Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Congress’ official tax analyst
sees 2027 tax boosts for many
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— The Republican tax bill
would mean average initial
tax cuts for Americans across
all income lines, but by 2027,
it would boost average levies
for everyone earning up to
$75,000, which includes most
taxpayers, Congress’ nonpar-
tisan tax analyst estimated
Monday.
The projection seemed
unlikely to have any impact
on the fate of the legislation,
which was expected to win
House approval Tuesday.
Senate passage was likely by
Wednesday as the GOP races
to send President Donald
Trump his first major legisla-
tive victory before Christmas.
The Joint Committee on
Taxation calculated that in
2019, people earning $20,000
to $50,000 would see tax cuts
averaging 10 percent or more.
Those making $200,000 to $1
million would see reductions
averaging slightly less.
But by 2023, people
making under $30,000 would
see tax increases while those
earning more would see their
tax cuts get smaller.
That
pattern
would
continue. In 2027, a year
after most individual tax
provisions expire, people
making up to $75,000 would
be paying more on average
than under current law. The
committee says around 118
million of the 177 million tax
returns are from households
making up to $75,000.
Republicans ended the
individual tax cuts in 2026 to
conform to Senate rules that
require the measure to limit
the federal debt increases
it would cause. The bill is
projected to boost federal
shortfalls by nearly $1.5 tril-
lion over the coming decade.
GOP lawmakers say
they’d expect a future
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Police officials stand at the back of where an Amtrak train derailed above
Interstate 5 Monday in DuPont, Wash.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
accompanied at right by Secretary for the Majority
Laura Dove, walks to his office from the chamber as
Republicans in the House and Senate plan to pass the
sweeping $1.5 trillion GOP tax bill on party-line votes,
at the Capitol in Washington, Monday.
EU complains U.S. tax plans could
endanger EU-U.S. trade
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive
branch is warning the United States that its planned tax
overhaul could violate some of its international obligations
and risks “seriously hampering” trans-Atlantic trade.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven
Mnuchin, the EU Commission reinforced a similar move
by Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain to stress it
has serious concerns over several tax initiatives.
EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said
Monday that “the draft U.S. tax bill as it currently stands
contains elements that risk seriously hampering trade and
investment”
Schinas said EU institutions and nations “believe that it
is in the joint EU-U.S. interest to avoid this.”
EU nations have been warily eyeing President Trump’s
domestic tax proposals and fear they might hurt world
trade and EU companies in particular.
Congress to continue the tax
cuts so they won’t expire. If
achieved, that would drive up
deficits even further.
A separate study by the
Tax Policy Center, a private
nonpartisan group, found that
individual taxes would be
reduced on average next year
by $1,600.
But that ranged on average
from $60 for people earning
below $25,000 to $7,640
for those making above
$149,000. Those in the top
1 percent, earning over
$733,000, would see average
tax cuts of $51,140.
In 2027, 53 percent of
families would face tax
increases averaging $180.
Those tax boosts on average
would grow with income, the
policy center said.
FIRE: Donations collected online, in stores
Continued from 1A
at St. Anthony Hospital,
Pendleton, where Davis was
recovering from giving birth
Wednesday to Minnow Rain
Bannick, their daughter.
Bannick was not hurt in
the fire but was still coughing
up black gunk on Monday.
He looked over the inside of
the trailer.
“We worked our butts off
to get this place and every-
thing in it,” he said.
They did not have
insurance and for now are
bouncing from one hotel to
another.
Davis’ friend, Melissa
Webb, started an online
donation account to help the
family at gofundme.com.
Bannick said the Pendleton
Market and First Stop Mart
on Southeast Court Avenue
also are taking donations to
help his family. Bannick said
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Kyle Bannick and his partner Andi Davis lost their
Pendleton home to a Saturday morning fire. Bannick
said he was asleep when a text from Davis happened
to wake to fire burning across the ceiling.
he appreciated the generosity
from the community and was
grateful he was the only one
home when it burned.
This is the second fire
that has touched Davis’ life
this year. Back in January
she watched from the icy
street at flames shot out of
her parent’s home at 1525
S.E. Alexander Place. They
rebuilt the home.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0833.
TRAIN: Route intended to save 10 minutes
Continued from 1A
About two hours after the
accident, a U.S. official who
was briefed on the investiga-
tion said he was told at least
six people were killed. The
official said he had no new
information to explain the
discrepancy in the numbers.
The official was not
authorized to discuss the
investigation publicly and
spoke to The Associated
Press on condition of
anonymity.
A track chart prepared
by the Washington State
Department of Transporta-
tion shows the maximum
speed drops from 79 mph to
30 mph for passenger trains
just before the tracks curve
to cross Interstate 5, which is
where the train went off the
tracks.
The chart, dated Feb. 7,
2017, was submitted to the
Federal Railroad Adminis-
tration in anticipation of the
start of passenger service
along a new bypass route
that shaves 10 minutes off
the trip between Seattle and
Portland.
It was not clear how
fast the train was moving
at the precise moment
when it derailed. National
Transportation Safety Board
investigators were at the
scene trying to determine the
derailment’s cause.
Kimberly Reason with
Sound Transit, the Seat-
tle-area transit agency that
owns the tracks, confirmed
to the AP that the speed limit
at the point where the train
derailed is 30 mph. Speed
signs are posted two miles
before the speed zone and
just before the speed zone
approaching the curve, she
said.
Positive train control —
the technology that can slow
or stop a speeding train —
wasn’t in use on this stretch
of track, according to Amtrak
President Richard Anderson.
He spoke on a conference
call with reporters, said he
was “deeply saddened by all
that has happened today.”
Bob Chipkevich, a former
NTSB director of railroad,
pipeline and hazardous
materials investigations, told
The Seattle Times the crash
looked like a high-speed
derailment based on televi-
sion images.
In a radio transmission
immediately after the acci-
dent, the conductor can be
heard saying the train was
coming around a corner
and was crossing a bridge
that passed over Interstate 5
when it derailed. Dispatch
audio also indicated that
the engineer survived with
bleeding from the head and
both eyes swollen shut.
“I’m still figuring that out.
We’ve got cars everywhere
and down onto the highway,”
he tells the dispatcher, who
asks if everyone is OK.
Aleksander Kristiansen,
a 24-year-old exchange
student at the University of
Washington from Copen-
hagen, was going to Portland
to visit the city for the day.
“I was just coming out
of the bathroom when the
accident happened. My car
just started shaking really,
really badly,” he said.
The back of his train car
was wide open because it had
separated from the rest of the
train, so he and others were
able to jump out to safety.
He was at about the middle
of the train, either the sixth or
seventh car, he said, and was
“one of the lucky ones.”
Emma
Shafer
was
headed home to Vancouver,
Washington, on winter break
from the Cornish College
of the Arts in Seattle and
was napping when the crash
occurred.
She awoke to find her
body at a 45-degree angle
and her train car dangling
from the overpass. Someone
behind her was pinned by the
legs, she said, and she and
others who could walk exited
the train by crawling onto a
car underneath theirs that had
been crushed.
“It felt oddly silent after
the actual crashing. There
was a lot of metal, a lot of
screeching, a lot of being
thrown around. It was very
quiet. Then there was people
screaming,” Shafer said.
“I don’t know if I actually
heard the sirens, but they
were there. A guy was like,
‘Hey, I’m Robert. We’ll get
you out of here.’”
Dr. Nathan Selden, a
neurosurgeon at the Oregon
Health & Science University
in Portland, said he and his
son drove through the acci-
dent scene while traveling
north to visit Seattle. The
doctor asked if he could help
and was ushered to a medical
triage tent in the highway
median.
The most seriously
injured had already been
whisked away, but the
patients he helped appeared
to have open head wounds
and skull, pelvic or leg frac-
tures, as well as small cuts
and neck sprains, he said.
He called it a miracle an
infant child he saw from the
scene appeared completely
unharmed.
President Donald Trump
used the deadly derailment
to call for more infrastruc-
ture spending in a tweet sent
about three hours after the
accident. He said the wreck
shows “more than ever why
our soon to be submitted
infrastructure plan must
be approved quickly.” The
accident happened on a
newly completed bypass.
The train was making the
inaugural run on the new
route as part of a $180.7
million project designed
to speed up service by
removing passenger trains
from a route along Puget
Sound that’s bogged down
by curves, single-track
tunnels and freight traffic.
The Amtrak Cascades
service that runs from
Vancouver,
British
Columbia, to Eugene,
Oregon, is jointly owned by
the Washington and Oregon
transportation departments.
Amtrak operates the service
for the two states as a
contractor and is responsible
for day-to-day operations.
The Amtrak schedule
called for the train to leave
Seattle around 6 a.m. and
arrive in Portland about 3 ½
hours later.
The new bypass was
built on an existing inland
rail line that runs along
Interstate 5 from Tacoma
to DuPont, near where
Train 501 derailed. Track
testing began in January
and February in advance
of Monday’s launch and
continued through at least
July, according to the Wash-
ington State Department of
Transportation.
HUNTERS: Suspects live in Madras
Continued from 1A
Umatilla County Jail, Pend-
leton, and Nelson’s office
arraigned them Monday on
the following: three counts
of first-degree robbery;
two counts second-degree
burglary; and one count
each of first-degree burglary,
unauthorized use of a
vehicle, third- and first-de-
gree theft, unlawful use of
a weapon, and first-degree
criminal mischief.
Nelson said Devin stated
during the hearing she lives
in Madras and Arce told
the court he lives with her.
Neither has a real connection
to the area.
“There’s more to the story
that we don’t know,” Nelson
said, and the sheriff’s office
is continuing the investiga-
tion and hopes to find the gun
they fired at Britt as well as
more items from the thefts.
State court records show
Arce began serving two
years of probation in August
2016 in Jefferson County for
methamphetamine posses-
sion, which he violated this
past August. Devin faced
meth and hydrocodone
possession, unlawful posses-
sion of a gun and driving
under the influence of intox-
icants in 2014 in Jefferson
County. She took a deal and
pleaded guilty to the meth
possession and entered drug
court and a DUII diversion
program. Devin completed
diversion in November 2015
and the court dismissed the
DUII case against her.
Nelson said his next step
is to take the case to a grand
jury for an indictment, which
he aims to bring Friday
during the next hearing in
the case.
TAXES: Gas tax going up four cents
Continued from 1A
of Oregon will be required
to self-report and pay the tax
when they file their income
tax returns.
Businesses that sell new
vehicles and bicycles, as
well as Oregon employers
who will be responsible
for deducting the transit
payroll tax, are responsible
for knowing the new laws,
which they can find in more
detail at www.oregon.gov/
dor.
“We’re communicating
directly with affected sellers
about new taxes relating to
some bicycles and vehicles,
which begin January 1,
2018,” Eric Smith, Business
Division administrator for
the Department of Revenue,
said in a statement. “There
will be more outreach to
employers about the new
statewide transit tax as we
approach its start date of July
1, 2018.”
The state’s gas tax will
also be raised by four cents
per gallon in January, and
vehicle registration fees at
the Department of Motor
Vehicles will increase by
$13.
The Oregon Department
of Transportation’s Region
5 covering Eastern Oregon
will receive extra funding for
projects out of the revenue
raised, and counties and
cities will see their street
funds increase via the gas
tax increase. Projects specifi-
cally earmarked for grants in
the package include several
local projects, including
upgrades to North First Place
in Hermiston, the paving
of Ott Road and widening
of Airport Road around the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center, a new road at
the Port of Umatilla, a rail
project at the Port of Morrow,
road improvement projects
in Heppner and Milton-Free-
water, and improved access
to the former Umatilla
Chemical Depot.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
PLASTIC IS NO LONGER RECYCLABLE
WHAT:
Mixed plastics #1-#7 is no longer recyclable. Our depot collection containers
for this material near Fallen Field and at the Transfer Station will be removed
on or before January 1, 2018.
WHY:
The only market for these materials was China. Eff ective January 1,
2018 China is implementing its “National Sword” policy to increase the
environmental quality in its own country, which will stop all mixed paper
and mixed plastics from being imported. This is a national and international
issue, but the eff ects are very local. There are no markets to absorb what
China has refused to accept.
WHEN: By January 1, 2018 the plastics collection containers will be removed and
these plastics must be placed in the trash. Plastic water bottles and many
other drink containers may still be taken for the $0.10 redemption at grocery
stores or redemption centers.
WHO:
All Pendleton residents and surrounding areas who use Pendleton Sanitary
Service recycling collection containers.
OTHER COMMUNITIES: Other communities that have “co-mingled” recycling (all
recyclables in one roll cart at their home) will be very severely impacted by
these market changes. Pendleton’s impact is small in comparison.
WHAT CAN I DO?: Continue to recycle whenever and whatever is possible. Recycling
is still the right thing to do – it saves energy, natural resources, and creates
a sustainable future, but be very careful about contamination. If an item
is questionable for recycling - “When in doubt, throw it out” is the best
policy. For complete recycling information, please visit our website at
pendletonsanitaryservice.com or call our offi ce at (541) 276-1271.
Pendleton Sanitary Service, Inc. is committed to off ering a recycling
collection program supported by our customers and turning this diffi cult
situation into an opportunity to strengthen the future of recycling. If
markets for recycled plastics become available in the future, we are
committed to reinstate our collection of plastics and adapt to
current market conditions.
LOCATION: 5500 NW Rieth Road • Pendleton, OR 97801
PHONE: (541) 276-1271 • OFFICE HOURS: Mon - Fri: 8 AM - 4 PM