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Sun to set on pollution tax credit.

Article Excerpt
Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - It paid $21 million to a private utility for storing the utility's radioactive waste.

It has discounted the cost of woodchippers for hundreds of yardwork professionals and do-it-yourselfers.

In its 40 years on Oregon's law books, the pollution control tax credit has cost the treasury, and saved corporations and individuals, $730 million - largely for following the law.

And on Dec. 31, it's going away.

The tax break was originally intended to last 10 years. But when the tax credit's expiration date first came due, the Legislature extended it - a pattern that would be repeated for decades.

When the tax credit's latest "sunset" date approached, however, the 2007 Legislature broke with tradition.

"We didn't do anything with the pollution control tax credit, except let it go," said House Revenue Committee Chairman Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene.

So by year's end, one of Oregon's original and largest corporate tax breaks will vanish from the books.

Policy from a bygone era

When Oregon adopted this environmental credit, it was hardly among the vanguard of states using the tax code to ease the cost of pollution controls for companies. When Oregon's tax credit was adopted in 1967, 23 other states and the federal government already offered such incentive programs.

"But they pared them back...

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