WILLAPA BAY: OYSTER GROWERS SUFFER SETBACK ON PESTICIDE •
145TH YEAR, NO. 201
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018
PAGE 2A
ONE DOLLAR
SOARING HIGH
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Christopher Avery clears the bar for Seaside during the pole vault event on Monday in the Daily Astorian Invitational track meet in Seaside. See the story and
more photos in Sports on Page 10A.
County weighs marijuana sales tax
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County voters may have
the option in November to place a
tax on retail marijuana sales.
County commissioners will hold
the first reading Wednesday of an
ordinance that would impose a 3
percent tax on sales. Staff estimates
the tax, applied to three dispensaries
outside city limits, would generate
$50,000 in revenue annually.
County Manager Cameron
Moore likened the social costs of
legal marijuana to substances like
alcohol and tobacco, which often
have “sin taxes” applied to them.
The revenue could go toward public
health and safety services.
When Oregon voters legal-
ized recreational marijuana sales in
2014, the state imposed a 17 per-
cent sales tax and gave cities and
counties the option to add an addi-
tional 3 percent if approved by vot-
ers. The county considered the tax
in 2016, but no recreational dispen-
saries existed outside city limits at
the time.
The affected dispensaries are
located on U.S. Highways 26 and
30, meaning a large portion of cus-
tomers are passers-by, said Nick
Clark, owner of Nature’s Choice in
Westport. Most cities and counties
in the state have similar taxes.
“They’re not coming from out
of the area for 3 percent savings,”
Clark said.
The 14 licensed marijuana retail-
ers in the county — 11 of which are
located in Astoria, Seaside and Can-
non Beach — sold more than $8
million in products last year, part of
a $520 million statewide haul.
While the taxes are fair, they can
sometimes give black-market deal-
ers an unfair advantage, said Don
Morse, director of the Oregon Can-
nabis Business Council.
“Right out of the gate, we have
20 percent more in expenses while
the guy on the black market does
not,” Morse said. But, “I think the
taxes in this case are put to good
use. If you’re going to tax, at least
it’s for the right purpose.”
If Wednesday’s hearing is con-
tinued, a second hearing would be
held at a future meeting. Commis-
sioners may then place the poten-
tial ordinance on the November bal-
lot. If approved, he taxes would be
effective 30 days after the election.
Megabucks?
Try your luck in
Jackson County
EO Media Group
A review shows where Mega-
bucks winners bought their tick-
ets and how they chose numbers.
A majority of winners — 25 —
bought tickets outside of the Port-
land metro area. Only 17 tickets in
that five-year period were sold at
By PARIS ACHEN
stores in the Portland metro area,
Capital Bureau
including Portland, Milwaukie,
Beaverton and Sherwood.
PORTLAND — In the past five
In the metro area, Portland — the
years, 24 tickets in Oregon have state’s population center — unsur-
won the Megabucks grand prize. In prisingly had the greatest number
some cases, winners had to share of winning tickets — nine in those
five years. Beaverton had four, Mil-
the $1 million or greater payout.
People who bought tickets in waukie, two, and Sherwood, two.
Salem, the state’s sec-
Jackson County had the
ond largest city, had five
best luck, according to a
winners — one each year.
review by the EO Media
out of
Eugene — the state’s
Group/Pamplin
Media
third largest city — had
Group Capital Bureau of
no winners during that
addresses where winning
Megabucks
five-year period, though
tickets were sold.
Quick Pick tickets — winners were neighboring Springfield
in which numbers are bought outside had one.
Interestingly, 2014 was
randomly generated by a of the Portland
metro area.
a lucky year for Jackson
computer at the store —
County. That year, only
were more likely to win
than when players selected their tickets sold at two separate stores
own numbers. Only five out of 42 in Medford and at the Albertsons in
winners in the past five years had Ashland won the grand prize.
In the five-year period, Albany,
manually-selected numbers. Three
were unknown, and the other 37
See LOTTERY, Page 4A
were Quick Pick tickets.
Not much joy on
the North Coast
25
42
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Emergency blankets and medical kits were offered as raffle prizes at
the emergency preparedness town hall in Gearhart.
In Gearhart, relying on
neighbors after disaster
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — As Marty
McCullough scanned a table filled
with makeshift toilets and water fil-
tration systems, she couldn’t help but
wish her neighbors were by her side.
McCullough was one of the doz-
ens of people who attended an emer-
gency preparedness town hall in
Gearhart on Saturday. The event,
organized by the Community Emer-
gency Response Team at the fire
hall, featured a panel of speakers
who addressed topics like emergency
communications, go-bags, sanitation
in a crisis and other tools.
It was the first time McCullough,
who has owned a home in Gearhart
for five years, had ever attended an
emergency preparedness event. But
after some troublesome conversations
with her neighbors, she felt com-
pelled not only to come to prepare
herself, but to convince her neighbor-
hood to do the same.
“A lot of our neighbors are older,
and they’re simply not worried about
(a tsunami),” she said. “I guess I just
See GEARHART, Page 4A