East Oregonian : E.O., July 01, 2017, Page Page 8A, Image 8

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NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Lawmakers could vote Saturday on smaller transportation bill
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A legislative
committee could vote as soon
as Saturday on a dramatically
diminished statewide transportation
funding bill.
Legislative lawyers released a
295-page amendment to the bill
late Friday. The proposal raises $5.3
billion over a seven-year period
through increases in the gas tax,
registration fees and new taxes on
payroll, new vehicle purchases and
bicycles priced more than $200.
However, the new plan excludes
several congestion-busting projects
in the Portland area that would have
been funded through a state-local
match.
The plan hikes the state’s existing
30-cent gas tax gradually over a
seven-year period to a total of 40
cents. Meanwhile, the plan increases
registration fees by $13 and title fees
by $16 in 2018. Beginning in 2020,
the state would move toward a tiered
system of registration and title fees
based on a vehicle’s gas mileage.
The gas tax hike and registration
fees will fund about $10 million per
year in Safe Routes to Schools side-
walk improvements and to partially
fund a congestion-relieving project
on Interstate 5 in the Rose Quarter.
The rest of the money will be distrib-
uted to the state, counties and cities
for road and bridge maintenance and
improvements.
The original $8.2 billion funding
proposal would have funded proj-
ects to widen Interstate 205 from
Stafford Road to Oregon City and
to replace the Abernathy Bridge
on I-205 between Oregon City and
West Linn. The bill also would have
raised the gas tax even more in the
Portland area to raise funds for the
metro congestion projects.
Instead, the proposal directs the
Oregon Transportation Commission
to establish a tolling program on
I-205 and I-5. The program would
be used to fund congestion-busting
projects on Interstate 205 and
Interstate 5 from the Washington
state line to where the two interstates
cross south of Portland.
Authors of the transportation
package, legislative leaders and
Gov. Kate Brown negotiated an
agreement between Democrats and
Republicans to trim the size of the
package and to place a cost cap on
the state’s low carbon fuels standard.
The deal was intended to win enough
votes to reach the constitutional-
ly-required three-fifths majority in
each chamber for raising taxes.
The deal included reducing the
gas tax increase and an excise tax
on the sale of new vehicles, from 1
percent to 0.5 percent. About $12
million of the revenue from the
proceeds of the vehicle excise tax
would be used for rebates on the
purchase of electric vehicles.
A $15 flat fee would be charged
on the purchase of new adult
bicycles with a price tag of more
than $200. The proceeds would go
toward paying for commuter bicycle
and pedestrian paths.
Under the pending proposal, the
first 4-cent gas tax increase would
trigger in 2018, with subsequent
2-cent hikes every other year.
A payroll tax of less than 0.1
percent would raise money to fund
public transit.
A sticking point in negotiations
was Republicans’ request for
changes to state’s low-carbon fuels
standard, which calls for greenhouse
gas emission reductions by 2025. In
the agreement, the GOP won a cost
cap of $200 per subsidy for efforts
such as alternative fuel production
and electric vehicles, a concession
Republicans wanted to control the
cost of the program. The deal also
allows temporary suspension of
parts of the program when there are
fuel shortages.
Brad Reed, spokesman for Renew
Oregon, has said the compromise
“will protect the core integrity of
the program” and give clean fuels
businesses enough certainty to allow
them to invest in Oregon.
The original bill called provided
an innovative funding mechanism
for the I-205 and Rose Quarter proj-
ects in which the state and the City
of Portland would share the cost of
the projects. “Going Dutch” would
have required an additional increase
in gas taxes only in the Portland area,
which the fuels association opposed.
Richardson offers limited data
to Trump commission, for $500
AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios, File
In this June 13 photo, demolition work continues on the Plutonium Finishing Plant
on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash. The U.S. Department of
Energy says there is a high risk that a second tunnel filled with radioactive waste
might collapse on the Hanford site. A tunnel partially collapsed at the site on May 9
forcing some 3,000 workers to seek shelter for a few hours.
HANFORD: Partial collapse of the roof
might have been caused by heavy rainfall
Continued from 1A
mately 1,700 feet long and
is covered with eight feet
of soil to prevent radiation
from escaping. Inside are 28
flat-bed rail cars containing
nuclear waste, including
giant storage vessels and
other large equipment from
plutonium production.
The tunnel was sealed
in 1996 and has not been
entered since, said Doug
Shoop, Hanford manager for
the Energy Department.
The ceiling of Tunnel 1,
which was built in 1956 and
is 360 feet long, partially
collapsed in May. That
tunnel contains eight rail
cars carrying radioactive
waste, and it was sealed in
1965.
As a result of the
partial collapse of Tunnel
1, Hanford officials have
started daily inspections of
the two tunnels and installed
remote-controlled cameras
to monitor them, Shoop said.
They are considering
using
remote-controlled
equipment to go inside the
tunnels and assess their
condition, Shoop said.
“These tunnels are not
safe and have literally been
out of sight and out of
mind,” said U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Ore., a frequent
Hanford critic. “I’m calling
for action now in order to
protect Hanford workers, the
public and the environment
from this ongoing threat.”
Shoop said the Energy
Department plans to fill the
partially collapsed Tunnel 1
with grout by the end of the
year, to stabilize the structure
until a permanent disposal
plan is created.
The new report said the
partial collapse of the roof
might have been caused by
heavy rainfall a few days
before, or deterioration of
timber supports because of
age and exposure to radia-
tion.
The Energy Depart-
ment believes the risk to
employees and the envi-
ronment from a collapse of
Tunnel 2 is minimal, because
the eight feet of soil atop
the tunnel would sink into
it and prevent or minimize
radiation from escaping, the
agency said.
Radioactive and chemical
waste in the two tunnels was
created by the nearby Pluto-
nium Uranium Extraction
Plant.
Hanford was built by the
Manhattan Project during
World War II as the U.S.
raced to beat Germany to
create an atomic bomb.
Hanford made the plutonium
for the atomic bomb dropped
on Nagasaki, Japan, at the
end of the war and went on
to make about 60 percent
of the nation’s plutonium
during the Cold War.
The site now contains
the nation’s greatest volume
of
radioactive
defense
wastes. Cleanup of the site
is expected to last until 2060
and cost an additional $100
billion.
SALEM
(AP)
—
Oregon’s chief election offi-
cial on Friday told President
Donald Trump’s commission
investigating
allegations
of voter fraud that it could
receive a statewide list of
voters for $500, just like
anyone else.
Oregon Secretary of
State Dennis Richardson,
however, said in response
to the commission’s request
for publicly available details
on all voters in the state that
he’s barred legally from
disclosing Social Security
and driver’s license numbers.
Two members of Oregon’s
congressional delegation and
Gov. Kate Brown had urged
Richardson, a Republican
in this Democratic-leaning
state, to refuse the request
that went to secretaries of
state around America.
Richardson said in a letter
to commission vice chairman
and Kansas Secretary of
State Kris Kobach that there
is “very little evidence” of
voter fraud or registration
fraud in Oregon.
“I do not believe
the federal government
should be involved in
dictating how states
conduct their elections,”
Richardson said.
Among the secretary
of state’s key missions,
according to Richardson’s
official website, is to “maxi-
mize voter participation and
protect ballot security in
order to promote Oregon’s
healthy democracy.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
a Democrat, charged via
Twitter that the request is a
tool of voter suppression,
and said Richardson should
follow the lead of some of his
counterparts in other states,
and not provide data.
Rep. Earl Blumenaur
and Brown, also Democrats,
agreed.
“We should protect voters’
information and expand
access to the ballot, not
suppress it,” Brown tweeted.
The Democratic Party
of Oregon said it believes
the request “is an effort to
mislead the American public
about the integrity of our
voter rolls.”
The Presidential Advisory
Commission on Election
Integrity asked secretaries of
state to provide, by July 14,
voters’ information including
birthdates, the last four digits
of their Social Security
numbers, about felony
convictions and military
status, party affiliations, what
elections they voted in since
2006, and voter registration
in other states.
Richardson wrote in
response that “any person
may receive a statewide list
of electors upon payment of
$500.”
Kobach had said the
data he sought will help the
commission “fully analyze
vulnerabilities and issues
related to voter registration
and voting.”
Trump, who lost the
popular vote in the 2016
presidential election, created
the commission through an
executive order in May. He
has said voter fraud existed
in the election that he won by
Electoral College votes.
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