Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 13, 2016
MEASURE 97: One of the most expensive
ballot measure battles in the state’s history
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Locust Mobile Village owner Nancy Shaw speaks with resident Jose Diaz on
Tuesday at the trailer park in Milton-Freewater.
WATER: Shaw says she does not have the
$100K it would cost to build a new well
Continued from 1A
of upkeep or disrepair. The
40 people living at the park
are poor, Shaw said.
She said testing and
monitoring the water is
expensive, and she is facing
state ines each day the water
is unit to consume. But
raising the rent to pay for
water improvements, such
as connecting to the city’s
main water line, would drive
tenants out onto the streets.
Jose Diaz and his wife
and 1-year-old child live at
the park. He said he buys
drinking water from the
grocery store for 40 cents a
gallon.
“I’m used to it by now,”
he said.
His toddler, though,
broke out in red welts after
taking a shower, he said,
which upset his wife. A
doctor recommended they
rub an antihistamine on the
baby.
Diaz called the situation
frustrating and said he would
volunteer his time to build
new tanks or tackle another
solution.
In May, staff with the
Oregon Health Authority
went door-to-door at the
park to notify residents they
must boil their water before
consuming it.
“The chlorination system
that treated the well water
failed,” read the notice.
“Repairs have not been
completed. We will inform
you when tests show no
bacteria and you no longer
need to boil your water.
We have no irm date for
resolving the problem.”
The health authority in
June sent Shaw a seven-
page administrative order,
listing eight violations of
the Oregon Drinking Water
Quality Act and the imme-
diate actions she needs to
take to correct problems
in the disinfection system,
including daily measure-
ments of the chlorine and
repairs to the disinfection
system no later than July 31.
Not meeting the require-
ments results in a ine of $50
per day per violation.
Shaw conirmed the state
continues to ine her.
Bill Goss is the regional
engineer in Pendleton for
the Public Health Division
of the Oregon Health
Authority, which last week
re-published the boil water
notice to remind the park’s
residents. He said if Shaw
repaired the disinfection
system, the state could lift
the boil water notice.
“But that doesn’t resolve
the long-term issues of the
contaminated well itself,”
Goss said. “At this stage, a
new well would be the long-
term solution.”
Building a new well
would cost about $100,000,
Goss said, which is money
Shaw says she doesn’t have.
The state has a revolving
fund that provides low-cost
loans for community water
systems, and in some cases
the state can forgive some
of the loan amount. Goss
said Shaw submitted a letter
expressing interest in a loan.
“We’re in the process
of looking at the letter,” he
said, which will undergo
scoring and ranking before
an invitation to Shaw for a
full application.
Robert Peachey said
he lived at the park before
and has spent the last four
months there. The chlorine
smell is strongest on the east
side of the park, he said, but
it varies day to day. He said
he has not had any problems
with the water and attributed
that to using a food-quality
hose to drink from.
Goss advised against that.
“Only speciic types of
iltration systems would
remove E. coli from the
water, not a hose,” he
said. “In fact, disinfection
systems kill bacteria so they
won’t make you sick, but do
not physically remove them
from the water.”
The park’s most recent
water test sample of Sept.
29 passed, according to the
state’s website for drinking
water data.
“However, we can’t
lift the boil water [notice]
on the basis of that test
result because we know
the disinfection system has
problems,” said Goss.
Shaw in 2013 tried to
use a state abatement law
to compel Milton-Freewater
to annex the trailer park and
other property because of
the harmful bacteria in the
wells. City oficials at the
time argued connecting the
park to the city’s infrastruc-
ture would be more than the
city could afford or local
property owners wanted to
pay. State Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, stepped in and
pushed legislation in 2015
that allowed Milton-Free-
water to stop the annexation,
but continue to address the
lack of drinking water at the
trailer park.
Shaw said the park’s value
is probably close to zero,
given the water problem,
and she is paying back three
years of property taxes after
she tried to sell the park and
had to take it back. Umatilla
County tax records show
that total comes to $12,500.
DEPOT: Originally planned to receive land in 2015
Continued from 1A
Smith said. “44 percent
seems excessive.”
He said it appeared
they thought that since the
National Guard was getting
44 percent of the acreage
in the depot for its training
facility, they should get 44
percent of the water.
“This is coming from
folks who do not understand
Oregon water law or how it is
distributed,” Smith said.
The Columbia Develop-
ment Authority board has
said in the past it doesn’t
make sense to accept the land
unless it had enough water
rights to make it viable for a
range of industrial uses.
Smith said Tom Lederle,
U.S. Army’s Base Realign-
ment and Closure division
chief, was helpful in pushing
back against the 44 percent
idea, and Congressman Greg
Walden and his ofice has
“just been phenomenal” in
working to explain Oregon
water rights to oficials in
Washington. But the issue
has not been resolved.
Michele Lanigan from
the Base Realignment and
Closure’s Umatilla ofice
gave an update on steps being
taken to complete the Army’s
checklist for transfer, noting
that the archeology report
and environmental reports
have been completed and irst
drafts of other reports, such
as the asbestos assessment
and radiation study, are done.
She noted that the CDA
has requested equipment
such as trucks, which it will
inherit with the property but
does not have the current
authority to touch, be moved
indoors to protect them.
However, she said the BRAC
ofice does not have the staff
to move them. When CDA
board member Bill Tovey
asked about contracting that
work to the CDA, she said
it was something that BRAC
would consider.
Lanigan told the board
that the army has been
“tracking a transfer date of
December 2017 and that
hasn’t changed.”
The CDA originally
planned to receive the land
in 2015. That year, the Army
told them to instead plan on
inal conveyance by Nov.
2016. This spring they were
told it wouldn’t happen until
May 2017.
Smith told the board he
would do what he could to
speed up the timeline, in light
of Governor Kate Brown’s
call for a major transportation
funding package during the
2017 legislative session. If
the Army conveys the land to
the CDA in time, the package
of bills could result in the
millions of dollars needed
to redesign the hairpin turns
leading into the depot into
something that leets of
commercial trucks could use
to move.
“There is no way the
Oregon Legislature is going
to allocate millions of dollars
to the U.S. Army,” Smith
said.
During
the
public
comment period, Morrow
County weed control super-
visor Dave Pranger told
the board that there was a
signiicant amount of rush
skeletonweed, a class A
noxious weed, on the depot
land and asked that the board
keep weed control efforts in
mind when it takes custody
of the land.
The board ended the
meeting with an executive
session on litigation iled
or likely to be iled. It did
not take any action after the
session.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
TWO
HOURS
every
morning
paid off
my credit
card debt.
Lawmakers could make
small ixes to the law, such
as repealing exemptions
for beneit companies, or a
complete overhaul such as
replacing the gross receipts
tax with a different corporate
tax scheme.
As long as none of those
proposals raise more money
than Measure 97, the Legis-
lature needs only a simple
majority to approve any
changes, lawmakers said.
As written, the ballot
measure would bolster
state revenue by nearly 30
percent, or an estimated $3
billion annually, and avert a
projected $1.35 billion state
budget shortfall for 2017-19.
Proponents say the
measure would help reverse
a trend in which Oregon
residents pay an increasing
share of state revenue, while
businesses pay less.
Opponents argue the
tax plan raises prices for
consumers and creates ineq-
uity in what different kinds
of corporations are required
to pay in taxes. The measure
would tax only “C” corpora-
tions with an excess of $25
million in annual sales, while
leaving “S” corporations
with the same amount of
sales untouched.
If the measure passes,
lawmakers in 2017 can
expect “a cavalcade of
10,000 lobbyists from every
industry with valid stories
about why their rates should
be lower,” Hass said.
The legislation required
to redesign the tax measure
will likely “be the biggest
bill you’ve seen in your life”
because of the complicated
ixes that might be needed,
said Sen. Brian Boquist,
R-Dallas.
Lawmakers will have to
decide whether they want
to consider each of those
requests and possibly design
different rates for different
industries.
Some
lawmakers
favor overhauling the tax
by reducing the rate and
expanding the base of busi-
nesses that would have to
pay.
Hass proposed an alter-
native to Measure 97 in the
2016 session that would have
raised $500 million annually
by lowering the tax rate and
applying it to a broader group
of businesses. However,
business and union groups
refused to negotiate on an
alternative, and Hass said
he did not have the needed
support in the House of
Representatives to advance
the proposal.
Other lawmakers are
suggesting eliminating the
gross receipts tax entirely and
replacing it with a different
corporate taxation scheme.
While ive other states
have gross receipts taxes,
the one proposed in Oregon
imposes the highest rate
on the smallest number of
corporations.
Our Oregon, a public
employee
union-backed
group, wrote the measure
with the intent to target
large, out-of-state corpora-
tions such as Walmart and
Comcast. But the tax also
affects nearly 200 Oregon
corporations — including
the iconic Powell’s Books,
Nike, Columbia Sportswear
and Intel. Because the tax
applies to sales, rather than
proits, it would hit high-
volume, low-proit outits
particularly hard, said Sen.
Ginny Burdick, D-Portland.
Burdick, who is part of a
group of lawmakers looking
at potential Measure 97
changes, said she would
prefer to do away with the
gross receipts tax and replace
it with something else that
would raise equal or less
revenue. Burdick said she
has no particular kind of tax
in mind.
“I’m really trying to keep
an open mind at this point,”
she said.
Lawmakers also could
try to devise a law that
would prevent Measure 97
from taxing the same item
or service more than once,
another problem associated
with a gross receipts tax,
Boquist said.
Brown recently has been
mum about what changes she
would make to the measure,
saying she is focused on
getting the measure passed.
She
suggested
Wednesday, Oct. 12, at a
meeting of the Pamplin
They’ve served our country with
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behind loved ones to risk their lives
in protecting their country. They’ve
defended our freedoms and ideals.
They make us proud to be
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Join us for Veterans Day
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November 11 in the East Oregonian,
as we honor the men and women of
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hard work and sacrifice are the
backbone of our nation, protecting
freedom, liberty, justice and all we
hold dear.
“People can’t really
be sure what they’re
voting on if the Leg-
islature is planning
on changes.”
— Pat McCormick,
spokesman for the “No on
Measure 97” campaign
Media Group and EO Media
Group editorial boards that
an exemption in the measure
for beneit companies is
problematic.
Businesses
can registered as a beneit
company with the Secretary
of State’s Ofice to show
customers they have higher
standards of transparency
and accountability.
The designation was not
meant to give businesses a
tax advantage, Brown said.
Pat
McCormick,
spokesman for the “No on
Measure 97” campaign,
said the problems with the
measure has “created a
platform for a lot of lobbying
activity” in the 2017 session.
“People can’t really be
sure what they’re voting on
if the Legislature is planning
on changes,” McCormick
said. “We don’t know what
the changes will be.”
The Yes on Measure 97
campaign opposes “any
attempt to let big corpora-
tions off the hook to pay their
fair share, especially if the
business lobby attempts to
make our small businesses
and consumers pay more,”
said Katherine Driessen,
spokeswoman for Our
Oregon.
The
controversial
proposal has fueled one of
the most expensive ballot
measure battles in the state’s
history. Businesses opposed
to the major have raised an
arsenal of more than $16
million and counting, and
both campaigns for and
against the measure have
bombarded voters with
advertising slots on social
media and airwaves.
If the measure doesn’t
pass, lawmakers will face
the prospect of either making
cuts in services or coming up
with their own tax package
to boost revenue, lawmakers
said.
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