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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 Brown: Wants to increase Buehler: Would be willing the number of insured adults to support a carbon tax Continued from Page 1A In November, she is up against a moderate Republi- can, state Rep. Knute Buehler of Bend, who she defeated in a 2012 race for secretary of state. As a Democrat, Brown enters the race with an advan- tage among the state’s lib- eral-leaning electorate. Her campaign has focused on her wealth of political experience beginning in 1991 and has sought to discredit Buehler’s claim to support pro-choice policies. In response to Buehler’s outreach to Independents, nonaffiliated voters and even Democrats, Brown has high- lighted the times when she brought conservatives and liberals together to address shared problems. Last year, for instance, she negotiated with Republicans to secure their votes for a $5.3 billion trans- portation package. “I’m the only one in the race that has a track record of bringing Oregonians together to tackle difficult issues facing Oregon,” Brown said during an editorial board meet- ing at Pamplin Media Group this month. “I’m a consensus builder and a collaborator. And that’s the same kind of strate- gies I’ll use if Oregonians give me the opportunity to serve as governor for four more years.” Here are the specifics on where she stands on the issues: Education One of her top priorities for another term is to improve the state’s four-year high school graduation rate. Only 74.8 per- cent of high school seniors earned a diploma in 2016, making Oregon’s the third worst on-time graduation rate in the nation. The first part of her strategy is to follow the statute that voters approved with Measure 98 in 2016. Brown says she will seek to nearly double the investment in high school career and tech- nical education to $300 mil- lion in the next biennium. Sec- ondly, she wants to expand access to prekindergarten pro- grams to an additional 10,000 students. She wants to expand the school year to 180 days. Finally, she wants to look for ways to improve teachers’ access to professional develop- ment and mentoring. Health care Another of her priorities is to increase the number of insured adults from 94 percent to 99 percent and insured chil- dren from over 98 percent to 100 percent. Housing and homelessness Brown has pledged to request $370 million from the Legislature for affordable housing incentives and hous- ing assistance in the next two years. Since she became gov- ernor, lawmakers have allo- cated $300 million to assist in building affordable units, homelessness prevention pro- grams and rental assistance. Oregon Housing and Commu- nity Services has awarded sub- sidies and tax credits to build about 15,000 units in the past three years. Gun control Next year, Brown plans to again introduce legislation to prohibit transfer of a firearm for 10 business days if the Ore- gon State Police is unable to determine whether the recip- ient is eligible to receive the weapon. The proposal is known as closing the “Charles- ton loophole.” She supports raising the legal age from 18 to 21 to purchase an assault rifle and a ban on bump stocks. Environment The governor supports and her staffers are active in help- ing to craft legislation to create what is known as a cap-and- trade program called “Clean Energy Jobs.” Cap-and-trade programs set an allowance, or a cap, for the amount of carbon dioxide industry can emit free of charge. Any business that released more than that amount would be required to buy credits at auction to off- set emissions. The proceeds of those purchases would go toward investing in projects aimed at stemming climate change. She also was a player in passing the state’s Low Car- bon Fuels Standard to reduce the intensity of carbon in fuel and the statewide plan to grad- ually abandon coal-generated electricity. Public Employees Retirement System Public employers are in heavy debt over the state’s generous public retirement benefits. Brown has spear- headed some modest changes to the pension system, such as incentives for public employ- ers to pay off debt, but none so far have made a significant impact on the state’s $25 bil- lion unfunded future obliga- tion to retirees. Brown said she wants cov- ered workers to have “skin in the game,” and noted that after recent rounds of collective bargaining, 98 percent of state workers will pay 6 percent of their salary for their pension side accounts. That’s known as the “employee contribu- tion,” but had long been paid by the state. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter. Continued from Page 1A partisan labels” that have increasingly polarized the nation. “Oregon is hungry for an independent-minded leader who is able to close a lot of these divides … and is a gov- ernor for everyone no matter who you are, where you live, who you love or even how you are registered to vote,” he said during a recent editorial board meeting of the Pamplin Media Group. Since his election to the state House in 2014, Bue- hler has voted both with and against his party. This is the second time he has challenged Kate Brown for state office. That last time they faced off was for secre- tary of state in 2012, a race won by the Democrat. Here are the specifics on where he stands on the issues: Education Buehler released an ambi- tious outline earlier this year to boost the state’s public edu- cation system from bottom five among the states to the top five in five years. Health care Buehler, an orthopedic surgeon, has pledged to pro- tect Oregonians from fed- eral cuts to the Medicaid pro- gram, which provides health care subsidies for low-income residents, and to advance the state’s innovative coordinated care organizations. He said he wants to integrate men- tal health care into the Ore- gon Health Plan — the state’s version of Medicaid — and in health care delivered by those CCOs. He says he supports a woman’s right to choose but has been criticized for voting against the state’s Reproduc- tive Health Equity Act, which bans a co-payment for repro- ductive health care and also requires the Oregon Health Plan to provide that care to undocumented without charge. residents, ble to receive the weapon. The proposal is known as closing the “Charleston loophole.” Housing and homelessness Buehler has proposed cre- ating 4,000 emergency shelter beds statewide to get home- less residents off the streets, partly with state funding and partly with federal and phil- anthropic contributions. He supports measures to fast- track housing development and offer property tax abate- ment to incentivize the con- struction of affordable units. He also is a proponent of tweaks to the state’s land use laws to make it easier to build affordable housing in areas that are now outside the urban growth boundary. Gun control Buehler supports a ban on bump stocks and raising the legal age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. In 2017, he voted for Brown’s legislation to con- fiscate firearms from domes- tic abusers. He voted against a bipar- tisan bill designed to pre- vent suicides and other gun violence by creating a way to petition the courts to tem- porarily confiscate a fire- arm from a family member or loved one who is at risk of harming others or themselves. “ … if you are going to take away someone’s funda- mental right in regards to the Second Amendment, in my opinion, they need due pro- cess,” Buehler said. “They need to have their time in court, too, to make their case why they shouldn’t have their firearm taken from them, and most other states have that due process component in the legislation.” He also opposed a pro- posal by Brown to prohibit the transfer of a firearm for 10 business days if Oregon State Police are unable to determine whether the recipient is eligi- Environment Buehler opposed a pro- posed cap-and-trade program in Oregon earlier this year but says he would be will- ing to support a carbon tax to address climate change. Cap-and-trade programs set an allowance, or a cap, for the amount of carbon diox- ide industry can emit free- of-charge. Any business that released more than that amount would be required to buy credits at auction to offset its emissions. The proceeds of those purchases would go toward investing in projects aimed at stemming climate change. Buehler says he opposed that plan because the revenue went to the Department of Environmental Quality rather than bolstering the state’s general fund. He voted for the state’s Low Carbon Fuels Standard to reduce the intensity of car- bon in fuel in 2015 and for a statewide plan to gradually abandon coal-generated elec- tricity in 2016. Public Employees Retirement System Buehler says he would move the pension program’s $25 billion in unfunded obli- gations to retirees to the top of his agenda. “I won’t sign any new spending bills until I have a PERS reform bill on my desk,” he said. Reforms he would like to see would cap annual payouts to future retir- ees at $100,000 per year; require public employees to contribute to their retirement fund; and transition the pen- sion plan to a 401(k) retire- ment plan. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter. A RE Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving into phase two of a plan to control cormo- rants on East Sand Island. Cormorants: Observers have not recorded any issues with the island colony this year Continued from Page 1A The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing a proposal from the Army Corps to excavate portions of the island and make other changes to further restrict where the birds can build nests. A large Caspian tern col- ony on the island has long been managed by limiting the amount of quality nesting hab- itat available. “The whole point of our phase two activities is to lean toward a long-term solution that limits the need for human presence out there that could cause dispersal for the birds or disruption,” said Kris Light- ner, an environmental special- ist with the Army Corps. This year, the Corps’ con- tractors tried to keep the sea- sonal double-crested cormo- rant nesting on one side of a privacy fence. The agency also received a permit to destroy up to 500 double-crested cormorant eggs this year in an effort to further reduce the massive colony. In prior years — over objec- tions and legal challenges by environmental and conserva- tion groups — contractors shot adult birds. As of mid-September, the Army Corps had only taken three eggs, all from nests built on the wrong side of the fence. It is possible the agency may request another permit from the U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service to allow con- tractors to destroy eggs next year, too, but the Corps has not made a firm decision yet. The Corps typically requests a renewal of the depredation permit in January, said Miel Corbett, a spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife Service. Double-crested cormo- rants abandoned the island and their nests in 2016 and 2017 — years when contractors were shooting adult birds. These events prompted the Audubon Society of Portland to demand that the Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice not issue a depredation permit to the Corps earlier this year until there could be a thorough investigation into why the birds left. At the time, the Army Corps blamed bald eagles and potentially other predators for the disturbances. But, later, they also looked into the pos- sibility that people working on or around the island as well as the culling caused the cormo- rants to leave the island. “We don’t have any way to firmly say one specific action caused the abandonment,” Lightner said. Observers on the island have not recorded any issues with the double-crested cor- morant colony this year. Reports note the progression from the arrival of cormo- rants on the island to breed- ing and nesting behavior and the appearance of eggs then chicks. By mid-August, a mix of small, younger double-crested cormorant chicks and larger, older chicks were seen on the island. Another thing the Army Corps knows for certain is that contractors monitoring the col- ony are seeing even more cor- morants nesting on the Astoria Bridge. Cormorants often nest on the bridge, but observers counted a population boom there in 2016 and 2017. Where people were used to seeing an average of 75 to 100 nests each season, they found around 600 at one count in 2016. “This colony has doubled or nearly doubled in size every year since (double-crested cor- morants) began nesting here and it looks like that pattern will continue,” Lightner said. It is possible the Oregon Department of Transporta- tion will have to get a per- mit to remove nests and eggs in several years to complete scheduled maintenance on the bridge. YOU TURNING 65 OR WILL YOU SOON BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR M EDICARE ? Then you’re eligible to enroll in either a Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan. Clatsop Health & Life Insurance Agency can help you navigate all of your options. Clatsop Health & Life Insurance Agency offers all Medicare Advantage options available in Clatsop County. Medicare Advantage Medicare Supplement Part D Prescription Drug Coverage Already signed up with a Medicare Supplement? Under The Birthday Rule you have an annual, thirty day window that allows you to review your supplement options and change plans, starting on your birthday. We are a local agency Going with a local agent who’s familiar with Clatsop County doctors and medical facilities insures you’re getting the plan that works best with your medical care providers and you’ll always have someone to meet with, face to face, should any questions or concerns arise. Call Candi Vanderburg or Hamil Brown at 503 325 0154 to set an appointment. There’s no obligation and no additional charge for our services. -In downtown Astoria- Clatsop Health & Life Insurance Agency 960 Commercial St., Astoria, OR 97103 503 325 0154
