encourage growth, not squeeze businesses out

A: From ranchers, to loggers, to coffee shop and hair salons owners, [Monica] hears the same thing over and over again-- that uncertainty about what the federal government is doing in healthcare, in the regulatory fields, and the changing tax climate is forcing small business to hunker down. Government should be encouraging growth, not squeezing small businesses out. As a U.S. Senator, Dr. Wehby will fight for the small businesses of Oregon so that our kids can have good middle class jobs available to them.

Christine Drazan: Oregon's business taxes are too high

Kotek: We have to have a tax system that is adequate and fair and allows us to be competitive, and what I heard from the council is we should make some adjustments. We need to look at the CA tax and how it has to be adjusted for different sized businesses.

Drazan: Oregon's business taxes are too high. We're no longer competitive when it comes to the tax burden, but I would say this we have to fix the commercial activities tax. The corporate activities tax is a mess. We should jump the threshold higher than a million dollars. People have to start reporting for that thing at $750,000. We should adjust the threshold. We should look at it and we should look at it with an eye to actually lower the overall cost, not just rob Peter to pay Paul, not just soak the rich, not just to pick winners & losers, but to create a rational approach to taxation that is simple. That actually provides the public function and the public benefit that we all need.

Christine Drazan: Corporate Activity Tax is fattening up bureaucracy

Drazan said she would consider making the threshold higher and said a thriving economy would make up for the lost state revenue. Drazan also said some of the revenue from the so-called CAT tax is not going to schools directly, instead "fattening up bureaucracy."

"When businesses grow and thrive, it grows the pie overall for our state. We're an income tax dependent state. We need jobs. We want job growth," Drazan said. "That's what we need to have as our North Star when we're talking about tax policy, what provides for public services that are strong, stable for our most vulnerable while allowing businesses to grow so families."

Governor Kotek took umbrage with the idea that the money wasn't being spent wisely.

Tina Kotek: Adjust Corporate Activity Tax for different sized businesses

Kotek: We have to have a tax system that is adequate and fair and allows us to be competitive, and what I heard from the council is we should make some adjustments. And so the types of things that were listed in their top 10 recommendations like expanding the research and development credit, for example, making sure that if you want to invest in an Oregon company, you will be more protected if you're taking some risk. We need to look at the CA tax [Corporate Activity] and how it has to be adjusted for different sized businesses. It's funding education. It's an important revenue stream, but it could be improved. What I've said to legislative leaders is let's get started on that, but let's not blow a giant hole in our budget.

Drazan: Oregon's business taxes are too high. We're no longer competitive when it comes to the tax burden, but I would say this: we have to fix the commercial activities tax. The corporate activities tax is a mess.

Tina Kotek: Increase threshold of Corporate Activity Tax from $1M to $2M

The governor said she was in the midst of working on a "very nerdy" project to better track where the money is going. "So when we're done with this project, all 197 school districts are going to be able to tell us how they are spending their money because under my accountability bill that passed last year, if you are not meeting your performance standards two or three years from now as a district, 25% of your state school fund dollars will be potentially managed by the state," Kotek said. More directly, Kotek said she was open to making changes to the tax for smaller businesses.