3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
Businesses appeal to Bonamici to
spare development fund from cuts
Craft3 and
other lenders
tap resource
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
On a visit to the North
Coast Tuesday, U.S. Rep.
Suzanne Bonamici ate lunch in
the upstairs dining room of the
Bridgewater Bistro, a restau-
rant aided financially by Craft3
inside a building the nonprofit
lender helped restore.
Surrounding her were
other business owners gath-
ered to share their stories of
how Craft3 helped them. They
asked for the congresswom-
an’s help to protect the funding
Craft3 and similar community
financiers depend on from cuts
in Congress.
Craft3, which often takes
on higher-risk financing proj-
ects than commercial banks,
has since 1998 secured more
than $11 million in competi-
tive grants from the Commu-
nity Development Financial
Institutions Fund. The fund
was established in 1994 to
support economic revitaliza-
tion and development among
underserved communities.
The development resource,
which received nearly $250
million this fiscal year, would
face a 23 percent cut under a
U.S. House budget proposal.
President Donald Trump’s
budget would ax the grant pro-
gram entirely.
Walt Postlewait, executive
vice president of Craft3, said
that every $1 Craft3 receives
from the fund helps leverage
another $5 from banks, foun-
dations and other investors to
finance projects often too risky
for commercial lenders.
is what sets the Community
Development Financial Insti-
tutions Fund apart from com-
mercial banks.
“This is the type of thing
we should be investing in,”
Bonamici, D-Oregon, said of
the fund. “Those investments
that help your businesses grow
are really important.”
Success stories
Craft3 is also hoping for
Bonamici’s help in protect-
ing programs like New Mar-
kets Tax Credits. The program
helps attract private capital to
projects by providing investors
credit on their federal income
taxes in exchange for equity
investments in community
development institutions.
Craft3 has received $83
million in such tax credits
since 2003. The credits have
helped finance a tribal well-
ness center, an RV park, a Wil-
lapa Bay oyster company, an
agricultural exports program at
the Port of Grays Harbor and
the redevelopment of Clatsop
Community College’s main
campus. Carl Seip, a Craft3
spokesman, said the lender has
not received any New Markets
Tax Credits since 2009, but
often works with entities that
use them to help leverage addi-
tional capital.
“Our message is not to get
rid of some of these critical
economic development pro-
grams,” Seip said.
Protect tax credits
“I would have never been
able to open a business if it
wasn’t for their help,” said
Wendy Hemsley.
In 2014, Hemsley opened
North Coast Medical Clinic,
which now employs 11 peo-
ple and provides both pri-
mary care and substance abuse
services.
Hers was a common refrain
among several business own-
ers who told Bonamici how
Craft3 took a chance on them.
David Oser, chief financial
officer for Craft3, said the
group has invested $44.7 mil-
lion in Bonamici’s congres-
sional district over the past 23
years, helping create and retain
more than 1,600 jobs.
“The only reason a bank
lends money is to make
money,” Postlewait said. “That
is their sole purpose for lend-
ing. Craft3 … that is not our
primary objective of lending.”
Postlewait said the willing-
ness to take a risk on projects
that support the community
Boone, Bonamici discuss energy,
the environment in Cannon Beach
Appearance
at chamber
breakfast
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
State Rep. Deborah Boone
on Tuesday praised a bill
approved by the Legislature
that allows electricity pro-
duced from an ocean wave
technology test site at Camp
Rilea in Warrenton to be used
to power the site.
Boone, a strong supporter
of wave technology as renew-
able energy for the Oregon
Coast, said initial tests con-
ducted last summer showed
promise for future growth in
the industry.
The test site, funded by the
Oregon Wave Energy Trust,
was introduced three years ago
and faced initial skepticism
about impacts to crabbing and
fishing industries, as well as
ocean aesthetics. So far, Boone
said, she has not been made
aware of any negative environ-
mental impacts.
“When we have a Cascadia
event, we will not have power.
We aren’t talking for three to
five weeks — we are think-
ing three to five years,” Boone
said. “So we will be relying on
local energy.”
Boone, D-Cannon Beach,
and U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, D-Oregon, dis-
cussed legislative priorities
and answered questions at the
Cannon Beach Chamber of
Commerce’s monthly commu-
nity breakfast meeting.
Bonamici discussed envi-
ronmental and emergency pre-
paredness-related bills she
had worked on this year in
Congress, including a marine
debris bill that would provide
a funding source for research
and cleanup.
The congresswoman also
celebrated the bipartisan sup-
port for legislation that would
help improve weather fore-
casts and storm warnings.
Bonamici came to Can-
non Beach to talk about local
issues, but also faced questions
from the audience on national
topics like immigration pol-
icy, the Paris climate agree-
ment and what it is like to be
in Congress during the Trump
administration.
The Cannon Beach City
Council voted recently on a
resolution to support the Paris
accord, despite President Don-
ald Trump’s decision to with-
draw. Mayor Sam Steidel
asked Bonamici what kind
of impacts small cities could
make with resolutions like
these. “It’s been heard,” she
said, adding that any support
helps when she still spends
a significant portion of time
debating the existence of cli-
mate change with some of her
House colleagues.
Bonamici said she has been
seeing record turnout at town
hall meetings, often filled with
inquiries about “polarization”
in Washington, D.C.
“There are concerns
about the Trump adminis-
tration on both sides of the
aisle,” Bonamici said. “But
there are still lots of bipar-
tisan efforts in the House.”
Sessions has ‘serious questions’
about Oregon’s pot market
Letter to Brown
outlines authority
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — U.S. Attor-
ney General Jeff Sessions has
alleged that Oregon may be
violating the Obama adminis-
tration’s requirements to keep
marijuana out of the illicit
market.
Sessions sent a letter to
Gov. Kate Brown July 24 reit-
erating the Department of Jus-
tice’s authority to enforce the
federal ban on marijuana and
highlighting ways in which
Oregon may have failed
to comply with the “Cole
memo.”
The memo, issued in 2013,
represents the Obama admin-
istration’s policy not to pros-
ecute the state legalized mar-
ket provided that the state has
a robust regulatory system that
prevents leakage of the drug
into the illicit market. Thus
far, the Trump administration
has honored the policy.
The attorney general stated
that an Oregon State Police
report in January raised “seri-
ous questions about the effi-
cacy of marijuana ‘regula-
tory structures’” in the state.
He added that the Cole memo
does not preclude the Depart-
ment of Justice from investi-
gating or prosecuting viola-
tions of the federal prohibition.
“Congress has determined
that marijuana is a dangerous
drug and that the illegal distri-
bution and sale of marijuana is
a crime,” Sessions wrote. “The
department remains commit-
ted to enforcing the Controlled
Substances Act in a manner
that efficiently applies our
resources to address the most
significant threats to public
health and safety.”
Sessions, a longtime mar-
ijuana foe, did not specify
W A NTED
how he intended to act on his
authority to enforce the ban.
Lauren Ehrsam, a Depart-
ment of Justice spokeswoman,
declined further comment on
the purpose of the letter and
the attorney general’s plans to
address the concerns outlined
in the letter.
Brown’s office did not
respond Tuesday to multiple
messages seeking comment on
the letter.
Sessions wrote almost iden-
tical letters to the governors
of Washington state and Col-
orado, according to a report
by Slate on Monday. Oregon,
Washington state and Colo-
rado represent only three of the
eight states that have legalized
pot for recreational use, rais-
ing the question whether the
federal government plans to
prioritize its resources toward
cracking down on the industry
in those three states.
Only about 30 percent of
marijuana market activity in
Oregon complies with state
regulation, according the Ore-
gon State Police report.
“There is ‘pervasive illicit
Consult
a
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Q: What causes a dry
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cannabis cultivation in the
state … (and) a strong indi-
cation that surplus canna-
bis is not discarded, but is in
fact trafficked out-of-state and
sold for a huge profit mar-
gin,’” Sessions wrote, quoting
the report.
The cost and rate of burn
victims from marijuana oil
extraction labs and marijua-
na-related emergency room
visits have spiked since legal-
ization, he stated.
Meanwhile, underage users
represent a majority of canna-
bis impairment cases on Ore-
gon roadways, according to
drug recognition data from
2013 to 2015, he wrote.
About 63 percent of Ore-
gon adults don’t know whether
it’s legal to drive after using
pot, he added.
A federal task force con-
vened to devise a legal strat-
egy to enforce the federal
ban on cannabis concluded
that the Department of Jus-
tice should continue the policy
of the Obama administration,
according to a Thursday report
by The Associated Press.
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