3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018
Brown plans to address property tax system
Governor will
work with
lawmakers
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — Gov. Kate
Brown says she plans to work
with state lawmakers in 2019
to craft a ballot referral to
reform the state’s property tax
system.
Brown made the comment
at the Portland City Club’s
Friday Forum at the Sentinel
Hotel in downtown Friday in
answer to a question from for-
mer Portland Commissioner
Steve Novick.
“The taxes we pay are
based largely on what a house
was worth in 1995 rather than
what it’s worth today,” Novick
said. “That means the people in
recently gentrified areas, like
inner east Portland, are paying
low property taxes, whereas
people in ungentrified areas,
like far east Portland, are pay-
ing high property taxes.” Are
you planning to work with Sen.
(Mark) Hass in 2019 to craft a
measure to send to the voters to
address this inequity?”
Brown responded that
while voters need some edu-
cation on how the property tax
system works, she “would love
to have the ongoing property
tax conversation in the state
again.”
State Sen. Hass, D-Beaver-
ton, chairman of the Senate
Finance and Revenue Com-
mittee, proposed addressing
the property tax system in bills
filed in 2015 and 2017. He said
he is uncertain whether he’ll
propose a third iteration of the
legislation in 2019.
To date, Brown has placed
other priorities over property
tax reform and other problem-
Jaime Valdez/Portland Tribune
Gov. Kate Brown answers questions at the Portland City
Club’s Friday Forum at the Sentinel Hotel.
atic areas in the state tax code,
Hass said.
She has called a special ses-
sion for Monday to expand a
business tax break, after she
received heat for signing a bill
earlier this year that denied
Oregon businesses a 20-per-
cent tax break written into fed-
eral tax reform.
Hass said he could think
of at least three other tax code
problems that are more crucial
to fix, including property tax
reform.
Some of his tax reform pro-
posals have “always been just
beyond arm’s reach because
more pressing needs come up,”
he said.
“I wish the governor was
calling a special session to
address these other tax issues
because they’re a much bigger
problem.”
The state property tax sys-
tem, for instance, is in a state
of collapse, Hass said.
“When you have some-
one who pays twice what their
neighbor pays for the same
house and that person says,
‘This isn’t fair. I’m not paying
it.’ It’s something that happens
in third-world countries, but
I’d like to think it’s not some-
thing that happens in Oregon.”
Voters must ultimately vote
to change the property tax
code, as it was written into the
Oregon Constitution.
Measure 50, approved in
1997, enacted a permanent
operating rate limit for all
existing tax districts.
The rate was calculated
largely by combining exist-
ing local tax levies. The tax
rates cannot be changed by any
action of the tax district and
have remained stagnant since
1997, despite a burgeoning
state economy in the past cou-
ple of years.
The complexity of the
state’s tax system is one of the
challenges to passing a voter
referral to reform it, lending
credence to the governor’s
assertion that voters need more
education before taking a vote.
One option is to propose a
referral that simply asks voters
whether they want an equitable
tax system, Hass said. If voters
affirm that, then the state courts
and the Legislature could pass
policies to reform it.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Search called off for missing fisherman Cannon Beach city
attorney steps down
Associated Press and
Chinook Observer
OCEAN PARK, Wash. —
The U.S. Coast Guard on Sun-
day called off the search for a
man missing after his 43-foot
fishing vessel sank in Willapa
Bay.
Responders
searched
through the night after the
man’s wife reported him over-
due on Saturday. They found
an oil sheen and eventually
the boat, but there was no sign
of him.
The state Department of
Ecology said Sunday divers
were planning to try to block
the vessel’s vents to keep oil
from leaking out and to put a
tracker on the wreck, because
it’s been pushed around by the
tide.
The Coast Guard said the
vessel reportedly could have
been carrying up to 500 gal-
lons of diesel fuel.
Kevin Soule, the skipper of
the Kelli J, is believed to have
been pulling crab pots at the
time of the accident.
Port of Peninsula Manager
Jay Personius confirmed Sun-
day afternoon that Soule was
at the helm Saturday and is
thought to have been the only
person on board.
Sunday afternoon, the Kelli
J was found submerged in the
waters between Oysterville
Sea Farms and Bay Center,
according to the port and other
sources. Efforts to recover
the vessel are complicated by
swift currents in the area. Wil-
lapa Bay largely empties and
refills each tide cycle, gener-
ating intense water velocities.
His wife reported Soule
overdue after he didn’t return
to port by noon Saturday,
according to the Coast Guard.
Kevin Soule is married to
Heather Unruh Soule, man-
ager of Long Beach KeyBank.
The couple have two daugh-
ters, ages 10 and 6. The Soules
are a well-known multigener-
ational fishing family on the
bay.
The Kelli J, a fiber-
glass-hulled vessel built in
1977, is registered to Shoal-
water Seafoods LLC of Long
Beach, which is owned by
Soule, according to public
records.
1 dead, 1 injured in cougar attack in Washington
Associated Press
NORTH BEND, Wash.
— One man was killed and
another seriously injured
when they encountered a cou-
gar Saturday while mountain
biking in Washington state,
officials said.
Authorities said the two
men were on a morning bike
ride in the foothills near
North Bend when the attack
occurred. The town is about
30 miles east of Seattle.
The mountain lion ran into
the woods and officers with
the Washington Department
of Fish and Game later tracked
it down and shot and killed it,
said Capt. Alan Myers of the
state’s Fish & Wildlife Police.
The 31-year-old survi-
vor was taken to a hospital in
Seattle. He was initially listed
in serious condition in the
emergency room but was alert
and talking; his condition was
later upgraded to satisfactory,
The Seattle Times reported.
A search and rescue team
was dispatched to recover the
body of the dead man.
KIRO-TV reported that
the injured man called 911
shortly before 11 a.m. and
shouted, “Can you hear me?
Help!” and then the call hung
up.
Authorities found the cou-
gar standing over the body
of the dead biker, the station
reported.
It wasn’t immediately
clear if the two victims were
biking together or separately.
In the last 100 years in
North America, roughly
25 fatalities and 95 nonfa-
tal cougar attacks have been
reported, the Washington
Department of Fish & Wild-
life said, but there was only
one other fatal attack in the
state. However, more attacks
have been reported in the
western United States and
Canada over the past 20 years
than in the previous 80 years.
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Cannon Beach City Attor-
ney Tammy Herdener has
announced her resignation,
citing her desire for a career
change and to spend more
time with family.
Herdener, who has
worked for the city since
2007, will be leaving this
July to invest more time as a
professor at American Pub-
lic University, a job she has
held with the online institu-
tion since 2003.
Living in Portland,
Herdener also said balanc-
ing commutes to Cannon
Beach with family time was
getting more difficult. “This
is a part of a larger career
change I’ve wanted to do,”
Herdener said. “I want to
focus more on my students
Serving
Breakfast
and Lunch
Eagle Creek Fire perpetrator fined
$36.6 million for devastating blaze
By AMELIA
TEMPLETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The judge in the Eagle
Creek Fire case has ordered the
15-year-old boy who admitted
starting the blaze to pay $36.6
million in restitution.
A lawyer for the Vancou-
ver, Washington, teen had
argued that amount was uncon-
stitutional given the teen’s age
and described the $36 million
requested by prosecutors as
“absurd.”
Judge John Olson disagreed.
“In short, I’m satisfied that
the restitution ordered in this
case bears a sufficient rela-
tionship to the gravity of the
offenses for which the youth
was adjudicated,” Olson wrote
in a decision released this
morning. “The juvenile resti-
tution framework is rationally
related to the juvenile delin-
quency goals of ‘personal
responsibility,
accountabil-
ity and reformation within the
context of public safety.’ Given
the statutory safety valves, I
am satisfied that the restitu-
tion scheme does not ‘shock
the moral sense of reasonable
people.’”
Olson ordered the boy,
whose name has not been made
public, to repay nine parties
a total of $36.6 million. The
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation and the U.S. For-
est Service are the largest pay-
ees at $12.5 million and $21.1
million.
The judge asked the Hood
River Juvenile Department to
set up a payment plan. Olson
did note in his ruling that
the boy can ask the courts to
declare his debt repaid after 10
years if he’s kept up his pay-
ments and done everything
the court has demanded of him
during that period. The boy,
who pleaded guilty, has also
been sentenced to five years of
probation and 1,900 hours of
community service.
The Eagle Creek Fire began
with a firecracker thrown into
a canyon. It burned nearly
47,000 acres in the Columbia
River Gorge.
Happy Birthday
Diane!
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
LEWIS & CLARK
TIMBERLANDS
Recreational Access
Permit Public Notice
All recreational
activities on Lewis
& Clark Timberlands
Oregon will require
a no fee recreational
permit effective
June 1, 2018
To acquire a permit (available 5/21/18): Go
online to greenwoodresources.com and click
on Recreation Access, or Scan the QR code
using your smartphone at one of our access
gate signs. Call 503.755.6655 for recorded
information.
Our goal is to provide a quality recreational
experience while improving communications
with our timberland visitors.
and my family.”
During her time in Can-
non Beach, Herdener over-
saw transitions between
three
city
managers,
helped navigate local mar-
ijuana ordinance changes
after legalization and
played an integral role in
the purchase of the 800-
acre Ecola Creek Forest
Reserve.
Herdener said she is
grateful for her time in Can-
non Beach, and looks fondly
upon her memories with
numerous city councilors
and staff.
“This job has been inter-
esting and challenging. I’m
leaving only on the most
positive of terms and feel-
ings,” she said.
The city has posted the
job opening and hopes to
hire a new attorney by the
end of June.
Breakfast
Omelets
Skillets
Specials
French Toast
Waffles
Pancakes
Summer
Hours
Open at 4 am
Winter Hours
Open at 6 am
We’
re
Ope
n!
Lunch
Sandwiches (Hot & Cold)
Wraps
Baskets
Burgers
Pasta
Soup & Salad
303 1st Avenue South,
Ilwaco, Washington
360-777-3740
travsplace.net