2B Wednesday, June 21, 2017 Appeal Tribune
NAACP: Oregon’s clean energy
economy is leaving minorities behind
TRACY LOEW
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Members of Oregon’s
NAACP want to ensure
that people of color bene-
fit from the state’s efforts
to switch to a greener,
more
environmentally
conscious economy.
“Oregon has been a
leader in creating oppor-
tunities around climate
change and climate jus-
tice initiatives. However,
people of color, low-in-
come people, have not
been beneficiaries of
these efforts,” Jo Ann
Hardesty, president of
the Portland NAACP
chapter, said at a news
conference June 12.
“What we believe is
that middle-class and up-
per-class white communi-
ties are really taking ad-
vantage of this new
emerging economy,” she
said. “If we don’t now de-
velop a pathway for peo-
ple of color, low-income
people, people coming
back from our prisons, to
be able to be trained in
this new economy, once
again we will be left be-
hind.”
The
state’s
four
NAACP chapters re-
ANDREW SELSKY/AP
Presidents of the four branches in Oregon of the NAACP, from left, Frederick Edwards, Benny
Williams, at podium, Jo Anne Hardesty and Eric Richardson attend a news conference.
leased a report Monday
measuring Oregon’s pro-
gress toward meeting
state-level climate and
energy policy goals set by
the national association.
It shows that Oregon is
meeting those targets,
which include:
» Renewable Portfolio
Standards, which require
electric companies to
supply a portion of ener-
gy from renewable ener-
gy sources.
» Energy efficiency
resource
standards,
which require utility
companies to meet ener-
gy
savings
targets
through a portfolio of en-
ergy efficiency pro-
grams.
» Net metering stan-
dards, which require
electric companies to
provide retail credit for
net renewable energy
produced by a consumer.
» Local hire provi-
sions, requirements that
contractors awarded pub-
licly funded projects hire
a certain percentage of lo-
cal residents.
» Policies
requiring
publicly funded projects
use a percentage of Mi-
nority Business Enter-
prise-designated suppli-
ers.
But the state has the
opportunity to go even
further, said Eric Rich-
ardson, president of the
Eugene/Springfield
NAACP branch. And it
must ensure that low-in-
come and minority com-
munities benefit.
“The NAACP stands
with the African Ameri-
can community in de-
manding that the coming
green energy economy be
supported and used as a
vehicle to right the many
wrongs inflicted upon the
poor and communities of
color in the last century,”
Richardson said.
The report calls for
Oregon to increase Re-
newable Portfolio Stan-
dard levels, make its vol-
untary energy efficiency
resource standard man-
datory and raise capacity
limits in its net metering
standard.
It also recommends
the state offer energy
modernization incentives
that are more accessible
to communities of color
and low- to moderate-in-
come households.
Oregon should collect
data to show which com-
munities benefit most
from those incentives,
Hardesty said.
NAACP members lob-
bied legislators on the is-
sue June 12. The Oregon
branches also have iden-
tified three priority bills
this session, Hardesty
said:
House Bill 2004 would
prohibit no-cause evic-
tions after the first six
months of tenancy. It nar-
rowly passed the House
and has an uncertain fu-
ture in the Senate.
House Bill 2355 would
require the state to rec-
ord data concerning offi-
cer-initiated pedestrian
and traffic stop and to de-
velop a standardized ra-
cial profiling complaint
form. It also reduces pen-
alties for certain drug-re-
lated misdemeanors. It is
in the Joint Ways and
Means Public Safety sub-
committee.
Senate Bill 496 would
require grand jury pro-
ceedings to be recorded.
It is in the Joint Ways and
Means committee.
tloew@statesmanjour-
nal.com, 503-399-6779 or
follow at Twitter.com/Tra-
cy_Loew
Tech firms to state lawmakers: Please tax us
DIANE DIETZ
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Business leaders from
a Pearl District tech com-
pany to a Dallas pizzeria
asked lawmakers June 13
to adopt a new tax on busi-
nesses.
Carol Christ, who owns
the Dallas Figaro’s Pizza
with her husband, urged
lawmakers to pass a pro-
posed gross receipts tax
so Oregon kindergart-
ners don’t attend school
with 28 in a classroom as
her granddaughter did
this year.
Mat Ellis, CEO of
Cloudability Inc. in the
Portland Pearl District,
asked lawmakers to pass
the tax so he no longer los-
es young, highly skilled
employees who love Ore-
gon until their children
grow to school age.
“If you want to foster a
vibrant tech industry in
this state — and the well-
paid jobs that come with it
— you’ll have to make the
necessary investments,
which begins with an ap-
propriately funded edu-
cation system,” Ellis told
the Joint Committee on
Tax Reform at the Capi-
tol.
The disparate pair tes-
tified in favor of a gross
receipts tax on business
proposed recently by
House Speaker Tina Ko-
tek and Sen. Mark Hass,
D-Beaverton. The tax
would raise an estimated
$890 million in proceeds
in 2017-2019 that would
largely go to public
schools.
Businesses with sales
over $3 million would pay
the tax at rates depending
on their sector: .75 per-
cent for services, .35 per-
cent for retail, .25 percent
for wholesale, .15 percent
for agriculture, forestry
and fishing and .48 for
other businesses such as
construction and manu-
facturing.
Businesses
with
$150,000 to $3 million in
sales would pay a flat
$250. Businesses under
$150,000 wouldn’t even
have to file.
The Kotek/Hass plan
would phase in after a
one-year increase in cor-
porate income taxes. In
2019, the gross receipts
tax would start and the
corporate income tax
would be abolished.
The
hearing
was
scheduled to resume June
13 with dozens submitting
written testimony or sign-
ing up to appear before
the panel. The committee
has not yet scheduled a
vote.
Proponents say the tax
is the best chance of cur-
ing what they say is a
structural problem with
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice of Preliminary Determination for Water
Right Transfer T-12445
T-12445 filed by JB Instant Lawn, c/o Jensen
Family LLC, 5289 Blue Grass Lane, Silverton,
OR, 97381, proposes additional points of
appropriation under Certificate 44105. The right
allows the use of 1.46 cubic feet per second
(cfs), being 0.64 cfs from Well No. 1 and
0.82 cfs from Well No. 2 in Sec. 35, T6S, R2W,
WM for irrigation in Sects. 34 and 35, T6S, R2W,
WM and Sects. 2 and 3, T7S, R2W, WM. The
applicant
proposes
additional
points
of
appropriation in Sects. 34 and 35, T6S, R2W,
WM.
The Water Resources Department
proposes to approve the transfer, based on the
requirements of ORS Chapter 540 and OAR
690-380-5000.
Any person may file, jointly or severally, a
protest or standing statement within 30 days
after the last date of newspaper publication of
this notice, 06/28/2017. Call (503) 986-0807 to
obtain additional information. If no protests are
filed, the Department will issue a final order
consistent with the preliminary determination.
Silverton Appeal June 21 & 28, 2017
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Oregon’s tax system,
which left the state $1.4
billion short for the com-
ing biennium despite rec-
ord tax receipts. Oppo-
nents say instead that the
Legislature has a spend-
ing problem and the rem-
edy is to cut the budget.
The Oregon Farm Bu-
reau testified against the
gross receipts tax. The or-
ganization is opposed to
“anything that separates
the obligation to pay from
the ability to pay,” lobby-
ist Jenny Dresler told the
committee.
About 65,000 Oregon
families are farm bureau
members.
Dresler lauded the
committee for lowering
the rate that agriculture,
forestry, and fishing
would pay below all other
types of business at .15
percent but that still
wasn’t enough to win her
organization’s support.
“Would some of this
heartburn go away if we
just exempted agricul-
ture?” Hass asked the lob-
byist.
“We would still have
some issues,” she said.
Farm stands would still
be liable for the tax.
Oregon National Fed-
eration of Independent
Business state director
Anthony Smith also spoke
in opposition to the bill.
When margins are slim
for the group’s 7,000 Ore-
gon business members,
every dollar counts.
But Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, challenged
how well the NFIB repre-
sented the impact on
small businesses.
Smith, who works as a
small business consultant
in Eastern Oregon, said
he thinks of all the busi-
nesses on main street
Heppner and, with the ex-
ception of Les Schwab,
none would be liable for
the tax.
“This is pretty darn
good for a lot of small
businesses, especially in
small, rural communi-
ties,” he said.
Retired entrepreneur
John Calhoun, who said
he worked two decades in
financial management at
Intel, said the state should
tax total sales instead of
profits, as the existing
corporate income tax
does, because that would
eliminate the incentive to
hide profits.
“As long as a tax is
based on income, large
corporations will con-
tinue to find ways to avoid
paying taxes,” Calhoun
said. “While I was at Intel,
I helped justify shifting
profits to our Asian tax
haven. I know how it’s
done.”
The hearing room dur-
ing the 1 1/2 hours of
morning testimony was
packed with business
leaders as well as school
board members and par-
ents, who testified that
Oregon schools have the
largest class sizes in the
nation, one of the shortest
school years and among
the lowest high school
graduation rates.
Judah McAuley, direc-
tor of engineering at the
Portland tech firm Tree-
Top Commons, said he’s a
fifth generation Orego-
nian. When he grew up in
the ‘80s and ‘90s, the
schools provided enrich-
ment, including exposure
to technology. His curios-
ity was nourished, he
said.
His fifth-grade daugh-
ter’s education suffers in
comparison, he said.
“It’s a scary thing rais-
ing a kid right now in Ore-
gon,” he said. “It makes
me worry about the fu-
ture of our state.”
Details of the gross re-
ceipts tax proposal, ac-
cording to the Legislative
Revenue Office:
» The gross receipts
tax (also called commer-
cial activity tax) would
take effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
» All entity types, in-
cluding limited liability
companies, would be re-
quired to pay
» Businesses with less
than $150,000 in receipts
would not have to file
» Businesses
with
more than $150,000 and
less than $3 million would
pay $250
» Businesses
with
more than $3 million in re-
ceipts would pay these
rates:
»
» .75 percent for services
» .35 for retail
» .25 for wholesale
» .15 for agriculture,
forestry and fishing
» .48 for all others
» Pass through entities
would get a 50 percent
credit in 2019 and that
would drop to 25 percent
in succeeding years
»
»
» Personal income tax
rates would drop begin-
ning in 2019:
»
» 5 percent to 4.5 percent
» 7 percent to 6.5 per-
cent
» 9 percent to 8.75 per-
cent (For single filers
making less than $25,000)
» 9 percent unchanged
(For those making more
than $25,000)
» 9.9
percent
un-
changed
Temporary increase in
corporate income tax
rates to 8 and 9 percent
(up from 6.6 and 6.7 per-
cent)
In 2019, eliminate the
corporate income tax
Former Gov. Kitzhaber, First Lady
Cylvia Hayes won’t be charged
TRACY LOEW
STATESMAN JOURNAL
The federal government has
dropped its investigation into alle-
gations that former Oregon Gov.
John Kitzhaber and First Lady Cyl-
via Hayes used their positions for
personal gain.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for
the District of Oregon, the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division,
the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion and the Internal Revenue Ser-
vice announced Friday they will
not bring any federal criminal
charges.
The former governor and his
fiancée were under federal inves-
tigation for 28 months.
In a statement posted on his
Facebook page Friday afternoon,
Kitzhaber said investigators came
to the same conclusion he started
with: “There was nothing to pur-
sue.”
“As I have said from the begin-
ning, I did not resign because I was
guilty of any wrongdoing but rath-
er because the media frenzy
around these questions kept me
from being the effective leader I
needed to be,” he wrote.
Whitney Boise, Hayes’ lawyer,
did not respond to an interview re-
quest.
Kitzhaber resigned in February
2015, barely five weeks into his in-
auguration for a historic fourth
term, but both he and Hayes insist-
ed they had done nothing wrong.
The influence-peddling probe
HIRO KOMAE/AP
In this Sept. 13, 2011 file photo, Oregon
Gov. John Kitzhaber, right, and his
companion, Cylvia Hayes, attend a
ceremony os Tokyo.
revolved around payments made
to Hayes’ consulting companies by
groups seeking to influence state
policy at the same time she was
serving as an unpaid adviser to the
governor’s office.
Questions also centered on
whether Hayes reported the
$118,000 in payments on tax re-
turns.
Kitzhaber’s resignation fol-
lowed what he called a “media
feeding frenzy” after Willamette
Week reported he had sought to de-
stroy personal emails on a govern-
ment server that may have con-
tained details about Hayes’ con-
sulting work.
The Oregonian, the state’s larg-
est newspaper, had called for Kitz-
haber to step down, and top Demo-
cratic leaders, including his long-
time ally, Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, withdrew
their support.
“I’m glad to see this long investi-
gation come to a close,” Courtney
said Friday. “Now, Gov. Kitzhaber
and his family can put this trying
time behind.”
Oregon Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum had opened an investi-
gation into the allegations in Feb-
ruary 2015, but deferred the inqui-
ry until the completion of the fed-
eral investigation.
In February 2017, Rosenblum
said she was closing the state in-
vestigation because the state stat-
ute of limitations to bring charges
was running out.
Kitzhaber has been seeking a
return to public life. In January, he
spoke about health care to a
packed house at the Salem City
Club.
“So I’m back,” Kitzhaber’s Face-
book statement continues. “I in-
tend to continue to do what I’ve
been doing for most of my adult
life: trying to help Oregon deal
with the challenges we face in a
way that moves us beyond the cur-
rent division and polarization and
brings us back together as a com-
munity.”
Hayes, too has been seeking to
regrow her consulting career,
most recently creating a Cannabis
Industry Services Program to
“empower socially responsible
cannabis entrepreneurs and enter-
prises.”
tloew@statesmanjournal.com,
503-399-6779 or follow at Twit-
ter.com/Tracy_Loew