3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017
Teachers union pushes measures to up business taxes
Claims state
funding is
insufficient
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Education Association, a union
representing 44,000 public
school employees, plans to go
to voters in 2018 in an effort
to shore up more state funding
for schools through a tax on
businesses.
State legislators Thursday
moved forward on a $8.2 bil-
lion proposal to fund public
K-12 education through the
State School Fund for the next
two years. That’s about $827
million more than the amount
approved in the current two-
year budget period.
Charging that state funding is
insufficient in light of the state’s
relatively large classroom sizes
and low graduation rates, the
education association has pro-
posed two ballot measures, both
of which are planned for the bal-
lot in November 2018.
They aim to leverage
changes to the state’s business
tax structure to increase school
funding.
One measure would change
the legislative votes required to
pass corporate tax increases.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Schools in Warrenton and across the state have struggled with infrastructure challeng-
es. The Oregon Education Association is proposing ballot measures to tax businesses
to help finance public education.
According to education associ-
ation, if passed, it would allow
the Legislature to raise corpo-
rate taxes to fund education by
a simple majority vote, rather
than the three-fifths major-
ity required under current law.
That change would be triggered
if the Legislature puts forth a
budget that does not meet the
level of the Quality Educa-
tion Model, a statewide bench-
mark for public school funding
developed in the late 1990s.
The second measure — a
proposal the groups are call-
ing Invest in Oregon’s Future
— would lower individual
income taxes while increasing
taxes for large corporations by
way of a gross receipts tax.
The tax would be .95 percent
for corporations with annual
sales of more than $5 million.
Measure 97
Last November, Oregon
voters rejected Measure 97,
which would have raised $6
billion per two-year budget
cycle, a sum supporters said
lawmakers would have used
for schools and social services.
The money would have
been raised by a tax on gross
annual sales similar to the
one that the Oregon Educa-
tion Association is now pro-
posing, but Measure 97 would
have imposed a higher rate that
would have applied to fewer
businesses. The education
association was one of its sup-
porters, along with other union
groups.
A bitter battle unfolded
last fall over Measure 97, and
appears to have cast a pallor
over business tax discussions
in the ongoing legislative ses-
sion, which is due to end in
early July. Other proposals
to change the state’s business
tax structure are still alive, but
lawmakers have not made a
decision yet.
Advocates for changing
the tax structure, such as state
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaver-
ton, argue that switching from
a state corporate income tax
to a tax on business activities
through gross sales receipts
could introduce more stability
to Oregon’s volatile revenue
system.
The effort to increase edu-
cation funding also arises in
the context of a $1.4 billion
gap between what the state
expects to realize in revenue
and the amount of money it
would take to maintain all
state services at current levels.
Drastic cuts
And some Democratic
legislators argue that with-
out raising new revenue, the
Legislature will have to make
drastic cuts to fill the $1.4 bil-
lion gap, such as narrowing
the pool of people in Oregon
who are eligible for Medicaid,
the government’s healthcare
coverage for the poor. How-
ever, lawmakers are still dis-
cussing a health care provider
tax that could cover a substan-
tial amount of the state’s Med-
icaid costs in the coming two-
year budget.
Patrick Criteser, pres-
ident and CEO of the Til-
lamook County Creamery
Association and chairman of
the Oregon Business Plan, a
group of businesses that have
coalesced around state policy
issues, told lawmakers Thurs-
day that the group would be
willing to support modifica-
tions to current taxes, rather
than changing the overall
business tax structure to one
based on business sales in the
current legislative session.
Meanwhile, two other local
unions, SEIU 503 and Ore-
gon’s chapter of the Associa-
tion of Federal, State, County
and Municipal Employees,
announced plans this week to
file a ballot measure to require
publicly traded corporations
to report Oregon taxes to the
Secretary of State.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Cannon Beach Police Department
tries new emergency message system
Emergency
advisories now
available via
text message
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Residents of Cannon Beach
will now have the option to
receive text messages in an
emergency thanks to a new
message system facilitated
by Cannon Beach Police
Department.
The system, named Nixle,
is a free information service
that allows law enforcement,
fire departments, municipal
governments and other com-
munity agencies to send out
text or email advisories.
While the service can be
used to disseminate all kinds
of advisories, Cannon Beach
Police Chief Jason Schermer-
horn said for now the plan is to
use it for emergencies, such as
extreme weather, traffic issues,
missing persons cases, major
crime or fraudulent business
transactions. Those who want
the alerts just need to create an
account with Nixle and offer a
phone number or email.
The Seaside Police Depart-
ment and Clatsop County
Emergency
Management
already use similar systems.
More than 4,600 local munic-
ipalities have signed on to the
program since its founding
Toxic algae
prompts
advisory at
Detroit Lake
Associated Press
SALEM — Officials
have issued a health advisory
for Detroit Lake in western
Oregon.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity issued the warning Friday
after tests found toxin levels
of blue-green algae that can
be harmful to humans and
animals.
Public health toxicologist
David Farrer tells the States-
man Journal that the toxic
bloom is in the Heater Creek
arm of the reservoir located
east of Salem.
Officials say visitors to the
reservoir should avoid swal-
lowing water while swimming,
water skiing or powerboating.
Farrer says the health advi-
sory covers the entire reservoir
because the toxic bloom can
move quickly to other areas of
the reservoir.
in 2007, according to Nixle’s
website.
“Knowledge is key,” Scher-
merhorn said. “ If there is a bad
traffic accident, and we get a
Nixle message out to the pub-
lic explaining the situation,
it saves them a lot of stress,
and saves our front office
from answering phone calls to
answer the same question over
and over.”
In the past. first respond-
ers ran into issues with mass
communication during major
storms, Schermerhorn said.
Using this program will help
spread hyperlocal alerts that
maybe wouldn’t make the
radar of a general county emer-
gency notification system.
Another useful application
Schermerhorn anticipates is
the ability to inform businesses
more quickly about any fraud-
ulent checks or cash that enter
the region.
“If we get reports of coun-
terfeit in the county, we can
alert business leaders here all
at once instead of calling each
business separately,” Scher-
merhorn said.
For now, Lt. Chris Wil-
bur and administrative assis-
tant Valerie Mannix will be
in charge of distributing and
managing these messages.
If residents want to sign up,
Schermerhorn said they can
find the link to do so on the
Cannon Beach Police Depart-
ment Facebook page or on the
city’s website.
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Marietta
Virgillo
May 30, 1941 - June 25, 2016
T HE D AILY A STORIAN
PRESENTS A
FREE CONCERT
You came into my life
on the fi rst days of spring,
and three months later,
you were wearing my ring.
A June wedding we had,
and you made me so glad.
Soon children we had at a comfortable pace,
we added four total to God’s human race.
As time passed us by, we lost our fi rst son,
the taking of him by water was done.
Th e three kids still living gave love to us all,
it always was there for us, well into life’s fall.
Marietta my wife and mother of four,
her love always given to children and more,
has gone to her rest and left us behind,
is waiting in heaven for us still to fi nd.
I know that one day my time will come due,
and then I’ll be with her again and her love oh so
true.
I could never have done better when she came my
way,
God gave me his best on our very fi rst day!
Our 55 years have come and have gone,
so happy you made me, still singing your song.
I’ll love you forever, you know that I do,
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Jim Virgillo
234th Army Band
“Sea to Shining Sea”
An evening of patriotic music and a medley of Service Songs
The 234th A rm y Ba n d w ill be perform in g John W illia m s’ “The Cow boys O vertu re,”
“Shen a n doa h” by Fra n k Ticheli, a n d “Rha psody in Blu e” by George Gershw in .
7:00 p.m. Friday • June 30, 2017
AT THE LIBERTY THEATRE
To receive free tickets, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
Arm y Ba n d Tick ets
c/o The Da ily A storia n
P.O. Box 210
A storia , OR 97103
Tick ets a re lim ited. Up to 4 tick ets per hou sehold. Tick ets a re a va ila ble u n til Ju n e 20, 2017