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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2017 State Senate passes bill to raise smoking age to 21 Bipartisan support in the House By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — The state Sen- ate Thursday passed a bill to raise the smoking age to 21. If the House concurs, Ore- gon would become the third state in the nation to prohibit the sale of tobacco to people younger than 21. “The is pure and simple a public health bill,” said the bill’s chief sponsor, state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton. The bill passed 18- 9, with all Democrats and two Republicans, Sen . Jackie Winters of Salem, and Sen. Bill Hansell of Athena, vot- ing in favor. Winters and Democrat swing vote Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scap- poose changed their votes. A Republican, Rep. Rich Vial of Scholls, co-sponsored the bill with Steiner Hayward. Both lawmakers have said they lost loved ones to tobac- co-related diseases. Sen. Alan Olson, R-Canby, argued the bill looked like the work of a “nanny state.” “I appall smoking,” Olson said. But the senator said he felt people have the right to make that choice for themselves. Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, said people who are old enough to serve in the mili- tary ought to be able to decide whether they want to smoke. He said the law change would create a new illicit market for people between the ages of 19 and 21. Steiner Hayward, who is a family physician, retorted that states have prohibited people younger than 21 from drinking alcohol and that alcohol is less addictive than tobacco. Recent research, including some from the U.S. Surgeon General’s Offi ce, shows that brains under age 26 are more susceptible to addiction. The legislation would impose fi rst-time civil pen- alties of $50 for clerks and $500 for managers who sell to minors. “We made a conscious decision not have criminal penalties because we know that tobacco companies tend to target low-income com- munities who can least afford it,” Steiner Hayward said. Taking 18- to 20-year- olds out of the legal market would result in an estimated loss in tobacco tax revenue of $1.6 million every two years, according to a projec- tion by the Legislative Reve- nue Offi ce. An increase in the tobacco tax proposed by Gov. Kate Brown could offset some of that loss. In 2015, Hawaii became the fi rst state in the nation to raise the smoking age to 21. California followed suit last year. An additional 210 cities and counties, including New York City and Boston, have similar laws. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Advocates, legislators seek more money for Oregon veteran services By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon vet- erans’ groups have been up in arms since the governor’s bud- get reduced allocations to the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs from the state’s general fund and backfi lled it with most of the lottery fund dollars set aside for veterans’ services by a voter-approved ballot measure. Now they’ve brought their concerns to a Legisla- ture busy trying to fill a $1.6 billion shortfall. Measure 96 amended the state’s constitution to allo- cate 1.5 percent of state lot- tery net proceeds to direct services for veterans. Advocates have been vocal about what they say is a need for more support — such as for veterans’ services officers, who help returned veterans sign up for federal benefits. Byron Whipple, a vet- erans’ services officer in Union County, told legis- lators last month that in his area of northeastern Ore- gon, veterans face problems accessing travel to get med- ical care. In February, community members housed a 75-year- old veteran with dementia for five days because local agencies could not arrange services for him sooner, Whipple wrote in testimony to the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trans- portation and Economic Development. “We do not have local missions and shelters that certain cities and counties have,” Whipple wrote. “We do not have the extra tax dol- lars to fund these emergen- cies. Last November, we did have hope.” Warrenton hears school bond options School district tries to cope with growth By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Rick Yeo, a principle with R&C Management Group who has worked on more than 300 school building proj- ects, told the Warren- ton-Hammond School Board Thursday that any new academic building would likely cost about $600 per square foot. Yeo was brought in to advise the Warrenton-Ham- mond School Board, which faces the challenge of how to accommodate a quickly growing student popu- lation, on what the dis- trict might be able to do with a drastically scaled- back potential bond from what members had been considering. The school district had discussed the pos- sibility of asking voters for a large bond to relo- cate the district to higher ground, similar to Sea- side School District’s $100 million move to an uphill K-12 cam- pus away from the tsu- nami zone. But Warren- ton-Hammond recently learned from state bond expert Carol Samuels that the local assessed property value of $690 million would only allow a $69 million bond at maximum. Superin- tendent Mark Jeffery said Samuels explained the biggest bond the dis- trict could realistically get voters to support is between $20 million and $30 million. Yeo said the first thing the district should do is fig- ure out the millage rate, used to calculate taxes on property. He said bonds costing property owners about $2.50 per $100,000 in assessed property value are the sweet spot for smaller districts. Yeo shared a budget for the new school building his company is working on for Gaston School District for nearly $17 million. “That’s about a 30,000-square- foot building we’re build- ing. We’re spending $560 a square foot. That’s in Gas- ton. Your buildings here cost upwards of 10 percent more.” Jeffery said the district is looking to add eight or nine classrooms over what it has now, to accommo- date growth 20 years down the road. The district has focused on adding the space at Warrenton High School, where it would relocate middle school grades to ease congestion at Warren- ton Grade School, now one of the most populous K-8 schools in the state with more than 700 students. Yeo said 30,000 square feet would be needed to add that many rooms, with the district likely tearing down an old part of the high school and building a new, two-story structure. He said a budget of about $600 per square foot would cover all the various engineers, archi- tects, testing, construction and other costs. At such an estimate, a 30,000-square- foot building would cost about $18 million. The district recently took out a $2 million bond financed in-house to add several classrooms at the grade school in the interim. The bond included a set-aside of $200,000 to $250,000 to prepare for a potentially larger, voter-ap- proved bond. Yeo said that while the public generally doesn’t like school districts spend- ing money, they do want dis- tricts to be prepared before asking for public funding. “If you wanted to move forward, the next step would (be to) bring an architect out here and start going through your facilities,” Yeo said. At the end of the meet- ing, Jeffery reminded school board members that the district has about five years before a glut of 100- plus classes reaches the high school. District staff has estimated class sizes in Warrenton, previously in the 60s, will average about 90 for the foresee- able future. “It does sound like we need to keep nudging this forward,” Jeffery said, “because I don’t think any- thing has changed in our estimation that enrollment is going to continue to grow.” Flower • Concentrates Edibles • Beverages Paraphernalia Ilwaco • 133 Howerton Way freedommarket420.com Open 8am - 8pm WARNING: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. There may be health risks associated with the consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 and over. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgement. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Coming Soon ! 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