State SUV tax break threatened
Businesses are using the ‘80s write-off designed to help farmers.
PETER ZUCKERMAN
The Associated Press
May 24, 2003
Businesses that buy large sport utility vehicles could no longer deduct their costs against state income taxes under a bill passed by a House committee.
House Bill 2747 could save the state $1.6 million in 2003-05 and more than twice as much in 2005-07, according to an estimate by the Legislative Revenue Office.
“I don’t think that we need to be spending money making it easier for businesses to buy SUVs right now,” said Sen. Charlie Ringo, D-Beaverton, who sponsored the measure.
“That’s taxpayer money that could have been going toward schools,” Ringo said Friday, a day after the bill was passed by the House Revenue Committee.
Ringo said the current federal deduction, written in the 1980s before SUVs were popular, was intended to help the agricultural industry by making large farm vehicles affordable.
SUVs that weigh over 6,000 pounds qualify for the farm vehicle tax break, allowing nonfarmers to claim the same deduction.
The measure would continue the tax break for vehicles used for the agriculture and wood products industries but end the provision that lets businesses get tax exemptions for buying SUVs they don’t use for agriculture, said Ringo’s legislative assistant, Mike Selvaggio.
Oregonians could still benefit from a federal tax write-off for SUVs but probably wouldn’t get as much back because they’d pay more in state taxes.
Joe Schweinhart, a tax specialist with the Associated Oregon Industries, the state’s largest business lobby, contended the bill would hamper business but he did not see fighting it as a priority.
Environmentalists called the bill a step in the right direction.
“It’s ludicrous that we’re subsidizing people to buy gas-guzzling vehicles at a time when we’re trying to move away from oil dependence and polluting,” said Matt Blevins, a lobbyist for the Oregon Environmental Council.
|