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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016
Measure 97: The debate centers
largely on who will pay for the tax
Continued from Page 1A
The poll, taken from Sept. 2
through Wednesday, found that
59 percent of 610 respondents
favor the tax and 2 1 percent
oppose it. After voters heard
arguments against the mea-
sure, that support dwindled to
40 percent while opposition
spiked to 31 percent. The poll
has a 4 percentage point mar-
gin of error.
For instance, 65 percent of
respondents said they would
be less likely to support the
measure if they had to pay
$600 per year in the form
of higher prices and lost job
growth resulting from the tax.
That fi gure is based on a May
estimate by the nonpartisan
Legislative Revenue Offi ce.
Similarly, 59 percent of
respondents were more likely
to vote for the measure if the
revenue were to fi ll a $2 billion
annual gap in funding needed
for quality education in the
state. That fi gure comes from
the nonpartisan Quality Edu-
cation Commission.
When asked how the money
should be spent, the most com-
mon response — from nearly a
quarter of those polled — was
education spending.
The icitizen poll mirrors
another independent survey,
this one by DHM Research
taken from Sept. 1 to Sept.
6, which found 60 percent of
respondents support Measure
97, while 30 percent opposes it.
Pamplin Media Group
Yes on 97’s Katherine Driessen at an interview before the ed-
itorial boards of EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group.
“At 60 percent (support)
in back-to-back polls, Ore-
gonians are clear they want
corporations to pay their fair
share,” said Katherine Dries-
sen, a spokeswoman for Our
Oregon, the nonprofi t advo-
cacy group backing the mea-
sure. “When we share with
voters that large and out of
state corporations pay little or
no taxes, they’re eager to hold
them accountable. They sup-
port 97 because Oregon voters
know great schools and qual-
ity care for our seniors makes
Oregon strong.”
So far, the campaigns for
and against the measure have
played out mostly on social
media and in front of editorial
boards and civic groups.
“Generally speaking, the
numbers in the polls we’re see-
ing is consistent with polling
we’ve seen since last fall,” said
Pat McCormick, a spokesman
for the Defeat the Tax on Ore-
gon Sales. “The numbers hav-
en’t changed much because
there hasn’t been much robust
campaign dialogue.”
McCormick said cam-
paigning usually heats up
after Labor Day. The opposi-
tion campaign plans to debut
its fi rst television ad sometime
this month, he said.
The debate between the
campaigns centers largely on
who will pay for the tax. Oppo-
nents contend that consum-
ers will pay for the majority of
the cost of the tax, while sup-
porters argue that many of the
large corporations affected by
the tax will absorb most of the
extra cost into their national
pricing scheme.
The icitizen poll also tested
voters’ position on several
other measures on the Novem-
ber ballot.
• Measure 94 removes
the mandatory retirement of
judges at age 75: 53 percent
oppose, 33 percent favor, 14
percent undecided.
• Measure 95 allows pub-
lic universities to invest in
equities: 29 percent favor, 24
percent oppose, 47 percent
undecided.
• Measure 96 devotes 1.5
percent of state lottery reve-
nue to fund veteran services:
83 percent favor, 8 percent
oppose, 9 percent undecided.
• Measure 98 devotes a
portion of new state reve-
nue to fund dropout preven-
tion, career and college readi-
ness programs in Oregon high
schools: 64 percent favor, 19
percent oppose, 17 percent
undecided.
• Measure 99 designates
$22 million in state lottery rev-
enue for outdoor education
for all fi fth- and sixth-graders
in Oregon: 69 percent favor,
19 percent oppose, 12 percent
undecided.
• Measure 100 prohibits the
sale of products and parts of 12
types of endangered animals:
85 percent favor, 7 percent
oppose, 8 percent undecided.
Motel: Mayor Larson voted against appeal
Continued from Page 1A
Their
decision
was
appealed by the Calefs and
Nudelman.
“That’s my home,” Nudel-
man told city councilors Mon-
day. “I have a right to live in my
own home the same way you
do, in the comfort of my home
that I love. And no one has the
right to force me to move.”
Councilors responded to his
plea. “The need for a side yard
setback variance was based
on Mr. Simmons’s building
design and not circumstances
unique to the property,” Coun-
cilor Jay Barber said in intro-
ducing the motion to support
the appeal.
Along with Barber, Coun-
cilors Don Johnson, Tita Mon-
tero, Randy Frank and Seth
Morrisey voted to grant the
appeal. Mayor Don Larson
voted against it.
Simmons
now
has
the option of bringing
revised plans back to the
Planning Commission for
approval.
“I’m happy that it’s going
to go back to the Planning
Commission and then we’ll
be able to work with Antoine
to get a building that won’t
overwhelm our house,” Dan
Calef said after the meeting.
“We were civil as neighbors,
but we don’t have any inter-
est in selling. The offer to
buy the place wasn’t of inter-
est to us.”
“I’m happy with the pro-
cess and happy with the grant-
ing of my appeal,” Nudelman
said.
Easements: Conservation component could be used
to provide properties with regulatory protections
Continued from Page 1A
“We didn’t want to go out
to farmers and ranchers with a
blank slate. We really wanted
to have something they could
react to,” Loftsgaarden said
Monday during the Oregon
Board of Agriculture meeting
in Pendleton .
Conservation easements
are usually sold or donated
by farmers who give up
their development rights in
exchange for tax benefi ts and
lower property values, reduc-
ing inheritance taxes.
They haven’t been as
commonly used in Oregon
as in other states because of
the statewide land-use plan-
ning system, but this system
alone isn’t enough to prevent
the fragmentation of working
lands, Loftsgaarden said.
The $4.25 million wouldn’t
be enough funding for every-
one who wanted to sell an
easement, but it would serve
as a pilot program — partic-
ularly for lands inhabited by
threatened or endangered spe-
cies, or that are subject to
urban growth boundary expan-
sion, said Doug Krahmer, a
blueberry farmer who sits on
a work group advising the
program.
1.48 million
1.5 million
New U.S. conservation
easement acres,
1960-present
1.3
0.6
Source: National Conservation
Easement Database
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
187,469 acres in 2015:
Down 53% from 2014
47
0
1960
’70
’80
’90
The easements will have a
conservation component and
could be used to provide prop-
erties with regulatory protec-
tions, offering an additional
incentive for farmers, Lofts-
gaarden said.
Currently,
a
similar
approach is used for forest-
lands where owners want to
grow trees older than 30 years
but are afraid of creating hab-
itat for the northern spotted
owl, hindering future timber
harvest, she said.
“They want bigger trees,
we want bigger trees, so what
we needed to provide was that
protection,” Loftsgaarden said,
noting that forestland owners
submit management plans to
2000
’10
2016*
Threat of
development
Sean Hart/EO Media Group
Regulatory protections
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Democratic
candidates running statewide
in Oregon are leading by vary-
ing margins, according to
results of a new poll .
Gov. Kate Brown was the
choice of 44 percent of those
surveyed, outpacing Repub-
lican candidate William
“Bud” Pierce by 17 percent-
age points, according to the
poll conducted by icitizen, a
Tennessee company. Twen-
ty-three percent of voters were
undecided on their choice for
governor.
Brown’s lead over Pierce
mirrors the advantage Demo-
cratic presidential hopeful Hil-
lary Clinton has over Republi-
can Donald Trump in Oregon.
The icitizen poll puts her
ahead, 43 percent to 28 per-
cent. Libertarian Gary Johnson
was favored by 11 percent of
the respondents while Green
Party candidate Jill Stein drew
3 percent.
According to the poll, the
contest for the Oregon secre-
tary of state is much tighter.
The Democratic candidate,
Brad Avakian, leads his rival,
former state representative and
gubernatorial candidate Den-
nis Richardson, by just 3 per-
centage points.
Avakian, the labor com-
missioner, took in 29 per-
cent while Richardson gar-
nered 26 percent of the vote
in the survey. Thirty-six per-
cent were undecided and 9
percent favored a minor party
candidate.
Brad Pyle, Avakian’s cam-
Continued from Page 1A
*As of July
0.3
Poll: Democrats
outpace Republicans
in state election races
Roger Ediger, a rancher in Grant County, has decided to
place a conservation easement on the land that will pre-
serve its current condition in perpetuity. State legislators
will likely be asked for $4.25 million next year to help pay
for conservation easements.
the Oregon Board of Forestry
and receive regulatory assur-
ances from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The Watershed Enhance-
ment Board currently funds
conservation easements, but
these are focused on preserv-
ing native fi sh habitat and
water quality, without empha-
sizing agriculture, she said.
For that reason, landown-
ers in Oregon have had trou-
ble getting matching state
funds needed to obtain fed-
eral money available for buy-
ing conservation easements,
Loftsgaarden said.
“We weren’t hitting for the
same target,” she said.
The board is funded with
lottery dollars especially slated
for wildlife and water qual-
ity, but the agency may seek
money from the general fund
or from lottery-backed bonds
that don’t have the same
restrictions, Loftsgaarden said.
The fund would also be
able to accept donations from
organizations and individuals,
said Krahmer.
paign manager, said Rich-
ardson’s views on abortion
rights and immigration are
at odds with those of most
Oregonians.
“The election will not be
held until voters have had time
to see that Dennis Richardson
represents the Trump wing of
the Republican Party,” Pyle
wrote in an email response to
the poll results.
The icitizen poll, con-
ducted online from Sept. 2
through Wednesday , asked
610 Oregon voters who they
would vote for if the election
were held today. It has a mar-
gin of error of 4 percentage
points.
Many polled remained
undecided about their choice
for secretary of state, as did
many who were polled about
the treasurer’s race.
Just under half — 48 per-
cent — of voters surveyed said
they were undecided in the
contest for treasurer.
Democratic
candidate
Tobias Read, a state repre-
sentative from Washington
County, received 25 percent .
Republican Jeff Gudman, a
Lake Oswego city councilor,
took 18 percent. The third can-
didate, Chris Telfer, an Inde-
pendent Party candidate from
Bend, was the choice of 9 per-
cent surveyed.
Voters were not surveyed
on the contest for the state’s
attorney general, which is
between incumbent Ellen
Rosenblum and Daniel Crowe,
a Portland public defender.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
League: ‘Every one of our
parks has something that
could present a hazard’
More than 4.9 million acres have
been placed in conservation
easements since 1876, according
to National Conservation
Easement Database records.
0.9
Pamplin Media Group
Secretary of State candidate Brad Avakian responds
to a question as GOP candidate Dennis Richardson
listens. A recent poll shows Avakian has a three-point
lead over Richardson, with 45 percent of voters either
undecided or backing another candidate.
Grant requests would be
ranked based on the dura-
tion of the proposed easement
— perpetual agreements will
score higher than those which
end after a certain number of
years — as well as the man-
agement plan and the threat of
development to the property,
said Loftsgaarden.
The program would be
overseen by a commission
consisting of representatives
from the agricultural industry,
the conservation community,
tribes and land use experts,
with the board providing staff
support, she said.
Agricultural groups have
asked why the program
wouldn’t be overseen by the
state Department of Agricul-
ture while conservationists pre-
fer the state Department of Fish
and Wildlife, Loftsgaarden said.
However, the Watershed
Enhancement Board is already
focused on grants and has rep-
resentatives from both agricul-
tural and conservation groups,
she said. “OWEB sits sort of in
the middle.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
yet, but Angela Cosby, the
department’s director, said
she and her crew have dis-
cussed the possibility.
“Every one of our parks
has something that could pres-
ent a hazard,” Cosby said at
the forum.
Oregon, she said, has an
aging park system, “and that
is seen most here in Asto-
ria,” which manages hun-
dreds of acres across several
dozen sites, some of which
date back to the late 1800s,
she said.
An uneven surface on the
Astoria Riverwalk, or a crack
on the basketball court, could
pose a tripping hazard and
give the department pause.
“I think Astoria presents a
very good example of what’s
likely taking place across the
state,” she said.
Already stretched thin
resource-wise, the parks and
rec team has pressed the city
for more full-time staff and
increased funding — essen-
tials now fully expressed in the
Astoria Parks & Recreation
Comprehensive Master Plan.
The state Supreme Court rul-
ing has added another layer of
department concern.
“Taking care and main-
taining strong operations at
these sites is a challenge to
begin with,” she said, “and
then it just becomes increas-
ingly diffi cult when employ-
ees are worried about being
named in a suit if they’re not
able to take the best care, or if
they accidentally forget some-
thing at the site that needed to
be maintained.”
She said she hopes the situ-
ation is resolved in the upcom-
ing legislative session so that
the city can keep all park sites
open.
Cannon Beach Mayor Sam
Steidel said his city has con-
sulted legal counsel to inves-
tigate how the Supreme Court
decision impacts the employ-
ees responsible for maintain-
ing their beaches, though they
are jointly managed by the
state. The beach environment
changes daily, he said, and
the danger of the ocean raises
more liability questions.
“It’s defi nitely a differ-
ent world that we’re living in
since the Oregon Supreme
Court made that decision,”
Cosby said.
Other priorities
The League of Oregon Cit-
ies also plans to focus on:
• Reforming the state’s
property tax system, in part,
by tying property taxes to real
market value instead of the
assessed value system dictated
by Measure 50, and giving vot-
ers the freedom to adopt levies
that collect tax money outside
the limitations imposed by the
state Constitution.
• Reforming the cri-
sis-stricken Public Employees
Retirement System , which has
an unfunded liability of nearly
$22 billion .
• Building a transporta-
tion funding and policy pack-
age to preserve and maintain
Oregon’s streets, roads and
highways.