"Tax Week" Dominates the Chambers
Last week, health care, individual and corporate tax bills took center stage at the Capitol.  Tax increase legislation must pass both the House and the Senate by 60% super majorities.  This translates exactly to the 36 and 18 Democrats in the House and Senate, respectively.
 
The close numbers led to side-shows as the two chambers ultimately passed the tax increases.  Representative Greg Smith, R-Heppner, grabbed headlines when word spread that he would provide the necessary 36th vote on the individual tax increase after Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, announced that he would not vote for the increase.
 
Vote trading is a long-standing legislative tradition.  Rep. Smith told his supporters and critics that he was supporting the tax increase in exchange for a bill to extend property tax exemptions for environmentally friendly logging equipment. 

 

Last week's unique vote trading situation unfolded when a letter popped up from Speaker of the House Rep. Dave Hunt, D-Oak Grove, and Co-Chair of Ways & Means Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, to Rep. Smith with a list of local projects that would be funded by the legislature, including the logging equipment tax exemption.
 
During negotiations with House leaders prior to the vote, Rep. Smith demanded the letter before he would break ranks with Republicans and support the tax increase.  Following the vote anti-tax group Freedom Works announced they would seek a Republican to run against Rep. Smith in 2010.
 
The vote in the Senate was even more dramatic as Rep. Mark Hass, D-Raleigh Hills, voted against the tax increase because it was permanent.  After a night of negotiations, Rep. Hass changed his vote after he secured a promise that in two years the tax increase revenue will be diverted into the state's rainy-day fund.
 
Passage of the $1 billion in tax increases paves the way for adjournment of the session as tinkering with agency budgets continues and a few policy bills make it through the process.