community
june2
2016
Salem Update: Legislative Days
By Representative Brad Witt
I was in Salem
participating in our
quarterly Legislative
Days when we hold
hearings on important
current events as well
as review various
task force reports and
recommendations in preparation for the
2017 Session.
As you may know, the Oregon
Natural Desert Association (ONDA)
has proposed the creation of another
National Monument in Oregon, namely
the Owyhee Canyonlands in southern
Malheur County. It will designate 2.1
million acres of public land, more than
1.6 times larger than all private lands in
that county.
Needless to say, the Oregon
Legislature needs to understand the im-
pacts of this proposal. The Committee
on Rural Communities, of which I am a
member, received testimony on all sides
of this issue reflecting all of the many
uses of these lands. This includes ranch-
ing, recreation, and habitat preservation,
all of which will see significant changes
from this new designation.
The Legislature will continue
to assess the impacts to all of the
communities of interest who rely upon
this beautiful area of Oregon for both
recreational and economic activities.
Setting priorities is important, however,
and our response will be valuable to
our federal delegation whose job it is
to represent our interests before the
Congress and the White House.
The Agriculture and Natural
Resources Committee, which I chair,
also heard comments from several
taskforces put in place last session. One
that is of particular interest to District
31, given our high degree of interest in
fishing and wildlife management, is a
report on HB 2402, which requires the
task force to identify and recommend
alternative funding sources for the
Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
Calls and emails into my office over the
last couple of years have given voice
to a high degree of frustration with the
Department’s reliance on fees, licenses
and tags, each of which have been raised
to the point that many can no longer
afford to purchase them.
Currently, a third of ODFW’s
revenue comes from the sale of hunt-
ing and fishing licenses. Another third
comes from the federal government,
much of it tied to the sale of hunting and
fishing equipment. The rest of the fund-
ing comes from a variety of sources,
most of which is restricted for specific
purposes. The taskforce, chaired by Til-
lamook County Commissioner Mark
Labhart, has divided their efforts into
two work groups, conservation oppor-
tunities and connecting Oregonians with
natural resources. They are developing
a survey to assess general knowledge
of ODFW and to gather opinions from
the public so the legislature can develop
legislation.
Finally, the Legislative Revenue
Office’s presentation regarding Initia-
tive Petition 28 provides a summary and
analysis of how this measure would af-
fect Oregon’s revenue system should it
gain enough signatures to make it to the
November ballot. The measure mostly
affects C-Corporations, those with Ore-
gon sales greater than $25 million, and a
new 2.5% tax rate would be imposed at
that threshold. For example, a C-Corpo-
ration with Oregon sales of $50 million
would end up paying a total minimum
tax of $655,001. Additional revenue
generated by this tax is restricted to edu-
cation, health care and senior services.
I expect that the discussion
surrounding the Initiative will be robust
because, although it generates significant
additional revenue, it will also likely
cause a change in Oregon’s overall
corporate tax burden and will largely
act as a consumption tax on Oregon
consumers. If this tax had been in place
for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, it would
have moved Oregon to the 9th highest
taxes as a percent of income versus an
actual ranking of 26th. Oregon currently
enjoys a business-friendly reputation…
we all need to do our homework on this
one to make sure that that competitive
position, vis-à-vis other states, doesn’t
change.
About a dozen people gathered
at the Vernonia Library on May 24 for a
discussion about sports in our communi-
ties.
“Beyond the Scoreboard: Sports
in Our Lives and Communities,” was
part of the Oregon Humanities Conver-
sation Project and was sponsored by the
Friends of the Vernonia Library.
The program was moderated by
Andrew Guest, an associate professor of
psychology and sociology at the Univer-
sity of Portland, who has a background
as an athlete and coach.
Guest engaged the audience in a
discussion about personal highlights and
low points in their lives that revolved
around sports and discussed how sports
rivalries impact our opinions about our
competitors and even the rival college
campuses and cities they come from.
He spent time discussing a
past series of articles in the Oregonian
that visited numerous high school foot-
ball programs, including Vernonia, and
looked at the ways those programs influ-
enced their communities.
He discussed how treating
sports stars as heroes and role models
impacts children and adults and about
the pressure we put on youth and pro-
fessionals in sports to succeed.
Guest also briefly touched on
the ways sports influence communities
on an economic level and said that al-
though most people believe sports fran-
chises improve the economies of local
cities, research shows they don’t. He
did say that sports can have a positive
psychological impact on communities
and improve the level of “happiness”
people experience.
Guest said he has done exten-
sive research on various sports and their
impacts on communities and discussed
a recent study that looked at the conse-
quences sports competition has on mor-
al judgement. He noted a study which
showed that 195 of 198 Olympic ath-
letes said they would take a banned per-
formance enhancing drug if it was guar-
anteed they would win a gold medal and
would not be caught, while only 2 out
250 non athletes said they would cheat
in the same circumstances.
The discussion also included
comments on fan culture and the impact
it has on teams, competitors and com-
munities. Guest noted that the Portland
Thorns, a women’s professional soc-
cer team, draws an average of approxi-
mately 15,000 fans per game, and said
he cannot find any other women’s sports
team anywhere else in the world with
attendance that high. “Why Portland?”
asked Guest, who went on to say he be-
lieves it is because of the “bottom up”
supporters culture developed by the fans
of the Portland Timbers that has carried
over to the fans of the Thorns, and the
way the management of both clubs has
allowed that grassroots culture to flour-
ish.
Guest provided an open and en-
gaging program that allowed the audi-
ence to participate in the discussion by
sharing their thoughts and ideas on the
subjects he raised.
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Stacey Lynn
Aaron Miller
Karen Miller
Leanne Murray
Representative Brad Witt
Photography
Scott Laird
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Library Program Discusses Sports in Our Communities
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The Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD Board
of Directors will meet Tuesday,
June 21, 2016 at 7:00 pm at the
Main Station, 12525 HWY 202,
Mist, OR. Agenda items include
but are not limited to usual order
of business, citizen input, Fire
Chief’s report, financial reports
and any other business needing
to be discussed.
William DeJager
-Board President
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Taco Tuesday
LIVE MUSIC
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Ladies’ Night
every Thursday 6pm-close
Sat, June 11th
• Specialty hamburgers
Triple Edge Band
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