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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 1 , 2016 | PAGE 5 House District 51 is currently By Don McIntosh Associate editor represented by Shemia Fagan, a In our March 18 issue, in a story lawyer who beat a Republican about union members who are incumbent in 2012 with consid- erable help from organ- running for office, I re- ized labor. This year, ported that nurses Fagan decided not to union activist Adrienne run again, but didn’t an- Enghouse, who com- nounce until the dead- petes in ironman line day. Enghouse — a triathlons, was “ready registered nurse at to go the distance” in a Kaiser Sunnyside and Democratic primary executive vice president race in House District of Oregon Federation of 51 in Clackamas. Un- Adrienne Nurses and Health Pro- fortunately, that was Enghouse fessionals Local 5017, out-of-date by the time had gone through the Oregon the issue hit the printer. Labor Candidate School so that Unknown to me, Enghouse she’d be ready to run for office. had withdrawn as a candidate She lives in Fagan’s district, and on March 11, three days after when she realized on the last she filed. Rumors were making day to file that Fagan wasn’t the rounds that she did so under running, she put her name in the pressure from top House De- ring. mocrats, who favored another For the record, Enghouse candidate, Janelle Bynum. confirmed that she got calls from House Speaker Tina Kotek and Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, but says she dropped out for her own rea- sons, mainly the challenge as a working person of getting lots of time off — on short notice — for an unexpected campaign. She hopes to run again for pub- lic office in the future. Kotek says she’d been work- ing with Bynum, but didn’t en- courage Enghouse to drop out. Bynum, on her campaign web site, calls herself “a small business owner,” but doesn’t mention that her business is owning two McDonald’s restau- rants. She didn’t return my calls. That’s unfortunate, because I would have liked to ask her views on the recent minimum wage increase, and what starting wage her restaurants pay. Photo from the Grimm episode “Lycanthropia” Union candidate drops out of Oregon House race … after McDonald’s franchise owner gets leader support Film unions hail expansion of Oregon tax credit Unions representing Oregon workers in film and television are celebrating the expansion of the state’s Film & Video Tax Credit. Last year, the Oregon Legislature renewed the $10- million-a-year tax credit pro- gram through Jan. 1, 2024. This year, they expanded it — in- creasing the cap to $12 million in 2016 and $14 million in 2017 and thereafter. Both moves were uncontroversial, passing with just seven no votes in the Legis- lature. The tax credit costs the Ore- gon treasury, but its supporters — including the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA) and the Interna- tional Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Stu- dio Mechanics Local 488 — say it incentivizes TV and film pro- ductions to choose Oregon. Ore- gon competes with as many as 30 other states for TV and film work with tax and other public subsidies. The way Oregon’s program works, the state conducts an an- nual online auction of tax cred- its. High-income individuals who pay Oregon personal in- come tax buy the credits at be- tween 95 and 99 percent of their value and pocket the savings. The proceeds are then divvied out as cash rebates for up to 20 percent of the cost of produc- tion-related goods and services purchased from Oregon vendors — plus up to 10 percent of wages paid to production per- sonnel. Only big productions, those that spend at least $1 mil- lion in Oregon, are eligible for the subsidies. IATSE Local 488 Business Manager Charlie Carlsen said tax subsidies are a big part of lo- cation choices today. “It’s become such a competi- tive industry for that,” Carlsen said. “It’s corporate welfare. We don’t like it, but if Oregon does- n’t do it, we can’t compete.” But as subsidies go, Carlsen says, the Film & Video Tax Credit gets good value: It sup- ports a clean industry with good-paying union jobs. Mem- bers of Local 488 earn about $29 an hour, and with overtime can gross $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Carlsen himself works on the set of the TV show Grimm, handling plants. Besides Local 488, Grimm employs members of Teamsters Local 305, SAG/AFTRA, the Writers Guild, and Directors Guild of America. Grimm has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Ore- gon Film & Video Tax Credit, receiving about $19 million in the last five years — while spending roughly $250 million in Oregon. Other beneficiaries include the film Wild, the IFC show Portlandia, and the upcoming TNC show Librarians, which starts filming this month. And Beaverton-based animation stu- dio Laika, maker of movies like the Box Trolls. CORRECTION A March 23 article about union members running for political office incorrectly listed the union affiliation of incumbent State Rep. Barbara Smith Warne (D-Dist. 45). Smith Warner is a former employee of the national AFL-CIO and the National As- sociation of Letter Carriers; she is a former member of United Food and Commercial Workers, and Communications Workers of America.
