MARCH 2008: AROUND THE STATE
State, businesses push for green energy tax credits
SALEM Oregon
increasingly is described, accurately or not, as the Saudi
Arabia of wind energy or wave energy or alternative energy in
general. The state also could become the Cayman Islands
of green energy-related tax credits. Last year the amount of
Business Energy Tax Credits, or BETCs, skyrocketed and a new
proposal by businesses and the state will further increase the
amount of credits. And that makes critics wince.
Last year, the Legislature raised the maximum tax credit for
companies that make green energy investments from $3.5 million
to $10 million. The maximum value of projects that qualified
for the credit doubled to $20 million.
The latest proposal is a bill widely expected to pass during
the special Legislative session. It will double, to $20
million, the tax credits available to renewable-energy
manufacturing companies that build facilities here. In all, the
state will hand out at least $300 million in energy tax credits
over the next five years.
That kind of lost tax revenue has killed other green tax
credit proposals, like the one by the Oregon Business
Association seeking credits for companies that exceeded
environmental standards. It died after the gloomy state revenue
forecast in mid Februrary. Proponents, such as the governor and
the OBA, argue that credits are a big draw to large companies.
An oft-cited example is Hillsboro-transplant SolarWorld Group,
a German business that makes solar cells and plans to expand
its workforce to 1,000 in the next four years.
Chuck Sheketoff of the Oregon Center for Public Policy wonders
if that tax money would be better spent on education or
transportation. It’s those things, he says, that
attract long-term companies. “We didn’t get Adidas
because we had shoe tax credits,” he
says.
ABRAHAM
HYATT
