By: Nicholas Sohr

That’s right. Switcheroo.

Sen. Paul G. Pinsky said Tuesday the supporters of combined reporting legislation have  “a clearer argument for it this year than we ever have before.”

The bill — SB 305 — also has a growing cadre of cosponsors. There are 18 senators signed on to the bill and Pinsky said he has heard from “one or two” more who have said they will vote for it. The House version of the bill, to be introduced by another Prince George’s County Democrat, Justin Ross, is still gathering cosponsors.

“There’s momentum and groundswell, more than there ever has been before,” Pinsky said.

And that’s where the switch(eroo) comes — the greatest momentum for combined reporting, which would require businesses to pay corporate income tax based on a share of their total in- and out-0f-state revenue, appears to be in the Senate, not the House of Delegates.

Powerful House Democrats, including Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve and Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Sheila E. Hixson, have said 2011 isn’t the year for combined reporting. They both sit on the Business Tax Reform Commission and voted late last year to push the General Assembly to avoid combined reporting in 2011.

That panel was created in 2007 after the House passed combined reporting (yes, that combined reporting) and the Senate balked, opting instead to study the issue.

But now, with the state facing a $1.6 billion budget deficit that Gov. Martin O’Malley has proposed to close with cuts to key programs, the revenue-raising potential has made combined reporting more palatable to some.

“It shifts the burden to where it belongs, to people who can afford to pay,” said Del. Anne Healey, D-Prince George’s.

The bill’s supporters say it will stop large businesses from dodging Maryland taxes by diverting revenue through subsidiaries in other jurisdictions with friendlier tax codes.

According to the state comptroller, only 87 of the 150 largest employers in the state paid income taxes in 2007. The next year, that figure dropped to 75. The amount of corporate taxes collected from those groups, however, actually grew, from $127.4 million in 2007 to $157.5 in 2008.

Updated 4:00 p.m.

Business groups have strongly opposed the implementation of combined reporting. Maryland Chamber of Commerce Vice President Ron Wineholt pointed to another comptroller report that showed the state would have received less tax revenue in 2008 under a combined reporting system, and unfairly raised the tax bills of some companies while lowering others.

“Combined reporting would only further damage Maryland’s business climate in a year that employers are trying to climb out of this recession,” Wineholt wrote in an email.