8A — THE OBSERVER
THuRSday, MaRcH 4, 2021
STATE
Oregon bill would hike wine, beer and cider taxes
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon leg-
islators Tuesday, Feb. 23,
introduced House Bill 3296,
dubbed the Addiction Crisis
Recovery Act, which would
increase the state’s beer tax
by 2,800% and wine tax by
1,700%.
Based on industry esti-
mates, HB 3296 would
increase the cost of every
bottle of wine sold in
Oregon by more than $2.
The tax would be even
higher on ciders and beers.
The bill’s supporters
say it will reduce underage
and binge drinking by
raising the wholesale price
of alcohol, and the money
raised from taxes will be
invested in treatment and
recovery programs and
infrastructure for people
with alcohol addiction.
Opponents, including
beer, wine and cider busi-
ness leaders, say the pro-
posed tax could devastate
their industries at a time
when they’re already strug-
gling during the pandemic.
“It is unfathomable to
think that now is an appro-
priate time to increase
any tax on one of Ore-
gon’s homegrown indus-
tries that has suffered the
most during the COVID-19
pandemic, let alone one
of this magnitude,” Scott
Kelley, owner and wine-
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press, File
A barrel and vines at White Rose Estate, Dayton. The wine, beer and cider industries are
bracing for a potential tax hike in Oregon.
maker at Paul O’Brien
Winery in Roseburg, said in
a statement.
Jennifer Sitton, spokes-
person for the Oregon
Wine Council, a statewide
industry advocacy associa-
tion, told the Capital Press
the council is “strongly
opposing this extreme
proposal.”
According to the
council, wine tasting room
sales have already declined
during the pandemic by an
estimated 80%, a $3 billion
loss, while smaller wineries
relying on tasting room and
restaurant sales lost more
than 60% of their revenue
due to COVID-19 closures.
State News in Brief
More contagious
Brown that higher educa-
Brazilian virus variant tion will be included in the
state’s next phase of vacci-
emerges in Oregon
University of Oregon
to return to mostly
in-person classes
MEDFORD — A former
UPS driver charged in
shootings that injured a
woman and damaged vehi-
cles along Interstate 5 in
Southern Oregon has been
sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
Kenneth Ayers, of
Roseburg, was sentenced
Tuesday in Jackson County
Circuit Court for three
counts of attempted murder,
five counts of unlawful use
of a weapon, three counts
of reckless endangerment,
and four counts of criminal
mischief, The Mail Tribune
reported.
Ayers, 49, pleaded guilty
to the charges last week.
From May to August 2020,
multiple drivers reported
to Oregon State Police
that their vehicles had sus-
tained damage from bul-
lets, including flattened
tires, loss of power steering
and a pierced coolant hose
in a semi. There was no
apparent pattern to the
shootings.
They happened in
Jackson, Josephine and
Douglas counties during the
day and night and happened
to vehicles traveling north
and south.
On Aug. 19, a woman
was shot in the shoulder
while driving on I-5
between Gold Hill and
Central Point and police
arrested Ayers about 60
miles (96 kilometers) away.
He was employed by UPS
as a driver at the time.
Ayers declined to speak
at sentencing.
— Associated Press
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MOD0001727501-01
EUGENE,— The Uni-
versity of Oregon will go
back to predominately
in-person instruction for the
fall term, officials said.
President Michael Schill
says the decision was made
following an announce-
ment Friday from Gov. Kate
Driver gets 20 years
for I-5 shootings
sage Wednesday that the
idea of increasing the tax
on small, local wineries
during an economic crisis is
“incomprehensible.”
hike. According to a survey
last month taken by Pat-
inkin Research Strategies,
a research firm, 3 out of 4
Oregonians say Oregon’s
existing alcohol taxes are
either too high already or
about right.
The Oregon Beverage
Alliance, comprised of
brewers, winemakers,
cidermakers, distillers and
suppliers, said in a state-
ment the potential tax hike
could be harmful to their
industries.
“Oregon already has
some of the highest alcohol
prices in the country,” the
Oregon Beverage Alliance
reported. Tax increases,
the organization said, will
“only make it harder for
these businesses to invest
in rehiring, equipment,
upgrades and expansion,
and will result in higher
prices for consumers.”
MOD0001727501-01
SALEM— A coro-
navirus variant that was
first detected in Brazil has
emerged in Oregon, the
first known case of the new
variant on the contiguous
U.S. West Coast, medical
authorities said Tuesday.
The sample was sent to
the U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Preven-
tion at the end of January
by medical officials in
Douglas County, Oregon.
They said they received the
results back on Monday
night, which showed the P.1
variant.
“The P.1 variant ...
appears to be related
to business travel out-
side the United States
to and from Brazil,” the
Douglas County COVID-19
Response Team said in a
statement Tuesday.
The variant, which was
first found in Manaus,
Brazil, appears to be more
contagious than other
COVID-19 strains. It can
potentially be contracted by
someone who was already
infected or who has been
vaccinated.
There have been 10
additional cases of the P.1
variant reported in the U.S.,
with five in Florida, two in
Minnesota and one each
in Oklahoma, Alaska and
Maryland, the CDC says.
Health officials in
Douglas County, located
in western Oregon, said
they are awaiting results
of other samples that were
sent to the CDC for genome
sequence DNA testing
for emerging COVID-19
variants.
The Oregon Health
Authority said the unidenti-
fied person who contracted
the Brazilian variant has
been working closely with
the local health department
and has been self-isolating.
Health officials on
Tuesday also reported 13
new coronavirus-related
deaths in the state, raising
the known death toll to
2,225. There were 269 new
confirmed and presumptive
cases in the state, for a total
of 156,037, authorities said.
nations, the Register-Guard
reported.
Employees of the state’s
public and private colleges
and universities will be eli-
gible for the COVID-19
vaccination starting May 1.
In January, the university
announced it was “ramping
up planning” to provide
access to COVID-19 vac-
cines for faculty, staff and
students quickly when sup-
plies become available.
The University of
Oregon also has provided
logistical support to current
local vaccine efforts.
According to the Oregon
Health Authority’s phased
approach to distribution,
the majority of Univer-
sity of Oregon students are
included in Phase 2. The
University will offer vacci-
nations to students in jointly
sponsored clinics during
that phase of the process.
Sam Tannahill, founder
and winegrower at A to
Z Wineworks and Rex
Hill winery in Newberg,
said in an emailed mes-
“As written, this pro-
posal would potentially
force most of Oregon’s
prized wineries to simply
shut down, as they would
be unable to sustain their
operations with this drastic
of a tax increase,” wrote
Tannahill.
The bill’s advocates,
including Oregon Recovers,
the nonprofit coalition
backing the bill, say the
proposal is an important
step toward addiction
recovery.
The text of the bill says
the funding will be used
to establish an Addiction
Recovery District for each
geographic region and tribe
in the state and will fund
treatment beds, detoxifica-
tion centers and intensive
outpatient openings.
But the bill’s critics
point out that most con-
sumers don’t want a tax
(Add locations, expiration dates, Phone
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*Hearing test is always free. Hearing aids do not restore natural hearing. Individual experiences vary depending on severity of hearing loss, accuracy of evolution and ability to adapt to amplification. Hearing test is an audiometric test to determine amplification needs only. These
are not medical exams or diagnoses. If you suspect a problem please seek treatment from your physician. **Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Blue Cross, The Blue Shield, BCBS and Federal Employee Program are registered trademarks of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Blue
Cross Blue Shield Association and its independent licensees are not affiliated with nor do they endorse or sponsor the contents of this advertisement. Trademarks referring to specific providers are used by Miracle-Ear for nominative purposes only: to truthfully identify the
source of the services about which information is provided. Such trademarks are solely the property of their respective owners. The aids must be returned within 30 days of delivery pursuant to terms of your purchase agreement and 100% of the purchase will be refunded.