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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2020)
WEEKEND EDITION DEVELOPER MOVING FORWARD WITH AIRPORT HOTEL METAL CASTER STARTED FOUNDRY 40 YEARS AGO AFTER EDUCATION CAREER REGION, A3 LIFESTYLES, C1 E O AST AS 144th Year, No. 76 PREP BASKETBALL: PENDLETON GIRLS DROP IMC GAME AGAINST THE DALLES SPORTS, B1 REGONIAN REGONIA FEBRUARY 1-2, 2020 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD $1.50 Lawmakers prepare for the Greenhouse Gas Initiative By JESSICA POLLARD East Oregonian nerships that Pendleton’s RBH Group and Lonnie Read have helped in getting their taxes fi led this week. Read, who is a partner with the group, said many of the clients they’ve seen so far already had everything prepared and only had to wait for their fi nancial numbers from Decem- ber to be fi nalized. Read said too many people often rush their taxes and make a mistake or can for- get to include something entirely, which then means they have to fi le an amended return later in the year and often have complications getting their return. Read added that the prevalence of identity theft and scammers today means it’s also safer to fi le your taxes early. “The longer you wait to fi le, the more opportunity someone who’s stolen your identity has to fi le before you,” he said. Many accountants in Umatilla County are busy in the fi rst weeks of tax season because they primarily serve farm and agricultural clients, who have an expe- dited deadline of March 1 if they don’t want to make estimated tax payments throughout the year. “Accountants in Pendleton have kind of a unique set of deadlines that we work under as opposed to accountants in a metropolitan area,” Neistadt said. SALEM — Days away from the next legislative session, lawmakers on both sides have already made one thing clear: cap and trade is set to take center stage once again. And this time, a rural Democrat is taking the helm as a chief sponsor of the newly minted Senate Bill 1530. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, one of Senate Bill 1530’s chief sponsors, is an unlikely champion of the Green- house Gas Initiative. Roblan — whose coastal district’s economy relies heav- ily on emitting industries — was one of few Democratic senators who planned to vote no on House Bill 2020 last year. “Because of my district and many of my constituents, I felt the way (HB 2020) was written had disproportion- ately handicapped many of them and created costs we had to look at in a dif- ferent way,” Roblin said at a Senate hearing when the bill was fi rst intro- duced this month. The new bill has the same reduc- tion goals as HB 2020, based on cli- mate science from the Intergovern- mental Panel on Climate Change: reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 45% below 1990 levels by 2035 and to 80% below that goal by 2050. The bill likewise intends to achieve those goals by having industry emit- ters purchase and trade carbon cred- its while also establishing an overall emissions cap. But among the key differences lauded by its supporters is that regu- lations on transportation fuels would phase in across the state over a three year period. It’s a move intended to lessen the burden on the rural east side, where lawmakers fear increasing gas prices and industry “leakage” if businesses fl ee to Idaho to avoid pay- ing for pollution. Governor Kate Brown’s Chief of Staff Nik Blosser said that a stipula- tion within the new bill wouldn’t allow for fees incurred from fuel transported from the Willamette Valley to be passed on to east-side consumers. By 2025, all fuel suppliers deliv- ering transportation fuels to cities with more than 10 million gallons of delivery will be required to obtain See Taxes, Page A9 See Greenhouse gas, Page A9 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Mitch Boylan, a C.P.A. with accounting fi rm Barnett & Moro in Hermiston, prepares tax documentation for clients on Friday afternoon. Tax season is here By ALEX CASTLE East Oregonian U MATILLA COUNTY — Break out your records and receipts, the tax season is here. The Internal Revenue Ser- vice (IRS) began accepting federal tax returns on Monday and most source of income documents should have been sent by employers by Friday, meaning it’s time to start preparing to fi le your 2019 return. “My advice would be just try to make a mental note of all the income that you received in 2019,” said Corey Neistadt, a certifi ed public accountant at Pendleton’s Newhouse & Neistadt. “And be looking for the documents that back that up to be emailed to you or sent to you via regular mail. That’d be fi rst and foremost.” While fi ling early in the season has a number of benefi ts, such as poten- tially receiving your refund or fi nding out what you owe sooner, tax profession- als in Umatilla County agree that at least gathering the necessary information can be helpful in guaranteeing your return is done accurately and on time. “The further and further away we get from Dec. 31, the fewer things we remember right?” Neistadt said. “While it’s fresh in your mind, I think it’s great “THE LONGER YOU WAIT TO FILE, THE MORE OPPORTUNITY SOMEONE WHO’S STOLEN YOUR IDENTITY HAS TO FILE BEFORE YOU” — Lonnie Read, Partner at RBH Group to accumulate the data and maybe start putting it into an envelope or something to give to your tax preparer.” Individual tax returns are due to the IRS by April 15 (unless issued a 6-month extension waiver), so you’ll eventually need to accumulate that data. But much of the stress of tax season can be eased by gathering it throughout the year. “It’s all about record keeping,” said Dennis Barnett, co-founder and share- holder of Hermiston’s Barnett & Moro. “The more and better you do it, the more likely you are to be able to make your deductions and receive a bigger refund, or be able to defend yourself if you’re audited.” Maintaining thorough records has aided the 40 or so businesses and part- WEATHER Several factors contribute to weather anomalies Editor’s Note: This is the sec- ond in a four-part series on the National Weather Service. By JAYSON JACOBY EO Media Group BOISE, Idaho — Korri Ander- son shakes his head and utters a rue- ful chuckle when he hears a sen- tence that includes both “snow” and “Halfway.” For Anderson, whose job is to forecast weather, Halfway, a town in eastern Baker County, is an enigma. Halfway, and the Pine Valley in which it sits, are places where certain of the reliable properties that defi ne weather prediction frequently do not apply. The peculiar nature of this place, which measures only about 5 miles by 6 miles, presents itself most nota- bly during winter, and specifi cally in the form of snow, said Anderson, a forecaster at the National Weather Service Offi ce in Boise. That offi ce, although in Idaho, issues forecasts for Baker, Harney and Malheur counties in Oregon. Halfway’s snowfall totals in many years are better measured in feet than in inches. This aspect of Halfway’s climate seems particularly abnormal when compared to the neighboring Eagle Valley, just 6 miles or so to the south- west as the magpie fl ies. Quite often during mid-win- ter the Eagle Valley’s only incorpo- rated city, Richland, will be snow- free while in Halfway the drifts are See Weather, Page A9 EO Media Group fi le photo As storms descend from the Elkhorn Mountains outside of Baker City, compression warms the air, increasing its ability to hold moisture. This warming aff ect can drastically reduce the amount of precipitation near the mountains creating a rain shadow that extends over much of Baker Valley.
