Rainy-Day Surge Sought

Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Oregon should increase the corporate minimum tax and use the revenue to finance a stronger rainy-day fund.

The governor, in his state of the state address last week, said such a plan is the logical way to improve on the 2007 Legislature’s work to create a rainy-day fund for the budget.

That rainy-day fund was seeded using money freed up with a one-time suspension of “kicker” rebates that would have been paid to corporate income-tax payers.

“Now we need an insurance policy,” he said. “Translation: A stronger rainy-day fund that relies on a steady and predictable stream of income — not an occasional infusion of funds.”

Kulongoski said Oregon could increase corporate minimum tax rates that result in many large companies paying no more than $10 annually in state income taxes.

“We need to raise the corporate minimum,” he said. “We need to bank the corporate minimum.”

Oregon lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until 2009, after the November elections.

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