NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
TAX: Would
affect corporations
with Oregon sales
exceeding $100M
Page 7A
Trump offers
Montana’s Zinke
interior secretary
Continued from 1A
the election, when its unified
resources and messaging
defeated the $3 billion
annual tax measure.
During
the
annual
Oregon Leadership Summit
Dec. 5, business leaders
said they were open to new
business taxes, but only if
lawmakers also reformed
the costly state retirement
plan and made an effort to
clean up wasteful spending.
Pension reform will likely
be a sticking point for the
union-backed A Better
Oregon, which has said it
opposes any reductions to
retirement benefits.
Those same business
leaders, however, have not
answered calls from Gov.
Kate Brown and others
to present specific reve-
nue-raising proposals they
would accept. Brown used
her speech at the leadership
summit to specifically ask
business leaders for such
proposals. Business repre-
sentatives say it’s up to the
governor to make the first
move.
“Right now, we would
hope and expect that the
governor and elected leaders
will lead this process,” said
Sam Tannahill, chairman
of the Oregon Business
Association. “The governor
certainly put a challenge
in front of the business
community. However, at
the same time, she said in
the same speech: ‘Make
no mistake; we will lead.’
That is something we are
expecting her to do. The
only thing we are saying is
everything should be on the
table.”
The Oregon Business
Association and Associated
Oregon Industries, which
will merge in July, will be
main players in any nego-
tiations over new business
taxes. They’ll coordinate
efforts through regular meet-
ings of a new 10-member
executive
committee,
Tannahill said. The lineup
has yet to be finalized, but
representatives from Port-
land General Electric, Bank
of America Merrill Lynch,
PacificCorp Transmission
and A-dec dental equipment
and supplies will have seats
on the committee.
A Better Oregon, which
offered the $6 billion corpo-
rate sales tax measure that
was defeated on Nov. 8, has
proposed a smaller tax of
2 percent on corporations’
Oregon sales exceeding
$100 million.
The tax would raise about
$4 billion a biennium to
address the state’s projected
$1.7 billion revenue short-
fall for 2017-19 and increase
spending for education and
health care. A Better Oregon
also endorses a proposal by
the governor to expand the
health care provider tax.
The new corporate tax
proposal is 0.5 percentage
points less than the 2.5
percent rate proposed in
Measure 97 and applies to
all corporations with sales
exceeding $100 million
instead of only C corpora-
tions’ sales exceeding $25
million. Utility companies
would be exempt from the
tax.
The changes were a
response to criticism of
Measure 97, said Andrea
Paluso, executive director of
Family Forward Oregon, a
member of A Better Oregon.
“It would protect home-
grown businesses and call
on the largest corporations
doing business in our state
to pay their fair share,”
Paluso said.
Lawmakers are still
brainstorming ideas for
raising revenue that would
satisfy both sides. Sen.
Hass may try to revive his
proposal, made during this
year’s February session,
for a commercial activity
tax. The tax would replace
the corporate income tax.
A .39 percent tax on busi-
nesses with sales greater
than $5 million would raise
$1.3 billion in 2017-19
and $2 billion in 2019-21,
according to the nonpartisan
Legislative Revenue Office.
However, eliminating the
corporate income tax would
trim the net revenue gain to
$500 million to $1 billion,
Hass said.
East Oregonian
SANA via AP
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian
troops and pro-government gunmen marching walk inside the destroyed Grand
Umayyad mosque in the old city of Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday.
Rebels to evacuate Aleppo in
surrender deal as fighting ends
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian
rebels reached a cease-fire
deal to evacuate from eastern
Aleppo in an effective
surrender on Tuesday, as
Russia declared all military
action had stopped and the
Syrian government had
assumed control of the
former rebel enclave.
The dramatic develop-
ments, which appeared to
restore the remainder of what
was once Syria’s largest city
to President Bashar Assad’s
forces after months of heavy
fighting and a crippling
siege, followed reports of
mass killings by government
forces closing in on the final
few blocks still held by the
rebels.
Damascus confirmed the
evacuation deal and the U.N.
envoy for Syria, Staffan de
Mistura, called for immediate
access to the former rebel
enclave to confirm the end
of military operations and to
oversee the safe departure of
tens of thousands of civilians
and opposition fighters. He
was at the Security Council
where an emergency meeting
for Aleppo was underway.
Russia’s U.N. ambas-
sador Vitaly Churkin took to
the floor near the end of the
session at the U.N. Security
Council to announce fighting
had ended.
“According to the latest
information that we received
SANA via AP
This image released by the International Committee
for the Red Cross shows Syrians who were displaced
with their families from eastern Aleppo gather at the
collective shelter, in the village of Jibreen south of
Aleppo, Syria, Monday.
... military actions in eastern
Aleppo are over,” Churkin
said. “The Syrian govern-
ment has re-established
control over eastern Aleppo.”
Minutes earlier, he had
announced that “all mili-
tants” and members of their
families, as well as those
wounded in the fighting,
were
being
evacuated
through “agreed corridors
in directions that they
have chosen voluntarily,”
including the rebel strong-
hold of Idlib province.
As word spread of the
deal, celebrations broke out
in the government-controlled
western sector of Aleppo,
with convoys of cars driving
around honking their cars
and waving Syrian flags
from the windows.
Retaking Aleppo, which
has been split between rebel
and government control
since 2012, would be
Assad’s biggest victory yet
in the civil war. Aleppo, the
country’s former commercial
powerhouse, has long been
regarded as a major gateway
between Turkey and Syria
and the biggest prize in the
conflict.
The agreement Tuesday
came after world leaders and
aid agencies issued dramatic
appeals on behalf of trapped
residents, and the U.N.
human rights office said
that pro-government forces
reportedly killed 82 civilians
as they closed in on the last
remaining rebel areas.
WASHINGTON (AP)
— President-elect Donald
Trump has offered Montana
Rep. Ryan Zinke the job of
interior secretary, though
it’s unclear whether the
congressman has accepted,
two people with knowledge
of the offer said Tuesday.
Zinke, 55, is a retired
Navy SEAL who
was awarded two
Bronze Stars for
combat missions
in Iraq. He was
an early supporter
of Trump and
met with the
president-elect
Monday
at
Trump Tower in Zinke
Manhattan.
He just won re-elec-
tion to a second term as
Montana’s only House
member, and Republicans
had mentioned him as
a possible challenger to
two-term Democratic Sen.
Jon Tester in 2018.
Trump was also said to
be considering Washington
Rep. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers for the job.
She wrote on Facebook
Tuesday that it was an
“honor” to be invited to
meet with Trump.
The people with knowl-
edge of the offer to Zinke
insisted on anonymity
because they were not
authorized to discuss the
transition process publicly.
Zinke, who serves on
House Natural Resources
and
Armed
Services
committees,
describes
himself as “a steadfast
advocate for Montana
veterans and military
personnel and families.”
He advocates greater use
of public lands for energy
production such
as oil and natural
gas.
Zinke
has
prioritized
development
of oil, gas and
other resources
on public lands
and has advo-
cated for state
control of energy
development on federal
lands, a stance that some
environmental groups say
threatens national parks.
Zinke has voted against
efforts to designate new
national parks that would
diversify the National Park
System.
Zinke attracted attention
in the 2014 campaign for
calling Hillary Clinton “the
antichrist.”
“Do I really believe that
she is the antichrist? That
answer would be ‘no,”’
Zinke said in an interview
with
The
Associated
Press. “But I do get a little
emotional about Beng-
hazi, and I like the rest of
America want answers.”
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