Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon Senate stalemate over taxes is over.  One day after majority Democrats saw one of their own cross the aisle and vote with Republicans on part of a $733 million tax package, lawmakers brought the bill back and passed it. 

Joining us now to talk about the whirlwind of the last 24 hours in the Oregon Legislature is our Salem Correspondent, Chris Lehman.  Beth Hyams:  Chris, set the scene for us.  What was at stake in these tax votes?

Chris Lehman: Lawmakers say the money is needed to help plug a $4 billion deficit in the state's general fund.  That's money that goes for things like public safety, education, and human services.  Lawmakers are already making about two billion dollars worth of cuts.  Without these tax increases, majority Democrats say they'd need to make even deeper cuts to those services.  Specifically, these measures would raise taxes on corporations, and on households earning more than $250,000.

Beth Hyams:  So these tax increase passed the House earlier this week by a razor-thin margin.  Then what happened?

Chris Lehman: Yesterday the two bills came up for a vote in the Senate.  To raise taxes, you need a three-fifths majority.  Democrats hold exactly that edge in the Senate.  But as it turned out, one of the Democrats was not on board.  And since no Republicans voted for it, the first of those tax hikes, the one on corporations failed.  The Democrat that crossed the aisle was Beaverton Senator Mark Hass.  He complained that the tax increases on corporations should be temporary and should expire after the current recession is over.  After that bill failed, Senate leadership tabled both bills in order to regroup and plot out a strategy.

Beth Hyams:  So the pressure on Senator Hass to change his mind must have been intense.  What happened next?

Chris Lehman: This morning the Senate convened and after a brief caucus meeting, Senate Democrats brought the two tax bills back out for another vote.  And lo and behold, every Democrat including Senator Hass voted for the measures this time.  That means they've passed and are on their way to the Governor's desk.  So the obvious question is, what happened between yesterday afternoon and this morning to get Mark Hass to change his vote.  The answer is that lawmakers came to an agreement to divert the corporate tax increase money into the state's Rainy Day Fund starting in four years.  The agreement was apparently brokered by Democratic State Representative Tobias Read.  Read told me today that it was an idea he'd been thinking about for a while.

Beth Hyams:  So is Representative Read getting credit for helping this through?

Chris Lehman: Yes, in fact Tobias Read and Mark Hass both represent the Beaverton area and apparently carpool to the capitol together.  After today you might call Tobias Read the "Hass Whisperer".