NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Friday, June 23, 2017
TAX: Rematch over business taxes shaping up for 2018 ballot
have the necessary support
to achieve structural revenue
reforms this session.”
Those cost containment
strategies won’t include
proposed cutbacks to the
Public Employees Retirement
System, a sticking point for
many Republicans.
Some Democrats had
hoped to achieve structural
changes to state taxes on
business, shifting the basis
from income to sales.
But this week there were
already indications those
ambitions may not come to
fruition.
Lawmakers were consid-
ering alternatives, such as
increasing the existing corpo-
rate income tax, which could
raise $530 million for the
next budget, and narrowing
eligibility for a pass through
tax break, which would shore
up nearly $200 million in the
next two years.
Brown said she didn’t
think that a proposal to
increase the corporate income
tax had “traction” in the
Oregon House.
And Republicans are
already up in arms about the
other proposal, which Senate
Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli,
R-John Day, dubbed a “tax
heist.”
Brown said she wanted to
“set the table” for a tax over-
haul in 2019. She blamed the
rancorous Measure 97 fight
last year for the impasse.
Measure 97, backed by
union groups, would have
taxed certain corporations
with annual Oregon sales of
more than $25 million.
“It is really clear to me,
as I mentioned, that it takes a
full legislative session to vet
structural changes to Oregon’s
Continued from 1A
It also means that a state
hiring freeze will continue
and that legislation attempting
to curb the costs of state
government from education
to forestry will likely advance.
Brown, Senate President
Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and
Speaker of the House Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, say struc-
tural changes to the state’s
tax system will have to wait
until the next long legislative
session in 2019.
The Oregon Legislative
Assembly meets for approx-
imately five-month long
sessions in every odd-num-
bered year, alternating with
short month-long sessions in
even-numbered years, and
is constitutionally required
to finish its business —
primarily, balancing the state
budget — by July 10.
With a $1.4 billion gap
between projected revenue
and expenses in the next
two-year budget, only partially
closed with the Legislature’s
passage Wednesday of a new
tax on health care providers
and insurers, Courtney, Kotek
and Brown say that they’ll
push for cost containment to
make up the difference.
“...We have worked for
months with legislators
in both parties, business
leaders, and labor leaders, to
identify ways to reduce state
spending, contain costs going
forward, and finally reform
our revenue system,” Brown,
Courtney and Kotek said in
a joint statement Thursday
morning. “While we are
moving forward on several
major cost containment
measures, it has become clear
that the Legislature will not
revenue situation,” Brown
told reporters Thursday. “I
think I would have liked to
(have had) a process leading
up to that. Ballot Measure
97 and the battle over that
prohibited that table or that
level of collaboration.”
A rematch over business
taxes is already shaping up for
the November 2018 ballot.
The state’s largest teachers’
union, the Oregon Education
Association, is backing a
ballot measure that would
create a gross receipts tax on
businesses with annual sales
of more than $3 million.
House Majority Leader
Jennifer Williamson, D-Port-
land, contended Republicans
were to blame.
Democrats in both the
House and Senate are one
vote shy of the three-fifths
majority required to pass
revenue-raising
measures,
meaning that if all Demo-
crats were to vote in favor
of revenue reform, they’d
still need one Republican on
board.
“Unfortunately, Repub-
licans have chosen to stand
in the way rather than work
collaboratively in order to
solve the biggest problems
facing our state,” Williamson
said in a statement. She
argued her caucus had floated
proposals to reduce costs,
address the state’s “broken”
revenue system and stabilize
education funding.
House Minority Leader
Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte, shot back, arguing that
Republicans had worked “in
good faith.”
“We said before the
session began that we would
be open to raising revenue
if Democrats were willing
POLICE: Firefighter contract
expires at the end of June
to engage in a serious effort
to grow the economy and
control costs,” McLane said
in a prepared statement. “The
Democrats were not willing
to do that. House Democrats
failed to produce this session
the budget changes needed to
support our communities.”
Hanna Vaandering, presi-
dent of the Oregon Education
Association, accused both
Republicans and Oregon
businesses of obstruction in a
statement Thursday.
“We met with the business
community nearly 10 times
and not once did they bring
forward a long-term, sustain-
able solution for our students,”
Vaandering said. “They said it
would be easy to find common
ground, but instead have spent
months obstructing.”
But Vaandering also said
the Legislature had “ample
time” to pass a bigger revenue
package before the final gavel
falls later this summer.
Business leaders such as a
Brighter Oregon, a coalition
of businesses and business
groups including the Portland
Business Alliance, were
adamant that their support for
new revenue was contingent
on curtailing the state’s costs,
which the state now appears
poised to do out of necessity.
Jim Green, head of the
Oregon School Boards
Association, called Thurs-
day’s announcement “disap-
pointing.”
“Now there will be a lot of
finger-pointing on both sides,
but ultimately this is a failure
by our elected state leaders to
put aside their differences and
do what is needed,” Green
said in a statement. “Instead
of a solution, what we are left
with is a short-term patch.”
Continued from 1A
said the wide range allowed
for a true average.
Bowen said the associ-
ation also brought a list of
comparable
departments
to the bargaining table, and
each side had a few the other
didn’t. He said the city’s
comparison showed Pend-
leton police were about 7.5
percent behind the average.
“What we wanted,”
Bowen said, “was to be at
market value so we keep
good employees and draw
interest from others.”
Previous labor contracts
have been for three years,
including the one that
expires at the end of June.
That contract provided for
3-percent cost of living
increase in 2015, then
1 percent in 2016 and 1
percent again in 2017. The
salary schedule in its last
year ranged from a bottom
of $3,139 a month to the top
end of $5,642 a month, along
with bonuses for certain
duties or assignments, such
as an extra 2 percent for the
community service officer
and 4 percent to an officer
with the police dog.
Bowen said the asso-
ciation wanted a two-year
contract to make it easier to
stay competitive.
Pendleton’s other contact
for public safety labor is in
mediation.
The International Asso-
ciation of Fire Fighters
represents 21 members of the
Pendleton Fire Department
and Ambulance Service,
excluding administration,
reserves and interns. Fire
Chief Mike Ciraulo said the
union is asking for a salary
increase in a three-year
contract, but he could not
reveal how much. Coming
to a fair deal, he said, means
the sides first need to agree
on which fire departments
compare to Pendleton’s.
Ciraulo said union
members know the citizens
of Pendleton approved a
bond to build a new fire
station. The administration
wants what’s best for the
citizens, he said, and union
representatives want what’s
best for their members.
“I absolutely believe
they are not being greedy,”
he said.
City and union officials
met with a state mediator
earlier this week and twice
informally since. Under
Oregon’s Public Employee
Collective
Bargaining
Act, mediation can last 15
calender days. After that,
sides decide if they want
to continuing working in
mediation, or either side can
declare an impasse. Oregon
law prohibits firefighters
and other public safety
employees from striking.
Instead, they can go into
arbitration, a formal process
in which a third-party
decides the labor contract.
Ciraulo said neither
side wants that. Negotia-
tions remain cordial and
respectful, he said, and
there’s time to reach a deal
before the contract expires
at the end of June.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Pendleton felon grabbed rifle as buffalo charged him, lawyer says
U.S. Magistrate Judge
Staci F. Beckerman said she
initially thought the case
was very serious, based on
the charge alone and Tias’
criminal record, which
includes a 2006 involuntary
manslaughter conviction.
But after learning more of
the details, the judge said she
understood the case a little
better.
“The
buffalo
were
charging. They were not far
from Mr. Tias,’’ explained
assistant federal public
BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian/OregonLive
A convicted felon who
went on a buffalo hunt in
Montana and grabbed a
rifle when the buffalo came
charging is now facing a
felon in possession of a
firearm charge in federal
court.
Cecil Wesley Tias, 45,
of Pendleton made his first
appearance on the charge
Thursday in U.S. District
Court in Portland.
Defense lawyers may argue
that there was a “lawful
sporting purpose’’ for Tias to
grab the rifle.
Beckerman agreed to
release Tias from custody,
with GPS monitoring and
a remote alcohol testing
system in place. He must
report on his own to federal
court in Butte, Montana, on
July 12. Family members
intend to rent a car and drive
to Montana for the court
appearance, Tias’ defense
lawyer said.
defender Ruben Iniguez. “He
made the mistake of picking
up the gun.’’
The incident occurred
Feb. 23 in Gallatin County,
Montana. Tias grabbed a
Savage Arms model .243
caliber, bolt-action rifle,
according to federal prose-
cutors.
Iniguez told the court that
there’s not much dispute
about the facts of the case,
and Tias will appear as
required in federal court
in Montana next month.
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
SUNDAY
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
Plenty of sunshine
85° 54°
91° 58°
MONDAY
Blazing sunshine
and hot
A t-storm around
in the p.m.
TUESDAY
Sunshine, breezy
and not as hot
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
98° 69°
96° 64°
84° 54°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
96° 56°
91° 53°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
77°
81°
103° (1973)
43°
53°
37° (1916)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
1.05"
0.95"
10.20"
6.45"
7.46"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
Yesterday
Normals
Records
HIGH
LOW
81°
82°
105° (1936)
43°
54°
41° (2014)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.28"
0.48"
6.59"
4.64"
5.59"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
First
June 23 June 30
Full
July 8
101° 65°
89° 57°
Seattle
81/59
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
103° 68°
5:06 a.m.
8:49 p.m.
5:00 a.m.
8:23 p.m.
Last
July 16
Today
Spokane
Wenatchee
81/56
86/60
Tacoma
Moses
82/52
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 88/55
79/50
80/57
84/52
89/56
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
87/57
88/60 Lewiston
90/51
Astoria
85/56
77/56
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
92/62
Pendleton 78/42
The Dalles 91/53
85/54
93/59
La Grande
Salem
81/47
93/59
Albany
Corvallis 93/54
95/58
John Day
84/52
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
88/55
92/54
84/49
Caldwell
Burns
85/51
84/42
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
77
80
84
73
84
78
92
84
91
84
92
81
79
103
72
74
88
89
85
92
88
93
81
79
90
88
89
Lo
56
41
49
54
42
42
54
51
53
52
53
47
45
65
55
58
55
54
54
62
47
59
56
43
60
60
56
W
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Sat.
Hi
84
85
90
67
89
82
99
90
96
90
96
86
84
108
78
76
92
95
91
98
94
100
87
84
95
94
94
Lo
58
43
54
55
47
46
57
53
56
58
55
51
49
70
55
57
56
56
58
65
51
60
60
48
65
64
58
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
77
90
80
75
83
63
80
84
88
66
81
Lo
65
81
61
58
54
47
57
64
70
49
71
W
sh
t
s
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
Sat.
Hi
80
89
83
73
78
66
81
84
85
65
80
Lo
65
83
63
55
58
50
59
67
70
47
70
W
r
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
WINDS
Medford
103/65
Klamath Falls
92/53
(in mph)
Today
Saturday
Boardman
Pendleton
NE 4-8
NE 4-8
NE 6-12
NE 6-12
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Pleasant today with plenty
of sunshine. A starlit sky tonight.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Pleasant
today with plenty of sunshine. Tonight: a
starry night.
Western Washington: Sunshine today.
Tonight: a starry night. Plenty of sunshine
tomorrow.
Eastern Washington: Mostly sunny
today. Mainly clear tonight. Mostly sunny
tomorrow.
Cascades: Plenty of sunshine today; pleas-
ant. A starlit sky tonight.
Northern California: Plenty of sun today.
Very hot in central parts; cooler but pleasant
at the coast.
2
5
7
7
5
behind it.
Tias
was
convicted
in 2006 of involuntary
manslaughter, found to have
caused the death of a woman
while driving drunk on the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
on May 29, 2005, according
to court records.
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the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
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Subscriber services:
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— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
While the felon in
possession of a firearm
charge initially caught the
judge off guard, Beckerman
said the case will serve as a
“good lesson’’ for her not to
be judgmental about a case
based on the charge alone
until she knows the facts
2
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Cindy will add to heavy rainfall and the risk of flooding from the cen-
tral Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley and southern Appalachians today. Cooler air will invade
the Midwest as heat holds in the Southwest.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 118° in Needles, Calif.
Low 34° in West Yellowstone, Mont.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
98
88
81
88
72
85
84
84
89
81
81
80
98
67
81
109
74
67
85
93
77
91
79
114
86
81
Lo
65
74
73
72
49
73
56
69
76
66
59
62
72
50
60
76
56
46
74
77
60
73
55
87
66
64
W
pc
c
t
t
c
c
s
t
c
t
t
t
pc
pc
t
s
pc
c
sh
pc
t
t
t
s
r
pc
Sat.
Hi
89
82
82
85
73
81
90
81
92
80
75
79
81
76
77
95
71
63
84
88
75
93
81
112
82
80
Lo
67
68
68
64
49
67
59
64
75
59
54
60
72
51
55
75
52
47
73
74
54
74
56
87
62
65
Today
W
t
t
r
r
c
t
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
t
c
pc
t
sh
r
sh
t
s
pc
c
s
pc
pc
Hi
Louisville
81
Memphis
80
Miami
90
Milwaukee
80
Minneapolis
71
Nashville
80
New Orleans
86
New York City
84
Oklahoma City
87
Omaha
76
Philadelphia
87
Phoenix
113
Portland, ME
79
Providence
84
Raleigh
91
Rapid City
72
Reno
97
Sacramento
99
St. Louis
86
Salt Lake City
88
San Diego
75
San Francisco
76
Seattle
81
Tucson
109
Washington, DC 87
Wichita
78
Lo
65
70
80
59
53
67
76
72
62
53
73
88
66
70
74
42
65
62
64
59
66
57
59
80
75
56
W
t
r
pc
pc
pc
r
t
t
t
pc
t
pc
t
c
c
pc
s
s
t
s
pc
pc
s
pc
t
t
Sat.
Hi
83
83
91
72
67
84
88
84
81
81
86
115
82
81
89
74
99
95
81
91
75
71
88
110
87
81
Lo
58
64
80
55
54
59
75
68
61
51
67
92
60
63
68
42
65
60
60
61
66
56
62
82
69
60
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
pc
pc
sh
c
c
pc
t
r
c
c
r
s
pc
pc
t
c
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
r
c