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out-of-date by the time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had withdrawn as a candidate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.