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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017 Astoria finalizes Feds want to give states more hotel tax hike flexibility in protecting wild bird By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Astoria’s hotel tax is offi- cially going up to help pay for parks. The City Council reopened a public hearing Monday night to include comments from hoteliers and others in the hospi- tality industry concerned about the city’s decision to raise the hotel tax, but ulti- mately voted to approve the tax increase and hold a final reading of the ordinance. The ordinance will increase the hotel tax from 9 percent to 11 percent. The new tax will begin in Janu- ary. City staff estimates the tax increase could gener- ate approximately $410,000 annually. Under state guide- lines, the bulk of this money would need to go to tour- ism-related facilities, the rest to the city’s general fund. City Attorney Blair Hen- ningsgaard maintains that since tourists often use city parks such as the Astoria Riverwalk or the Astoria Col- umn, the Parks and Recre- ation Department meets this criteria and all the money can go to defraying some of the department’s costs. The City Council accepted this inter- pretation at a public hearing in July. Don West, owner of Asto- ria Crest Motel and gen- eral manager of the Cannery Pier Hotel, and others who spoke against the ordinance Monday debated Hennings- gaard’s interpretation of a tourist-related facility. They said tourists who stayed with them did not come for Asto- ria’s public parks or pub- lic pool, though they might use them while they were in the city. Bed and break- fast owners Loretta Maxwell and Rebecca Greenway, who had both spoken at the public hearing in July, told the coun- cil that they would lose busi- ness over the tax increase. “I have seen communities tax themselves and the busi- nesses to a point that causes the very businesses they rely on for a tax base to drop dra- matically,” West said. He said the lodging indus- try provides thousands of jobs in Clatsop County and brings in hundreds of thou- sands of dollars. He and oth- ers said a similar tax increase was voted in by city coun- cilors in the early 2000s. The money levied then was intended to go to a confer- ence center that was never built; they wanted a guaran- tee this time that the money would go where the city said it was going. Before making a motion to hold a second reading of the ordinance, City Coun- cilor Cindy Price assured the people who spoke that the council had heard their concerns. “I realize that there may feel like a lack of discussion here for some of you, but we have been talking about this,” she said. “We had a very long public hearing. We’ve had work sessions. We’ve been talking about this for about six months.” She said while she and the other councilors aren’t anx- ious to raise taxes, they agree that the parks are an import- ant amenity and are part of what makes Astoria attrac- tive to visitors. The council voted unanimously to hold the second reading and final- ize approval of the ordinance. The proposal to increase the hotel tax came out of var- ious discussions about how to sustain the parks depart- ment for the long term as the department struggles with increased responsibilities and higher costs but less full-time staff. The council had origi- nally considered raising the hotel tax to 12 percent, but settled instead on 11 percent. that sets population objectives for the states.” “Wholesale changes to the land-use plans are likely not necessary at this time,” they wrote in a May 26 letter. Sage grouse is threatened across the West By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Interior Department on Mon- day unveiled a plan to protect the threatened sage grouse that gives Western states greater flexibility to allow mining, logging and other economic development where it now is prohibited. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the strategy for the ground-dwelling bird that has suffered a dramatic population decline across its 11-state range, which includes Oregon. Zinke insisted that the federal government and the states can work together to protect the sage grouse and its habitat while not slowing eco- nomic growth and job creation. While the federal gov- ernment has a responsibility under the Endangered Species Act to protect the bird, offi- cials also have an obligation “to be a good neighbor and a good partner,” Zinke said. The new plan ensures that conser- vation efforts “do not impede local economic opportunities,” he said. The plan comes after a 60-day review Zinke ordered in June of a 2015 plan imposed by the Obama administration. The plan set land-use policies across the popular game-bird’s 11-state range intended to keep it off the federal endangered species list. Mining companies, ranchers and governors in some West- ern states — especially Utah, Idaho and Nevada — said the plan ordered by former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell would impede oil and gas drilling and other economic activity. Environmental groups said Jewell’s plan did not do enough Task force AP Photo/Cathleen Allison A sage grouse is seen near Fallon, Nev., in 2005. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says a new federal plan to protect the threatened sage grouse will better align with conser- vation efforts in 11 Western states where the bird lives. to protect the sage grouse from extinction. The ground-dwelling sage grouse, long associated with the American West, has lengthy, pointed tail feathers and is known for the male’s elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound. Millions once roamed Millions of sage grouse once roamed the West but develop- ment, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encour- ages wildfires has reduced the bird’s population to fewer than 500,000 across 11 states from California to the Dakotas. States affected by the plan are California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Zinke said in June that “state agencies are really at the forefront of efforts to maintain healthy fish and wildlife pop- ulations” across the country, adding that the Trump admin- istration is committed to ensur- ing that state voices are heard in decisions affecting land use and wildlife management. In particular, Zinke said he has received complaints from several Western governors that the Obama administration ignored or minimized their con- cerns as the 2015 sage-grouse plan was developed. Republi- can governors in Idaho, Utah and Nevada want more flexi- bility and have urged that con- servation efforts focus on bird populations in a particular state rather than on habitat manage- ment that frequently results in land-use restrictions. The new plan is intended to provide flexibility to states instead of a “one-size-fits-all solution,” Zinke said. On the other side, Demo- cratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Republi- can Gov. Matt Mead of Wyo- ming told Zinke earlier this year they opposed any changes that would move “from a hab- itat-management model to one Hickenlooper and Mead co-chair a federal-state sage grouse task force that worked to develop the 2015 plan, which was backed by more than $750 million in commitments from the government and outside groups to conserve land and restore the bird’s historic range. Nada Culver, a senior policy official at The Wilderness Soci- ety, denounced the new plan as an attempt to “abandon habitat protection for unfettered oil and gas development” in the West that “puts the entire landscape at risk.” The 60-day review “shows a callous disregard for nearly a decade of research and collabo- rative work by states and agen- cies, while ignoring the West- ern communities who weighed in with millions of comments and who simply want to see the (Obama-era) plans left to work as intended,” Culver said. Kathleen Sgamma, pres- ident of the Western Energy Alliance, a Colorado-based group that represents the oil and natural gas industry, said offer- ing states more flexibility was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough to rewrite the 2015 plan. “Until Interior bites the bullet and starts amending these plans, it’s merely post- poning a real, needed correc- tion,” she said, adding that the revised sage grouse plan “will cause needless job loss and loss of economic opportunities” throughout the West. 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 HEALTH NOTIFICATION Are You Hard of Hearing? A major name brand hearing aid provider wishes to fi eld test a remarkable new digital hearing instrument in the area. Th is off er is free of charge and you are un- der no obligation. 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