TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016
140th Year, No. 157
72
51
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
FIRE BURNS 3,000 ACRES NEAR HERMISTON
PENDLETON
SHINES AT
STATE
TRACK&FIELD/1B
ANALYSIS
Tax could
raise $6B,
‘dampen’
growth
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
A proposed tax on the
sales of large businesses
would generate more than
$6 billion in biennial state
revenue starting in 2017-
19, but it also would slow
income, employment and
population growth during the
next fi ve years, according to
a state analysis of the initia-
tive.
The report projects that the
tax, which likely will be on
the November general elec-
tion ballot, would amount to
a $600 per capita increase in
state taxes each year. The tax
would reduce private-sector
employment from what
otherwise would occur, while
it would increase the number
of government jobs. The net
reduction in employment —
private and public — would
be about 20,000 statewide
by 2022, according to the
analysis.
“We don’t have any delu-
sions. We know this won’t
be the fi nal word on it,”
Legislative Revenue Offi cer
Paul Warner said Monday
morning. “We know there
will be a lot more work and
analysis to do, but hopefully
this will be a starting point.”
Known as Initiative Peti-
tion 28 (IP 28), the proposed
See TAX/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Hermiston Fire brush truck heads towards a fl areup while fi ghting a wildfi re along the eastern boundary of the Umatilla Chemical Depot
on Monday west of Hermiston.
BURLY BLAZE
CHARS DEPOT
Causes wrecks on I-82
East Oregonian
A large, fast-moving brush fi re swept across
the Umatilla Chemical Depot west of Hermiston
Monday morning, burning two buildings and
causing a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 82
that injured four people.
Fire departments from around the region
responded and worked into the afternoon to
knock down the fi re, which burned over the top
of the hundreds of cement igloos that once held
munitions. Two buildings also were destroyed in
the blaze.
Smoke from the fi re limited visibility, causing
a crash involving four motorcycles, a Mini
Cooper, an SUV and a sedan.
There were multiple injuries, but the extent is
unknown. The four motorcyclists were traveling
together from Tacoma, Washington.
A LifeFlight helicopter fl ew one victim from
the scene and ambulances took three other
injured parties to Good Shepherd in Hermiston.
As bystanders and later fi rst responders
worked to take care of the injured, fl ames fl ared
up multiple times along the side of the road, at
one point jumping the interstate and burning the
sagebrush in the median where the crash scat-
tered debris. All four lanes were closed to traffi c
for several hours.
Hermiston Fire & Emergency Services was
the lead agency on the fi re and reported on social
media that crews “engaged in burn out opera-
tions” to try to contain south and north fl anks of
the fi re.
Smoke drifted into Hermiston, and the
Hermiston fi re department urged anyone with
breathing diffi culties to keep windows closed
See DEPOT/8A
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
First responders work on a victim of a crash involv-
ing multiple motorcycles and vehicles, including
the Mini Cooper in the foreground, on Interstate
82 Monday morning while a haze of smoke from a
nearby brush fi re lingers over the scene.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Traffi c stands still in the southbound lane of
Interstate 82 after a wreck near a wildfi re on the
Umatilla Army Depot on Monday west of Hermiston.
A camera
and a
first aid kit
A
s I stood on the side of
Interstate 82 Monday
morning, a camera in one
hand and a fi rst aid kit in the other, I
had a choice to make.
Smoke fi lled my eyes and nose
from the fi re moving quickly through
the brush behind me, while in front
of me lay debris
and victims from
a multi-car, multi-
motorcycle crash. As
a reporter, I should
have been walking
around snapping
photos the moment I
left my car.
Jade
But this was
McDowell different than the
Comment
other crashes I’ve
covered in my
years as a reporter, my notebook and
camera forming an invisible barrier
between me and the trauma of the
scene. This scene wasn’t nicely
secure — cordoned off with caution
tape, its victims hidden from view
by a bevy of paramedics who arrived
before me thanks to their lights and
sirens. This time I was there fi rst.
I didn’t mean to be. I was just
driving down the interstate, looking
for a vantage point to get some photos
of the brush fi re burning through the
former Umatilla Chemical Depot.
Suddenly, I couldn’t see anything
but smoke.
The back of a semi-truck appeared
in front of me.
I swerved, but immediately there
was a motorcycle on its side in front
of me, its owner face down on the
road and men running to his aid.
See REPORTER/8A
Lawmakers hear Owyhee monument arguments
Supporters, opponents testify during hearing in Salem
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Bureau
Mateusz Perkowski/EO Media Group
Elias Eiguren, a rancher from Oregon’s
Malheur County, speaks against the
proposed 2.5 million acre Owyhee
Canyonlands national monument during a
press conference on May 23.
SALEM — Advocates and
opponents of a proposed 2.5
million-acre national monument
in Eastern Oregon tried to enlist
the support of state lawmakers
during a recent legislative
hearing.
The two sides are mounting
competing public relations
campaigns to infl uence the
possible designation of the
Owyhee Canyonlands National
Monument, which will ulti-
mately be decided by President
Barack Obama.
Critics say the area is bigger
than the Yellowstone, Yosemite
or Grand Canyon national parks
and would cover 40 percent of
Malheur County.
Ranchers and other natural
resource users in the region
have objected to the proposal,
fearing the establishment of a
national monument will entail
new regulations on public land
and invite additional environ-
mental lawsuits.
“We see it as a rash and
somewhat of a belligerent move
to force a monument in this
area,” rancher Elias Eiguren
told the House Committee on
Rural Communities, Land Use
and Water on May 23.
While grazing could theo-
retically continue within the
national monument, the details
of livestock management within
its boundaries would surely
be subject to costly litigation,
Eiguren said.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario,
questioned why it’s necessary to
designate the area as a national
monument when it’s already
protected under several federal
environmental laws as a prop-
erty of the U.S. Bureau of Land
See OWYHEE/8A