In an unusual move, the ranking Republican on the Oregon Senate Finance and Revenue committee plans to introduce legislation requiring large companies to disclose how much they pay in taxes.

Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, said he has asked legislative lawyers to replicate the “corporate transparency” initiative that public employee unions had planned to take to voters in November, until they struck an agreement with Gov. Kate Brown and Nike to keep it off the ballot.

In addition to tax information, Initiative Petition 25 would have required large companies such as Nike to share other closely held business information in state filings or pay a fine. State-level tax information is not available in corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

After striking that deal, the unions, Nike and a handful of other businesses worked together to defeat conservative ballot initiatives, re-elect Brown and raise billions of dollars in business taxes in 2019. That could make it challenging for Boquist to line up support for his bill. Sen. Mark Hass, a Beaverton Democrat who is chair of the Senate Finance and Revenue committee, said he didn’t think it would be good policy to “make Oregon companies less competitive, and that’s what you’re doing by opening up their books to competitors.”

Currently, tax returns can be viewed only by employees of the Oregon Department of Revenue and state economists conducting research, and the economists must go through a process to access the information.

Boquist, who is vice chair of the Senate committee that handles tax law, said lawmakers and other public officials need the corporate information in order to write good tax law.

“At this point, we’re just operating completely blind,” said Boquist, whose own small businesses include military training and aviation companies.

His proposal also was motivated by Nike’s actions. “I call it the Nike bill because they’re the ones that killed it.”

When asked whether the proposal is a jab at public employee unions or the governor, Boquist said, “no.”

“I’m poking at large corporations who are talking out both sides of [their] mouth,” Boquist said, referring to a special deal Nike secured with the state in 2012 guaranteeing the method of the company’s income tax calculation for three decades to come.

Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Nike, declined to comment on Boquist’s proposal but reiterated the company’s support for changing Oregon’s tax code “to treat individuals and businesses’ fairly.”

The company parted ways with other Oregon businesses over the summer, when it joined public employees unions to oppose tax initiatives backed by grocers, soda companies and the real estate industry. Now, a group formed by Nike and the unions is developing plans to raise business taxes in private meetings that include check-ins with the governor and top legislative Democrats.

“I’m actually with the Our Oregon camp,” Boquist said, referring to the union-backed political nonprofit whose political action committee spent more than $500,000 to gather signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot. “If you’re publicly traded, then we should have access to some of your data.”

A spokeswoman for Our Oregon did not immediately have any comment on whether the group supports Boquist’s plan to replicate the proposal in 2019.

Through her press secretary Kate Kondayen, the governor declined to comment on Boquist’s proposal. Kondayen wrote in an email that Brown had not received a copy of the plan.

Boquist said he also plans to introduce two more limited “corporate transparency” bills that would allow either the House and Senate revenue committees or the chair and vice chairs of those committees to view companies’ tax returns. Even those ideas could face tough odds. Among the Senate Finance and Revenue committee’s priorities going into 2019, Hass said he was “not sure that hits the top 100.”

-- Hillary Borrud

hborrud@oregonian.com

503-294-4034; @hborrud