Tax Insider for January 17
Top Lines
- The Legislative Fiscal Office released a memo detailing the deficit between current service level expenditures and anticipated revenues, estimating a $560 million deficit in the upcoming biennium. Without structural changes, including a policy mindset geared toward economic growth, the problems only worsen.
- The legislature introduced more than 200 presession filed measures in some way, shape, or form pertaining to the state's tax system.
- The Oregon Department of Revenue is revisiting a proposal to create a hefty penalty for the corporate activity tax.
Ready or Not, Here Come The Revenue Debates!
The legislature has spent the last few years buoyed by a booming stock market and an infusion of federal emergency money. Now, however, the Legislative Fiscal Office is bracing the legislature for a harsh reality—the party is coming to an end and lawmakers should expect current service levels to outpace anticipated revenues by $560 million in the upcoming biennium (including the hefty carryover balance from the previous biennium). And that figure doesn't include the numerous asks for additional funding for public and higher education, housing, economic growth incentives, and all the other requests before the legislature. Perhaps more than any session in recent memory, the state budget (and the revenues which fund it) are central to the politics of the session.
