3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2016
Citizens panel endorses corporate sales tax measure
Findings will
be published in
voters’ guide
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
A citizens’ panel that
reviews Oregon ballot initia-
tives for the voters’ pamphlet
has endorsed a controversial
corporate sales tax measure on
the November ballot.
Measure 97 would levy
a 2.5 percent tax on certain
corporations’ Oregon sales
exceeding $25 million.
The Citizens Initiative
Review Commission heard
from both sides of the measure
before voting 11-to-9 on Sun-
day to endorse the measure.
Key indings will be published
in the state voters’ guide.
The tax would raise an esti-
mated $6 billion every two
years in additional revenue at
a time when the state faces an
estimated $1.4 billion shortfall
to maintain existing services.
Supporters cited the short-
fall and a study by Ernst &
Young ranking Oregon 50th
in the lowest rate of corpo-
rate taxation as reasons for the
endorsement.
“We are currently in a cri-
sis of underfunded public edu-
cation, healthcare and senior
services,” the supporters wrote
in a statement. “The passage of
Measure 97 would quickly ix
this.”
Commissioners who voted
against the endorsement cited
a study by the Legislative Rev-
enue Ofice that shows the tax
would hike up the prices of
daily items such as food and
fuel for the typical family by
$600 a year.
That study also showed
job growth would slow sig-
niicantly in the private sec-
tor while boosting public sec-
tor jobs.
“A regressive tax takes a
larger percentage of income
from low income earners cre-
ating an unnecessary bur-
den on many Oregon fami-
nonproit backing the mea-
sure. “Oregon ranks 50th in
the country in corporate taxes,
leaving our schools and critical
services badly underfunded.”
The campaign against the
measure said panelists ignored
research that showed consum-
ers would bear most of the bur-
den from the tax.
“We disagree with the con-
clusions of the panelists who
voted to support Measure 97
despite the fact that most of
the $6 billion measure will
be paid by Oregon consumers
through higher prices for the
services and goods they buy
every day — clothing, gro-
ceries, electricity, medicine,
insurance, even medical care,”
lies,” commissioners wrote in
a statement of opposition.
Another victory
The endorsement marks
another victory for the union-
backed campaign for Mea-
sure 97. Earlier this month,
the measure won an endorse-
ment from Gov. Kate Brown.
Another research commit-
tee recommended last week
that the City Club of Portland
endorse the measure.
“It’s clear that when Orego-
nians get the facts about Mea-
sure 97, they agree it’s time to
hold large and out-of-state cor-
porations accountable,” said
Katherine Driessen, a spokes-
woman for Our Oregon, the
said Rebecca Tweed, Defeat
the Tax on Oregon Sales cam-
paign coordinator.
Healthy Democracy
Lawmakers approved the
Citizens Initiative Review
Commission in 2011 based on
a concept developed by Health
Democracy Oregon. The cre-
ation of the commission
“marked the irst time a legis-
lature has made voter deliber-
ation a formalized part of the
election process,” according to
the Healthy Democracy Ore-
gon website.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Oregon counts a pot of money Trafic fatalities surged
in irst half of this year
State collects
$25.5 million in
marijuana taxes
By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press
Associated Press
SALEM — Oregon has
processed $25.5 million in
tax payments from recre-
ational marijuana from Janu-
ary through the end of July.
The state’s Department of
Revenue says medical mar-
ijuana dispensaries were
required to ile their sec-
ond-quarter returns for recre-
ational marijuana by Aug. 1.
Oregonians legalized rec-
reational marijuana in late
2014.
But it can only be sold by
medical marijuana dispensa-
ries until the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission inal-
izes rules for the new industry.
That’s expected to happen by
next year.
Medical marijuana dispen-
saries started collecting a 25
percent tax on their recreational
marijuana sales in January.
Anticipated state revenue from
recreational marijuana through
June 2017 was recently qua-
drupled by Oregon’s Legisla-
tive Revenue Ofice.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
Marijuana plants await judging at a competition to select
nine specimens for display at the Oregon State Fair in
Salem. The exhibit of live marijuana plants will run from
Friday to Sept. 5 and will mark the first time real pot plants
have been open for public viewing at the annual agricul-
tural showcase. Oregonians voted to legalize recreational
marijuana in November 2014.
The expected amount rose
from $8.4 million to $35
million.
Recreational marijuana is
illegal in 46 states and under
federal law.
WASHINGTON — Traf-
ic fatalities were up 9 percent
in the irst six months of this
year compared with the same
period last year, continuing
a surge in deaths that began
two years ago as the economy
improved and travel picked
up, according to preliminary
estimates released Tuesday by
the National Safety Council.
An estimated 19,100 peo-
ple were killed on U.S. roads
from January through June,
said the council, a congressio-
nally chartered nonproit that
gets its data from state author-
ities. That’s 18 percent more
than two years ago at the six-
month mark. About 2.2 mil-
lion people also were seri-
ously injured in the irst half
of this year.
The council estimates the
cost of these deaths and inju-
ries at about $205 billion.
At that rate, annual deaths
could exceed 40,000 fatali-
ties this year for the irst time
in nine years, the council said.
More than 35,000 people were
killed on U.S. roads last year,
making it the deadliest driving
year since 2008, when more
than 37,000 were killed.
“Our complacency is kill-
ing us,” said Deborah A.P.
Hersman, the safety council’s
president and CEO. “Ameri-
cans should demand change
to prioritize safety actions and
protect ourselves from one of
the leading causes of prevent-
able death.”
U.S. drivers have also put
in a record 1.58 trillion miles
on the road in the irst half
of this year, a 3.3 percent
increase over the same period
in 2015, the Federal Highway
Administration said this week.
States with the biggest
increases since the upward
trend began in late 2014
include Vermont, up 82 per-
cent; Oregon, 70 percent;
New Hampshire, 61 percent;
Idaho, 46 percent; Florida,
43 percent; Iowa, 37 percent;
Georgia, 34 percent; Indi-
ana, 33 percent; California,
31 percent and Wisconsin, 29
percent.
Saturday
August
27
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Astoria Fire Open House
555 30th Street 11-4pm
Food, Fun, Firefighters!
Free hot dogs, chips, coffee and soda
compliments of the members of the IAFF Local 696
Fire safety and tsunami/disaster information available
All AFD Apparatus will be on display
SPARKY and SMOKEY will be on hand!
Jr. Firefighter Challenge Course
www.facebook.com/astoria696
E
N
L
N
E T R O L’S
K L E C
E
SUNSET EMPIRE
TRANSPORTATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING
AND PUBLIC HEARING
TO RECEIVE INPUT ON THE
LONG RANGE COMPREHENSIVE
TRANSPORTATION PLAN
AUGUST 25 TH
9 AM
A STORIA T RANSIT C ENTER
C ONFERENCE R OOM
900 M ARINE D RIVE | A STORIA
A copy of the SETD Long Range Comprehensive Transportation Plan is available at the Astoria
Transit Center or the Seaside Transit Kiosk and may be viewed on the SETD website at
www.ridethebus.org.
For more information please call
503-861-7433 #1
Sunset Empire Transportation District operates its programs without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, age or
disabiity in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, ORS Chapter 659A or other applicable law. Alternative formats of this information is available upon
request. Please contact Mary Parker at 503-861-5370 or mary@ridethebus.org.
NIC
Seaside Radio Shack
S
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS
LIQUIDATION SALE!
%
50
OFF
EVERYTHING
IN THE STORE!
AUGUST 22 ND THRU 27 TH
1219 S. Roosevelt Dr., Seaside, OR
503-738-8836