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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2017)
5A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 Pot is producing jobs, revenue in states where it’s legal Whitney, who has been involved in several marijuana businesses and has advised state government, estimates that workers in the marijuana industry in Oregon earn a total of $315 million per year. That’s based on workers earn- ing an average of $12 per hour. He noted that the wage scales vary widely, with harvesters earning less than processors and chemists. Their wages are pumped back into the local economies. By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM — The states that have legalized recreational marijuana — a multi-bil- lion-dollar business — don’t want to hear the federal govern- ment talk about a crackdown. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she wants Oregonians left alone to “grow these jobs.” In Oregon alone, that’s roughly 12,500 jobs, said econ- omist Beau Whitney of Port- land, adding that he is making a conservative estimate. Ore- gon’s attorney general said she would be duty-bound to fight to protect the state’s marijuana industry. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said his depart- ment is reviewing a Jus- tice Department memo that gives states flexibility in pass- ing marijuana laws and noted “it does remain a violation of federal law to distribute mar- ijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer predicted stepped up enforcement. Underscoring how the mar- ijuana industry is pushing job Push back AP Photo/Andrew Selsky A harvester examines marijuana buds from a trimming machine near Corvallis. In Or- egon, at least 12,500 jobs are attributed to legal recreational marijuana and in Oregon, Washington state and Colorado, marijuana tax revenues totaled $335 million in 2016. growth in Oregon, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which regulates and licenses the state’s recreational mari- juana industry, says it has over 12,640 applications for mar- ijuana worker permits. It has also received 2,174 marijuana license applications, with over half coming from would-be producers and the rest mostly from those seeking to set up as retailers, processors, wholesal- ers and laboratories. It had acti- vated 943 licenses by Tuesday. ‘Successful industry’ Marijuana shops are prev- alent in many Oregon cit- ies. In the countryside, mar- ijuana greenhouses are not uncommon. “We now have a nascent, somewhat successful indus- try,” Brown said in an inter- view Tuesday with The Asso- ciated Press and a freelance journalist. “These are good paying jobs. It’s a pretty diverse business community.” In January alone, recre- ational marijuana sales in Ore- gon were over $20 million, with medical marijuana gener- ating about $2.8 million more, the OLCC said. In Oregon, Washington state and Colorado, marijuana tax revenues totaled at least $335 million in either the last calendar year or the last fiscal year. If the Trump administration moves against legalized recre- ational marijuana, it would be going against its own objec- tives, Oregon’s governor said. She noted that citizens in several states have voted to make pot legal. Oregon legal- ized recreational marijuana in a 2014 ballot measure. “This administration very clearly wants to grow the econ- omy and create jobs, and the other piece that they want is to have the states be the labo- ratories of democracy,” Brown said. “There is no better type of laboratory than the initia- tive process, and voters in Ore- gon and Washington and Cali- fornia and Alaska and Nevada, and there’s a few other states, have voted to legalize mari- juana. On the West coast alone, that’s 49 million people.” Her message to Washing- ton: “Let our people grow these jobs.” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum indicated she would go to court to protect those jobs. Currently, the Cole Memorandum, which provides guidance for federal mari- juana enforcement, restricts it to a few areas, including pre- venting distribution to minors and preventing marijuana from being transported from pot-le- gal states to other states. Under the Cole Memorandum, states where marijuana is legal have been largely been left alone. “If the Cole memoran- dum is pulled, or replaced with other guidance, we would eval- uate it immediately,” Rosen- blum said in a recent inter- view with AP. “Possibly if we felt we had a basis, we would push back against that, because we have a burgeoning indus- try here, very successful so far with some bumps in the road ... so that would be important for the attorney general to take a stand.” Bill would use phone fund to pay for rural broadband By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — State Rep. E. Werner Reschke, R-Klamath Falls, says he lives “at the end of the internet.” Reschke’s district is located in south central Oregon, which has comparatively low use rates when it comes to high-speed internet, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the state’s public utility commission. A bill before the Oregon Legislature would allow a fund currently dedicated to ensuring access to landline phone ser- vice in underserved areas to be used to provide access to high- speed internet. The definition of broadband changes as technology accel- erates. These days the Federal Communications Commis- sion’s standard for minimum download speeds is 25 mega- bits per second. Top of the heap Compared to other states, Oregon is at the top of the heap when it comes to access to broadband, but there are still significant disparities between broadband adoption in urban and rural areas. In 2014, Oregon’s Public Utility Commission conducted a study on the issue. While 85 percent of people in Port- land used broadband, only 67 percent did in eastern Oregon and 69 percent in south cen- tral Oregon. Generally, a uni- versal service fund is intended to make sure people in under- A universal service fund is intended to make sure people in underserved areas have access to utility services at ‘reasonably affordable’ rates served areas have access to utility services at “reasonably affordable” rates, according to the public utility commission. The universal service fund, established in 1999, essentially provides money for compa- nies to set up communications infrastructure in low-popula- tion areas where the costs of doing so can be expensive and benefits to the company can be relatively low. There has been some dis- agreement as to whether it is appropriate to use the landline surcharge money for other ser- vices, said Brant Wolf, a lobby- ist for the Oregon Telecommu- nications Association, which supports the bill. The issue was the subject of a public utility commission docket last year. Under a PUC stipulation the amount in the fund will be capped by 2021 to $21.6 mil- lion, Wolf said. State law currently says companies can only use the money for basic telephone services. The proposal would loosen that requirement to include broadband. An amendment to the bill limits the surcharge rate on retail telecommunications sales to 8.5 percent. Digital Divide Nationally, the disparity between urban and rural access to broadband is referred to as the “Digital Divide.” Proponents say that high- speed internet access is a boon for business development and public safety. Some also say it’s an issue of equity as more of daily life requires internet access. “Broadband is, by all accounts, and certainly in our opinion, an essential utility ser- vice at this point,” said Samuel Pastrick, a consumer advocate for the Oregon Citizens’ Util- ity Board. Businesses evaluate inter- net speeds when choosing locations; some small commu- nities in Eastern Oregon want to encourage economic devel- opment by luring young peo- ple working in the tech sector elsewhere to work remotely and enjoy the perks of access to outdoor recreation. The city of John Day even has an internet task force, which is studying ways to bring faster and more afford- able internet to the area. Lawmakers examine impacts of rent control, just-cause eviction By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — As the Legis- lature considers passing rent control and restrictions on no-cause evictions this year, lawmakers are trying to sift through how the differing pol- icies are working. “Oregon is facing a hous- ing crisis, and the speaker is hopeful that the Legislature will pass meaningful solu- tions this session,” said Lind- sey O’Brien, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Tina Kotek, whose constituents have expe- rienced mass evictions in North Portland. The bill dominating discus- sion, and which will receive a public hearing today, would outlaw no-cause evictions and lift the statewide preemption on rent control in local jurisdic- tions. The legislation is more stringent than an ordinance passed last month in Portland and is missing exemptions such as those in San Francisco that are meant to prevent discour- agement of new construction of residential buildings. Legislators are deliberating these measures under increas- ing political pressure from ten- ants who have experienced skyrocketing rents. Meanwhile, landlords are pushing back on THE DAILY ASTORIAN T HURSDAY E VENING A (2) (-) (-) (6) (-) (8) (9) (10) (12) (13) (-) (20) (-) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) L KATU KOMO KING KOIN KIRO KGW KRCW KOPB KPTV KPDX KCPQ TBS KZJO ESPN ESPN2 NICK DISN FAM FMC LIFE ROOT FS1 SPIKE COM HIST A&E TLC DISC NGEO TNT AMC USA FOOD HGTV FX CNN FNC CNBC BRAV TCM SYFY RFD (2) (4) (5) (-) (7) (-) (3) (10) (12) (-) (13) (20) (22) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) 6 the proposed legislation, argu- ing it is overbearing, will have unforeseen consequences and will fail to solve the state’s affordable housing shortage. Economists overwhelm- ingly agree with the landlords’ perspective. A survey of econo- mists by the University of Chi- cago Booth School of Business found that 81 percent disagreed that local ordinances that limit rent increases have had a posi- tive impact in the last 30 years on the amount and quality of affordable housing. The science is settled: Rent control “stifles turnover and shrinks supply,” said Portland economist Eric Fruits during a meeting of the House Human Services and Housing Commit- tee Tuesday, Feb. 28. Fruits, who also is an adjunct professor at Portland State University, said property owners are more likely to sell homes than to rent them out when there are draconian rental regulations. And developers are less motivated to build residen- tial units, he said. The proposed rent stabil- ity measures in Oregon would equate to a “self-inflicted hous- ing shortage.” Stephen Barton, former director of the Berkley Hous- ing Department and member of the Berkley Rent Stabilization Board, said rent stabilization polices haven’t brought rents down, but they are the “abso- lute best program to reduce forced displacement.” The average rent in the nine- county Bay Area in California was $2,502 in 2016, accord- ing to Real Answers, a research firm in Novato, Calif. California law allows municipalities to set a limit on rent increases, but once a tenant vacates a unit, the landlord is free to set the unit’s rent at mar- ket rate, Barton said. In San Francisco, rent increases limits are tied to infla- tion. Exemptions to the rules are given to newly constructed LISTINGS A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach residential units, anything built after June 13, 1979, in order to encourage new construc- tion. All single-family dwell- ings also are exempt. Oregon’s proposed law includes none of those exemptions. It’s unclear whether the Oregon bill will be revised to include some of those excep- tions, or whether there will be enough votes in the two cham- bers to pass it. The initial public review of academic research on the bill is scheduled for today. Kotek has been meeting with developers, landlords, housing advocates and tenants to learn their concerns, O’Brien said. Evening listings THURSDAY M ARCH 2 PM 6:30 7 PM 7:30 8 PM 8:30 9 PM 9:30 10 PM 10:30 11 PM 11:30 KATU News at 6 Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune When We Rise (N) When We Rise HIV/AIDS continues to ravage the gay community. Pt. 3 of 4 (N) KATU News at 11 (:35) Jimmy Kimmel KOMO 4 News Wheel of Fortune Jeopardy! When We Rise (N) When We Rise HIV/AIDS continues to ravage the gay community. 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NCAA Basketball ACC Tournament NCAA Basketball Washington at UCLA NCAA Basketball ACC Tournament Women's Second Round (4:00) UFC UFC 201 UFC Tonight Fox Sports Live TMZ Sports (N) Speak for Yourself Skip and Shannon: Undisputed Opinions on the biggest sports topics of the day. (4:00) X2: X-Men United Patrick Stewart. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009, Action) Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Hugh Jackman. Lip Sync Battle Lip Sync Battle Caraoke (N) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (:20) Futurama (:50) Futurama (:25) Futurama "Goodfellas" (:55) Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 The Daily Show (N) @midnight (N) Swamp People "The Hunt Begins" Swamp People "Fresh Blood" Swamp People: Blood "Breakdown" (N) Swamp People "Vampire Gator" (N) (:05) Gangland Undercover (N) (:05) Swamp People "Fresh Blood" First 48 "Deadly Encounter/ Car Trouble" The First 48 "M.I.A." 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(L) Inside the NBA NBA Basketball Golden State vs Chicago (5:00) Forrest Gump (‘94, Comedy/Drama) Sally Field, Gary Sinise, Tom Hanks. The Rock (1996, Action) Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Sean Connery. Knight and Day (2010, Action) Law & Order: S.V.U. "Dependent" Law & Order: S.V.U. "Burned" Law&Order: SVU "Unholiest Alliance" Law&Order: SVU "Sheltered Outcasts" Colony "Good Intentions" (N) Law & Order: S.V.U. "Sin" Chopped "G'day, Chefs!" Chopped "Bacon Baskets!" Chopped "Say Cheese!" Chopped "Chefs in A Pickle" Beat Flay (N) Beat Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay Flip or Flop Flip or Flop Flip or Flop Flip or Flop Flip or Flop Flip or Flop Flip or Flop (N) Flip or Flop House Hunters (N) House Hunters House Hunters House Hunters X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014, Adventure) Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman. 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(5:30) Resident Evil: Afterlife (‘10) Milla Jovovich. SF Machinery Small Town (N) Rural America 'Live' (N) Steve Lantvit 1/2 Rural Eve. News Market Journal GA Farm Monitor SF Machinery Small Town Time Life Library