Last month, the Oregon Legislature rejected a tax relief provision for small businesses that was automatically created by the 2017 congressional tax reform law. According to The Oregonian, Gov. Kate Brown has not yet made a decision about whether to sign or veto the bill, but time is running short.
“Senate Bill 1528 was passed by the Legislature in response to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump late last year,” explained Anthony Smith, NFIB/Oregon state director. “One of the key provisions of federal tax reform is a new 20 percent deduction on qualifying business income. This new deduction would have been mirrored in Oregon’s state income tax code automatically, had the Legislature simply done nothing during the 2018 session.”
The bill passed in both chambers of the Oregon Legislature with bipartisan opposition – and without a single Republican vote in favor of the measure.
“Let’s keep (that money) with those who are paying the bills and making our communities work,” said House Republican Leader Mike McLane, quoted by The Register-Guard.
SB 1528 has been sitting on the desk of Gov. Kate Brown since early March. According to The Oregonian, she has until April 13 to make a final decision on the bill, but if she plans to issue a veto, she must announce her intention to do so by April 6.
According to the Portland Tribune, some Oregon small businesses already have plans for their tax savings and are still hoping the governor will use her veto power. Salem real estate broker Joshua Kay was quoted by the paper saying, “That 20 percent deduction is critical, and makes a dramatic difference for the bottom line of all entities affected… I believe wholeheartedly Oregon’s employers would like to retain that revenue to reinvest back into their business, employees and their community. That’s what I’m doing with those savings.”
Another voice asking Gov. Brown to veto SB 1528 is Rep. Knute Buehler, a Republican hoping to challenge Kate Brown this November. “If she doesn’t veto it, as Governor, I’ll repeal it,” he said in a March 30 tweet.
“What SB 1528 does is raise roughly $244 million in new tax revenue over the current budget cycle and is projected to raise $1 billion over the next decade by denying nearly 300,000 small businesses in Oregon tax relief they were set to receive under the recently approved federal tax reform legislation,” he wrote in a press release published by the Oregon Business Report.
For more information on how NFIB and NFIB members have engaged on this issue, including press clips and NFIB’s formal veto request letter to Gov. Brown, please click here.
