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2B Wednesday, May 24, 2017 Appeal Tribune athlete that always push- es you more to wanna do better. Every time I’m out there and I look at the bar and I’m jumping clear over my head, when I look at it this is still im- pressive to me and that’s all I can really ask for.” Dallas senior Jacob Deming placed second in the boys 300 hurdles with a time of 38.53. In the pole vault, Dal- las senior Jacob Collins was fourth at 13-6.25. ghorowitz@States- manJournal.com, or Twitter.com/ghorowitz Track Continued from Page 1B reer at Biola University, a Division II school in near in La Mirada, Cali- fornia, has used a per- ceived lack of height in the high jump as motiva- tion and to provide per- spective. “I’ve heard so many times growing up how I could never accomplish anything as a jumper or sprinter, I’m too small,” Myers said. “But as an MOLLY J. SMITH / STATESMAN JOURNAL Oregon Senate approves legislation for equal pay TRACY LOEW STATESMAN JOURNAL The Oregon Senate unanimously passed a bill May 17 that would make sure women are paid the same rate as men for the same work. “This is a vic- tory for women, people of color and others who earn less even though they do the same work as their co- workers,” said Sen. Kath- leen Taylor, D-Portland, who championed the bill. “This bill requires that compensation decisions be fair and based only on legitimate job-related factors.” House Bill 2005, also called the Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017, now goes back to the House for con- currence with Senate amendments. Despite existing feder- al protections, women in Oregon are paid 82 cents for every dollar men are paid, amounting to an an- nual wage gap of around $8,393, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. The gap is even bigger for women of color. Afri- can American women are paid 70 cents; Latinas 51 cents; and Asian women 75 cents compared to ev- ery dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, the group reported. The bill requires that differences in compensa- tion among employees must be based on job-re- lated reasons such as merit, seniority, quantity or quality of production, workplace locations, travel, education, train- ing or experience. It also bans the prac- tice of screening job ap- plicants based on their salary histories, strengthens penalties for wage discrimination vio- lations, and adds reme- dies for workers facing pay disparities. Senate Republicans and Democrats congratu- lated each other for work- ing together to craft amendments to the bill, which was subject to hours of contentious de- bate in the House. “It is 2017, not 1817. It is about time we crafted a sound, workable solu- tion,” Sen. Tim Knopp, R- Bend, said in a statement. “Passing the Oregon Equal Pay Act is another recent example of the tre- mendous work that can be done in the Legislature when both parties work together to improve the lives of all Oregonians.” Among the changes: » Veterans were add- ed to the list of protected classes, which in addition to sex also includes race, color, religion, sexual ori- entation, national origin, marital status, disability, and age. » Liability for back wages was limited for employers who have con- ducted an equal-pay analysis within the past three years. » The effective date was changed to Jan. 1, 2024, with the exception of the ban on seeking compensation history, which would take effect 90 days after the Legisla- ture adjourns. tloew@statesmanjour nal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tra- cy_Loew Silverton’s Shon Ackermann celebrates after a successful jump in the 5A high jump on Saturday at Hayward Field. Oregon’s ‘kicker’ law could be triggered amid shortfall CRIME LOG SILVERTON POLICE DEPARTMENT Received calls from May 8 to 14. May 12 Motor vehicle acci- dent, 7:42 p.m., 400 W Main St. Our Business Is to Help Your Business We can help you gain a fi nancial advantage with a strategy that fi ts your business. Together, we’ll explore solutions from retirement plans to insurance strategies to investment options and banking solutions. To learn more, call or visit your fi nancial advisor today. KRISTENA HANSEN ASSOCIATED PRESS SALEM - The Oregon economy has been bus- tling this year, so much so that the state’s unique “kicker” law may give $408 million back to Ore- gonians next year when they do their taxes, plus another $75 million for schools in the next budget cycle. The kicker won’t be certain until the state’s next revenue forecast this summer, but econo- mists said May 16 it’s still likely. That’s because the kicker law, adopted by voters in the 1980s and embedded into the state Constitution two decades later, takes effect when the state essentially has a surplus of revenue — more specifically, when state revenues are at least 2 percent higher than expected. In this instance, total revenues for the 2017-19 budget were 2.4 percent higher than earlier pro- jections. Yet, the rosy revenue forecast won’t do much to help the upcom- ing budget shortfall. Should the kicker be triggered, the local econ- omy’s record-perfor- mance would send just $187 million in extra funds to the upcoming budget — less than half the amount that would ‘kick’ back to Oregonians through a tax credit — slightly trimming the def- icit down to $1.4 billion. Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement the report was both good news and bad news. “We now have less than two months before the end of this legislative session. The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Brown said. “I will con- tinue to hunt for every penny and rein in the costs of state govern- ment. But, without defin- itive action by the Legis- lature 350,000 Orego- nians could lose health care, hundreds of teach- ers could lose their jobs, and college could become even more unafford- able.” State economists, Brown and her fellow Democratic lawmakers say the economy’s good health today only masks the broad structural problems that plague the state’s tax system during unavoidable downturns in the economy. Demo- crats want to raise up to $3 billion in extra funds for the next cycle through a corporate tax overhaul proposal that’s similar to Measure 97, the labor union-backed big busi- ness tax hike that voters struck down in Novem- ber. Republicans like House Minority Leader Mike McLane say the re- port is more proof that the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. “These circumstances might be inconvenient for Democratic leaders, who continue to push a narra- tive that suggests current revenue levels are inade- quate,” McLane said. “But for most Oregonians it is just more evidence of the fact that our govern- ment needs to tighten its belt and get serious about slowing the unsustain- able rate of spending in Salem.” 86,000 Oregon Medicaid recipients could be ineligible for coverage www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC STATESMAN JOURNAL LOCAL ADVISORS Salem Area Vin Searles Keizer Area Surrounding Area Jeff Davis Sheryl Resner Bridgette Justis FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 Liberty | 503-581-8580 Keizer | 503-304-8641 Sublimity | 503-769-3180 Michael Wooters Garry Falor Mario Montiel TRACY LOEW Tim Yount FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR South | 503-362-5439 West | 503-588-5426 Keizer | 503-393-8166 Silverton | 503-873-2454 Caitlin Davis Chip Hutchings Walt Walker FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 Lancaster | 503-585-4689 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Stayton | 503-769-4902 Tim Sparks FINANCIAL ADVISOR Commercial | 503-370-6159 OR-0000388289 More than 80,000 peo- ple in Oregon may be re- ceiving Medicaid bene- fits they don’t qualify for, Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson said Wednesday. At an average monthly cost of $430 per person, coverage for those people — 86,000 recipients, or about 8 percent of the to- tal —costs about $37 mil- lion per month, Richard- son said.. Republicans seized on the news as evidence that more savings could be found within current spending levels. “Frankly, our state government’s incompe- tence with taxpayer mon- ey never ceases to amaze me,” House Republican Leader Mike McLane, R- Michael Kim DDS “Your friendly local dentist” New Patients & Emergencies Welcome Cosmetic Implant Bridges/Partials Extractions Crowns/Fillings Root Canals ENTER FOR OUR MONTHLY KINDLE DRAWING AT EACH APPOINTMENT WE ACCEPT MOST INSURANCE 410 Oak St, Silverton, OR, 97381 503-873-3530 kimsilvertonordentist.com Powell Butte, said in a statement. Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli, of John Day, called for a bi- partisan inquiry. But Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, called Rich- ardson’s release a “politi- cally motivated attempt to grab headlines.” “We’ve had numerous public hearings in this building on this exact same fact,” Rayfield, co- chairman of the Joint Ways and Means Subcom- mittee on Human Ser- vices, said on the House floor Wednesday. “This is something that the health care com- mittee has been aware of. This is something that the human services subcom- mittee has been aware of,” he said. “It appears the only person that has not been aware of this is our Secretary of State.” The problem has exist- ed for at least three years, meaning the Oregon Health Authority has spent what may total hun- dreds of millions of state and federal dollars pro- viding Oregon Health Plan benefits for ineligi- ble recipients, Richard- son said. “OHA failed to dis- close its ongoing violation of federal eligibility rules until after our audits team was recently tipped off to the situation by an OHA whistleblower,” he said. “Even after we learned of the problem and requested detailed in- formation, OHA has de- layed providing full dis- closure.” About 14,100 of those who may be ineligible have been sent renewal notifications, but have not returned applica- tions, a preliminary analysis by OHA showed. The analysis did not clearly identify why the remaining 71,600 people have not been redeter- mined to be eligible. ANNA REED / STATESMAN JOURNAL More than 80,000 people in Oregon may be receiving Medicaid benefits they don’t qualify for. Oregon Legislators currently are consider- ing new taxes to continue funding the state’s Medi- caid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, and are struggling to fill a $1.4 billion budget gap. In a statement, the Oregon Health Authority said the problem stems from the process to tran- sition from the failed Cover Oregon computer system to a new one, which has taken more than three years. “Due to poor data qual- ity in Cover Oregon and OHA’s older legacy data systems, OHA had to con- tact each OHP member to complete a paper applica- tion,” the agency wrote. “The paper application was then manually en- tered into the ONE sys- tem. This process took over two years to com- plete. What now remains are the final redetermina- tion cases that are more complex in nature due to reasons that include mul- tiple eligibility criteria and household circum- stance. OHA anticipated that significant clean-up would be required once we reached the end of the transition into the ONE system. OHA has report- ed on this process on mul- tiple occasions to the Governor, the Oregon Legislature and CMS throughout the last three years. “ Richardson issued his finding in an “audit alert,” a new tool he said will highlight concerns too urgent to wait until an audit is complete. In it, he made two rec- ommendations: » OHA should work with federal authorities to ensure federal Medi- caid funding is not jeopar- dized while OHA resolves the eligibility determina- tion issues. » The Legislature should require OHA to re- port on its efforts to re- solve these issues and on fiscal impacts no later than Sept. 30, 2017. The Secretary of State’s Office also will be completing two audits this year examining the Medicaid program, he said. The first audit, to be released in the spring, will discuss controls in place for two critical Me- dicaid information sys- tems. A later audit will examine improper Medi- caid payments, including follow-up work on the is- sue of ineligible enroll- ees. tloew@statesmanjour nal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tra- cy_Loew