Thursday, June 16, 2016
OFF PAGE ONE
TAX: Paciic Power says they would have to raise rates Orlando gunman
Page 8A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
they do here but pay taxes
that are so low — the lowest
in the country — that our
schools and critical services
are badly underfunded,” their
website states.
Hart said far more than
1,051 businesses will be
affected, however, by the
“pyramid” effect of the tax. A
restaurant may not have more
than $25 million in sales, she
said, but still be hit by higher
prices on utilities, ingredients
and equipment they purchase
from companies that do fall
under IP28.
The Legislative Revenue
Ofice’s report estimates the
law will result in 38,200 jobs
lost in the private sector but
17,700 added in the public
sector, for a net decrease of
20,500 jobs statewide.
A list of businesses that
will be taxed is not public
record, but Paciic Power has
already stated publicly that it
would see its tax bill raised
by $40 million per year and
would have to raise rates 3-4
percent to cover the cost.
The gross receipts tax
proposed in IP28 is not a
“sales tax” in the traditional
sense of the word. Consumers
will not see, for example, a
ive cent tax added directly to
their $2 gallon of milk. But if
the farm where the milk was
produced, the plant where the
milk was packaged and the
store where the milk was sold
are class C corporations with
at least $25 million gross
sales, they will each have to
hand over 2.5 percent of their
sales to the government — in
effect taxing the same milk
multiple times.
Hart pointed out that the
tax is on sales, not proit,
which means that a business
must pay the same amount
whether it is making huge
proits or losing money.
She said that IP28 is being
marketed as an increase in
money for schools, seniors
and health care, but once the
money is in the general fund
it can be used for anything.
“There’s no plan, no
accountability for how that
money will be spent,” she
said. “In the bigger picture,
I couldn’t agree more that
schools need more money,
but tax policy does not
belong on a ballot measure.”
The coalitions being
formed on both sides of IP28
show the ballot measure
is shaping up to be a ight
between public employee
unions and businesses. But
Hermiston assistant city
manager Mark Morgan was
at Wednesday’s meeting and
said some public employers
also have reservations about
the initiative. He said the
tax hike could be passed
on through higher prices
from contractors completing
multimillion dollar projects
like the new wastewater
treatment plant and airport
taxiway realignment.
“We’d be paying for this
tax, ultimately,” he said.
A report from Oregon’s
Ofice of Economic Anal-
ysis, obtained in draft form
and published online by The
Oregonian, estimates that the
average Oregon-based corpo-
ration affected currently pays
$200,000 in taxes but will
see their tax raised to $2.2
million by IP28, while the
average qualifying business
based outside of Oregon pays
$300,000 under current law
and would pay $3 million
under IP28.
A Class C Corporation is
taxed on its net income and
then shareholders are taxed
separately on distributions.
An alternative is to become
an S corporation, which sees
its proits taxed just once,
at the shareholder level. C
corporations can convert to
an S corporation, but only
if they have fewer than 100
shareholders.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
SCHOOLS: District already moving into the new schools
Continued from 1A
about the place. Ponder
said Demianew wasn’t the
only one to stand and relive
memories.
“There’s been a lot of
nostalgia from the commu-
nity,” Ponder said.
He said the interior of
the school is packed with
good-bye messages from
students, teachers and staff.
Ponder led the way into the
other end of the school and
the wing’s yet-to-be-de-
molished classrooms. The
messages covered every wall,
some scrawled, some neatly
“Elementary schools are special
places,” Demianew said. “It’s where
people ind out who they are.”
— Chris Demianew, Sherwood Heights graduate
penned, but all expressing
sadness and appreciation
for the old school and the
memories created there.
In one irst-grade class-
room, a student had drawn a
big heart and written inside,
“I will miss this school really
much — I love this school.
But then we’ll go to the new
school.”
Recent Pendleton High
School graduate Patrick
Cahill had penned, “This is
where I began…”
The same nostalgia,
Ponder said, covers walls at
Washington Elementary.
Ponder said the school
district is already moving
into the brand-new schools
next door to the old ones.
Demianew said the loss of
Sherwood is bittersweet. He
turned his eyes to the pristine
new building and smiled.
“It’s hard to feel too sad
when you look over there at
that beautiful, much-needed
new facility,” he said.
But still, it is worth taking
a moment or two to relect
on the past.
“Elementary schools are
special places,” Demianew
said. “It’s where people ind
out who they are.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
WAGE: Delivery workers will be paid the rate of where they report
Continued from 1A
The
Legislature
in
February boosted minimum
wage rates and set a
schedule for increases with
three different regional
rates, based in part on the
area’s cost of living and
income levels. Proposed
rules that deined location of
itinerant employees required
employers to pay different
rates if an employee worked
in a different region for four
hours or more.
Business groups opposed
the rules because they said
it required onerous record-
keeping.
Under the inal rules, no
additional recordkeeping is
required for most employers,
said Charlie Burr, labor
bureau spokesman. When an
employee works in multiple
regions the majority of the
time, the employer may
choose whether to pay the
employee the highest rate or
to track the employee’s hours
by location and pay them
different rates according to
where they worked.
Delivery workers who
report to and from the same
location will be paid the rate
of the region where they
report.
Betsy Earls, vice presi-
dent and counsel of Asso-
ciated Oregon Industries,
said the inal rules are an
improvement from what
was originally proposed,
but the guidelines still have
shortcomings.
“Those are huge strides,
so much better,” Earls said.
Earls
argued
that
lawmakers
intended
employer location to mean
the location where the
employee reports to work,
rather than different pay
based on where employees
go during the day.
She said exempting
delivery workers and not
other workers that work in
multiple locations from the
rules doesn’t make sense.
“There
is
nothing
discernible about delivery
workers except that they
drop things off,” Earls said.
“Those companies have to
track hour by hour. That is
pretty tough, and I don’t
the distinction is defensible.
What if they’re picking
things up instead of drop-
ping things off?”
The labor bureau will
hold a series of seminars to
help employers comply with
the new rules.
The irst-of-its-kind law
takes effect July 1, bumping
up the state’s minimum
wage from $9.25 to $9.75
statewide.
In 2017, wage increases
will diverge according to
region.
The minimum gradually
climbs to $14.75 in 2022 in
the Portland urban growth
boundary, which includes
parts of Multnomah, Wash-
ington and Clackamas coun-
ties. It will rise to $13.50 in
Benton, Clatsop, Columbia,
Deschutes, Hood River,
Jackson, Josephine, Lane,
Lincoln, Linn, Marion,
Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and
Yamhill counties, and parts
of Multnomah, Clackamas
and Washington counties
outside Portland’s urban
growth boundary.
In rural areas, the wage
increases to $12.50. Those
areas include Malheur, Lake,
Harney, Wheeler, Sherman,
Gilliam, Wallowa, Grant,
Jefferson, Baker, Union,
Crook, Klamath, Douglas,
Coos, Curry, Umatilla and
Morrow counties.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
DAM: Project would power an estimated 500 homes annually
Continued from 1A
Boris Belchoff, Umatilla
Field Ofice manager for
the Bureau of Reclamation,
said hydro power at McKay
Dam is a tricky proposition.
Generally speaking, the
agency can’t vary the amount
of water it is contracted to
release through the year.
Once irrigation season ends,
Belchoff said they release just
10 cubic feet per second of
water to ensure the reservoir
ills again by next year.
“That 10 cfs is not a whole
lot of water,” Belchoff said.
“It wouldn’t be a suficient
volume for most hydro
plants.”
But Hampton said the
dam would only operate from
April through October, when
the releases are high enough
to churn out electricity. He
estimates the annual genera-
tion for the project would be
about 5.6 gigawatt-hours, or
enough power for about 500
homes.
“It’s not a huge project, but
it’s a nice little development
that could make the world a
better place,” he said.
Built between 1923 and
1927, McKay Dam has never
been used for electricity.
The dam has a total storage
capacity of 65,534 acre-feet of
water and serves roughly 70
users downstream, including
the Stanield and Westland
irrigation districts. Some
water rights are left in stream
to beneit native ish, including
salmon and steelhead.
Robert Ross, who works
as an engineer at the Bureau
of Reclamation’s regional
ofice in Boise, said the
project cannot interfere with
those irrigation rights.
“Whatever they do, the
public is not going to see a
difference in the outlow of
the dam,” Ross said.
Hampton said his design
calls for a run-of-the-river
project, which would have no
effect on water released from
the dam. His applications
calls for modifying the dam’s
existing outlet works to divert
water through a hydroelectric
generator, which would be
placed inside a concrete
powerhouse.
Hampton said the noise
generated on site would be
quite low, comparable to that
of an air conditioner. The
company would work with
Paciic Power to upgrade an
existing transmission line at
the site in order to connect
onto the local grid.
Belchoff said it’s still to
be determined if the project is
viable. An initial stakeholder
meeting was held Dec. 1,
2015, which included the
Bureau of Reclamation,
Oregon Department of Fish
& Wildlife, Oregon Water
Resources
Department,
Oregon
Department
of
Environmental Quality and
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Hampton said the permit-
ting process could take
several years, at minimum,
to complete. Field studies are
slated for later this summer.
The project will need to
consider potential impacts to
ish and wildlife at McKay
“Whatever they do, the public is
not going to see a difference in the
outlow of the dam.”
— Robert Ross, engineer at the Bureau of Reclamation’s
regional ofice in Boise
Reservoir, which is home
to species such as perch,
crappie, bullhead catish and
bass. While the project’s
design would not necessarily
increase the number of ish
pulled through the dam, it
could increase mortality since
they would be pulled into the
powerhouse turbine.
McKay Creek from the
dam down to the Umatilla
River is also considered crit-
ical habitat for Mid-Columbia
steelhead, though there is a
barrier that was built in 1995
to keep adult ish from moving
into this stretch of the creek
where they become trapped.
McKay Dam is a complete
barrier to ish passage.
Bill Duke, district ish
biologist for ODFW, said they
will consider what kinds of
mitigation will be included as
part of the project, though it is
still early in the process.
“I think this project and
the application has triggered
a lot more thought about
reopening McKay Creek for
anadromous ish,” Duke said.
Ross said that providing
ish passage at the dam would
be dificult, but not impos-
sible. Hampton, however,
said the cost would far exceed
the cost of the project itself.
He said other possibilities
for mitigation could include
habitat and stream bank
restoration.
“There’s a whole study
process where we’ll sit down
with the state and federal
agencies,” he said. “That is
something that will be nego-
tiated.”
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
See Us for Hearing Tests Every
Monday and Tuesday.
raged against ‘ilthy
ways of the west’
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)
— Orlando gunman Omar
Mateen apparently made
a series of Facebook posts
and searches before and
during his attack on a gay
nightclub, raging against
the “ilthy ways of the west”
and blaming the U.S. for the
deaths of “innocent women
and children,” according to
a Senate committee letter
released Wednesday.
The
killer
whose
rampage left 49 people dead
also searched for “Pulse
Orlando” and “Shooting”
online on the morning of the
carnage Sunday and said on
Facebook: “America and
Russia stop bombing the
Islamic state,” according to
the letter.
The Senate Homeland
Security Committee sent
the letter to Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg, asking
the company to produce
information on Mateen’s
online activity and to provide
a brieing to the panel.
The letter illuminating
Mateen’s state of mind in
the inal hours of his life
was released as the long,
sad procession of memorials
and funerals for the victims
began in Orlando and as the
FBI appealed for the public’s
help in reconstructing the
killer’s movements. The FBI
is also trying to establish
how much Mateen’s wife
may have known about the
attack at Pulse dance club.
“We need your help
in developing the most
complete picture of what he
did and why he did it,” FBI
agent Ron Hopper said at a
news conference.
In its letter, the committee
said staffers have learned
that ive Facebook accounts
were associated with the
29-year-old American-born
Muslim.
“The real muslims will
never accept the ilthy way
of the west,” Mateen wrote,
according to the letter from
committee chairman Sen.
Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin
Republican. Johnson did
not say how he learned
of the posts other than
to
cite
“information
obtained by my staff.”
As he did in his call to
a 911 operator during the
massacre, Mateen pledged
his allegiance on Facebook
to the leader of the Islamic
State and, in his inal post,
warned: “in the next few
days you will see attacks
from the Islamic state in the
USA.”
Despite his professed
loyalty to the extremist
group, the Obama adminis-
tration has said it has seen no
evidence that the shooting
rampage was directed by the
Islamic State.
A spokesman for the
FBI did not immediately
return a call for comment
Wednesday evening, and
Facebook had no immediate
comment.
The three-hour rampage
began at 2 a.m. Sunday and
ended with Mateen being
killed by a police SWAT
team. The FBI said it is still
gathering evidence at the
Pulse and analyzing cell-
phone location data to piece
together Mateen’s activities
leading up to the massacre,
while also interviewing
people who had any dealings
with him.
On Saturday night, hours
before the rampage, Mateen
visited Disney Springs, an
outdoor restaurant, retail
and entertainment complex
at Walt Disney World, an
oficial who was briefed
on the case but insisted on
anonymity to discuss the
continuing investigation told
The Associated Press.
The oficial said it is not
clear what Mateen was up to.
Meanwhile, drag queens
and motorcyclists turned
out to pay their respects
at an evening visitation at
a funeral parlor for Javier
Jorge-Reyes, a 40-year-old
salesman and makeup artist.
Members
of
the
SWAT team underwent
a
stress-management
debrieing Wednesday, as
hundreds of others involved
in the response to the
shooting have done, Orlando
Police Chief John Mina said.
Further counseling is being
made available.
MARIJUANA: Council must
pass a resolution next month
Continued from 1A
she said.
Kerns said state law
prohibits
cities
from
imposing a local tax or
collecting its share of the
state’s 17 percent tax on
marijuana if they ban any
aspect of medical or recre-
ational marijuana sales.
She suggested writing
two questions for the ballot,
a question that covered
sales for both medical and
recreational marijuana and
another that addressed the
tax.
This
news
caused
consternation among some
of the councilors.
Councilor Tom Young
said some council members
had proposed three ballot
questions because they
thought medical marijuana
would have a better chance
of passing than recreational.
Councilor Paul Chalmers
suggested forgoing the tax
altogether, which would
allow the city to pose sepa-
rate questions on medical
and recreational marijuana.
“I think that the tax
piece is a minor piece
when compared to giving
our constituents a voice,”
he said.
Agreeing with Chalmers,
Young said marijuana
voters wouldn’t vote to tax
themselves.
“Let’s just be practical,”
Young said. “If you ask
the two questions, ‘Do
you want to smoke dope?
Do you want to pay tax on
it?’ Duh. I can answer that
right now. … So the tax is
somewhat of a moot point.
They’re going to vote no.”
Despite weighing in on
the issue, Young reiterated
that he would vote against
putting any sort of question
on the ballot because mari-
juana is still illegal under
federal law.
Councilor Chuck Wood
said the local tax was
important because it would
bolster the city’s “dinky”
share of the state tax.
Several
councilors
agreed that they should
speak with an oficial from
the League of Oregon Cities
before they proceed so they
can go over their options.
The
council
can’t
spend too much more
time debating the ballot
questions — Kerns said
the council needs to pass a
resolution next month.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
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