3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017
County budget includes fee increases Busy county roads
Spending plan
expands total
by 13 percent
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Board
of Commissioners voted 4-1
Wednesday to adopt a sizable
budget increase for the second
consecutive year.
The budget for the fis-
cal year that begins Saturday
totals $65.1 million, a roughly
13 percent increase from this
year. Last year, commission-
ers increased the budget by 10
percent.
More than half of this year’s
increase is a result of money
transfers and increased contin-
gency funds. Other increases
will go toward personnel ser-
vices and special projects.
Property taxes connected to
funds in the budget will remain
the same as last year.
Stable tax and timber reve-
nues have allowed the county
Lianne
Thompson
Cameron
Moore
to enhance services, increase
staffing and focus on special
projects, Budget and Finance
Director Monica Steele said.
“The county is in a good
financial position and contin-
ues to monitor that situation,”
Steele said.
The new budget allocates
49 percent of resources to
public safety systems such as
the Sheriff’s Office and Emer-
gency Management. It will
increase staffing in the Sher-
iff’s Office as well as fund-
ing toward alternative custody
programs.
Commissioners also unan-
imously approved a series
of fee increases based on
an annual review of county
departments. Services from
community
development,
public health and wastewater
management will all see fee
hikes.
The $9 fee hikes for most
planning permits and reviews
will fund the salary of a new
permanent technician. Mean-
while, public health will be
able to account for the increas-
ing number of businesses ask-
ing for licenses, and waste-
water management has not
been subject to increases since
the county assumed those
responsibilities within the last
decade, Steele said.
Special projects such as an
additional road near the future
site of the North Coast Busi-
ness Park and construction of
a household hazardous waste
facility will also benefit from
the increases, she said.
Commissioner
Lianne
Thomson, the sole “no” vote,
said she did not see enough
emphasis on housing issues,
economic development and
emergency preparedness. She
also lamented what she con-
sidered a lack of inclusion of
commissioners in the budget-
ing process.
“I look at the process we
have. I look at the product we
have, and I have concerns,”
Thompson said. “When I look
at the product, I don’t see what
I think is the appropriate focus
on these critical issues. In my
mind, the process that we have
doesn’t allow us the ease or
the flexibility or the time to
tease out how to raise those
community issues.”
County Manager Cameron
Moore said he “couldn’t dis-
agree more.”
“I do think the bud-
get reflects community pri-
orities, but I also think we
have to practice prudent fis-
cal management because
this is other people’s money
that we’re spending,” Moore
said. “Within the resources
we have, we certainly try to
do what we can, and if there
was clear direction from the
a majority of the board say-
ing, ‘We want different priori-
ties,’ those are the priorities we
would work on.”
GOP cries foul over attempt to push a vote
on provider tax to January special election
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Clatsop Post 12
BBQ Pork Rib
Dinner
With Baked Beans, Corn on
the Cob, Salad & Cornbread
Friday
th
June
30
4 pm until gone
$
8. 00
6PM
“Karaoke Dave”
ASTORIA
AMERICAN LEGION
Clatsop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street
325-5771
A $500,000
project kicks
off this summer
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
More than 2 1/2 miles of
often-used Clatsop County
roads will be paved this
summer.
The nearly $500,000 proj-
ect approved unanimously
by the Board of Commis-
sioners on Wednesday will
include repaving sections of
Ridge Road in Warrenton,
Old Highway 30 in Knappa,
Walluski Loop Road and the
adjacent Labiske Lane inter-
section south of the Clatsop
County Fairgrounds.
Bayview Transit Mix was
awarded the contract for the
project. Hot mix asphaltic
concrete will be applied to
the roads to account for fac-
tors such as current pave-
ment conditions and traffic
volume.
Last year, Walluski Loop
Road served as a detour
during repairs at a nearby
section of state Highway 202.
Two small areas of the road
that were already in need of
repaving were further dam-
aged during the heavier traf-
fic flow. The nearby Labiske
Lane intersection has been
in need of maintenance for
several years and has seen
increases in heavy truck
traffic, Senior Administra-
tive Supervisor Teresa Clute
wrote in a document pre-
sented to commissioners.
Old Highway 30 will be
repaved from Maggie John-
son Road to Little Creek. The
steep, curvy road has devel-
oped potholes due to recent
oiling projects, and the pav-
ing will aid heavy truck traf-
fic, Clute wrote.
The Ridge Road repairs,
due to outdated paving,
will stretch from Southwest
Ninth Street to Peter Iredale
Road.
The paving project, while
not entirely unusual in scope,
is one of the larger ones the
county will agree to this year,
County Manager Cameron
Moore said. Road work is
expected to be completed by
September.
County invests in
ankle bracelets for
alcohol monitoring
State Democrats
want to ensure
Medicaid funded
SALEM — Democrats
in the Legislature are trying
to force a special election in
January if petitioners are suc-
cessful in putting the recently
passed health care provider tax
on the ballot for a statewide
vote.
While Democrats say they
are trying to pre-empt a Medic-
aid funding crisis, the attempt
prompted ire from state Rep.
Julie Parrish, R-Tualatin/West
Linn.
In Oregon, voters can
gather signatures to refer none-
mergency legislation for a vote
in the general election. After
the final gavel falls on the
legislative session, petition-
ers have 90 days to file a peti-
tion with the Secretary of the
State’s Office to refer legisla-
tion to the ballot.
A proposed amendment to
Senate Bill 229 would sched-
ule a special election for Jan-
uary on referrals from this ses-
sion, rather than wait for the
November general election
in 2018. It would also trans-
fer responsibility for writing
ballot titles from the Attorney
General’s Office to a bipartisan
legislative committee.
Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Cor-
vallis, says that holding a spe-
cial election next January
would give the Legislature
time to find a resolution in the
event the health care provider
tax, designed to pay for Med-
icaid by assessing hospitals,
insurers and coordinated care
organizations, is struck down
by voters.
While several Senate
Republicans voted in favor of
the tax last week, it first faced
a tougher battle in the House
of Representatives, narrowly
meeting the required three-
fifths majority vote with one
Republican’s approval. Parrish
voted against it, and argues
that Democrats didn’t consider
an alternative funding plan for
Medicaid.
Less than two weeks before
legislators must adjourn and
balance the budget, Parrish
argued that the move could
affect other controversial reve-
to get a face-lift
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A provider tax on hospitals will help close the state’s budget deficit.
nue-raising measures that could
be passed by legislators, namely
a proposed transportation pack-
age that includes increases to
the gas tax, and another pro-
posal that would collect more
revenues by restructuring
small-business taxes.
Parrish cast the proposed
amendment as a partisan move
to reduce turnout and poten-
tially impact the results.
“Our Constitution allows
voters the right to petition their
government in a fair and equi-
table manner,” Parrish wrote
in an email Tuesday night.
“The regularly scheduled gen-
eral election is when the wid-
est population of voters turn
out for an election. The net
effect of bypassing the gen-
eral election is akin to voter
suppression.”
Precedent
But a January special elec-
tion on a referral is not with-
out precedent. A special elec-
tion was held in January 2010
as a referendum on two tax
increases passed by the Legis-
lature in 2009.
That year, Measure 66 and
Measure 67 were approved by
voters and took effect in late
February.
However, Paul Gronke, a
professor of political science
at Reed College and direc-
tor of the Early Voting Infor-
mation Center, said he did
not see “any particular parti-
san advantage” in putting tax
measures on the ballot in a
special election.
Gronke wrote in an email
Wednesday that January vot-
ers are “committed voters
and more partisan voters,
and in general, those voters
are older, higher income, bet-
ter educated and in Oregon,
lean more conservative (in the
context of a very liberal state
overall).”
Oregon already has a sys-
tem for assessing certain
urban hospitals based on their
net revenues. The legislation
passed last week would main-
tain that assessment and create
a .7 percent tax on those urban
hospitals, start an assessment
on rural hospitals, and create
a tax on insurance premiums.
The new taxes are poised
to raise more than $600 mil-
lion in the next two years and
draw down nearly $1.9 billion
in federal funding to help pay
for the Oregon Health Plan,
Oregon’s version of Medicaid.
It would also help reduce a
$1.4 billion gap between pro-
jected revenues and expenses
in the state’s upcoming two-
year budget.
Rayfield said that if vot-
ers reject the tax at the bal-
lot box, the Legislature could
address the Medicaid short-
fall in its monthlong session
in February.
Ballot titles
Under
the
proposed
amendment, the Legislature,
through a committee with
membership from both parties
and from both the House and
Senate, would have say over
writing the ballot title, accord-
ing to Rayfield.
The Attorney General’s
Office writes ballot titles.
Parrish sees it differently.
The proposed amendment
specifies the ballot title-writ-
ing committee would include
two members from the major-
ity party and one member
from the minority party from
each chamber.
“To usurp the ballot titling
authority from the Attorney
General, and redistribute that
power to the Legislature for
partisan purposes (is) wholly
unacceptable, and voters
should be allowed to weigh in
on that decision as well,” Par-
rish wrote.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Leinassar Dental Excellence
Trusted, Caring and Affordable Dental Care
People ordered by Clat-
sop County Circuit Court not
to consume alcohol will be
required to wear ankle brace-
lets in the near future that
track possible violations.
The county Board of
Commissioners unanimously
approved a contract Wednes-
day that will allow the Sher-
iff’s Office to kick-start the
program. It will likely be
implemented by August, Lt.
Kristen Hanthorn said.
“That’s something we’ve
been lacking,” she said. “It’s
been an ask by our judges
and our treatment courts.”
Daily costs to the Sher-
iff’s Office for using the
product total more than
$25,000 per year, accord-
ing to estimates given by
services contractor Vigilnet
America LLC.
The Sheriff’s Office cur-
rently relies on urine tests to
track offenders. Urine tests
are sometimes passable with
proper timing regardless of
recent alcohol consump-
tion. The bracelets automat-
ically analyze body sweat
every 30 minutes to ensure
compliance.
Offenders both inside and
outside of the county jail will
be required to wear them,
Hanthorn said.
Ocean Park man arrested
on online child porn charge
EO Media Group
OCEAN PARK, Wash.
— An Ocean Park, Washing-
ton, man was arrested earlier
this month for “possession of
depictions of minors engaged
in sexually explicit con-
duct,” according to the Pacific
County Sheriff’s Office.
The arrest of Joshua S.
Brown, 19, resulted from
an FBI investigation. An
FBI special agent told local
authorities that an online child
pornography-sharing inves-
tigation appeared to involve
a computer IP address on the
29000 block of R Street of
Ocean Park. The FBI inves-
tigation allegedly revealed
several images and videos
depicting adult males having
sexual intercourse with young
females.
Joining forces with the
FBI, a sheriff’s investiga-
tor served a search warrant
in January at the residence.
Three occupants at the resi-
dence were interviewed. The
FBI seized a computer for
forensic analysis.
On June 13, the FBI pro-
vided the Sheriff’s Office
with evidence allegedly
obtained from the computer,
including a CD/DVD con-
taining several images depict-
ing adult males who appeared
to be engaging in intercourse
with female minors. The
CD allegedly also contained
hundreds of other images
that were classified as child
pornography.
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Hear what loyal and new patients alike are saying...
Emergency, camping in Washington and on the way
to Astoria, Oregon, a fr ont bottom ceneer pops off
and disappears. From the very fi rst phone call on a
Friday, the Leinassar staff was helpful and caring.
Early Saturday morning staff and Dr. Jeff met me
with a smile and a solution. Dr’s work was artistic
and I left a “Happy Camper” with a beautiful
sculptured tooth and a big smile myself.
Th ank you, Dr. Jeff and staff for an
experience I am grateful for. Good Job !
Looks and feels terrifi c !
Maureen S.
503.325.0310 1414 Marine Drive, Astoria
www.smileastoria.com
JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR
DMD, FAGD
In honor of July 4th,
The Daily Astorian’s offi ces in
Astoria and Seaside will be
CLOSED
TUESDAY, JULY 4
Have a safe holiday!
PAPER DELIVERY WILL PROCEED AS USUAL
CLASSIFIED DEADLINES:
Monday, July 3 rd , 11 am for
Tuesday, July 4 th
Monday, July 3 rd , 1 pm for
Wednesday, July 5 th
DISPLAY AD DEADLINES:
Thursday, June 29 th , 5 pm for
Tuesday, July 4 th
Friday, June 30 th , 5 pm for
Wednesday, July 5 th
Place classifi ed ads or subscribe 24/7
www.dailyastorian.com