Business
AgLife
Program
helps with
internet
access
Thursday, March 10, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
‘Bracket creep’
increases
among
Oregonians
Many rising incomes put
more Oregon residents
in higher tax brackets
Low-income Oregon
households eligible for
high-speed internet discount
through federal program
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
SALEM — A new federal program
will subsidize internet connections for
low-income households, paying $30 a
month to help people cover the cost of
online access.
All three of Oregon’s major broad-
band providers, Comcast, CenturyLink
and Ziply Fiber, are participating,
as are leading wireless internet car-
riers AT&T and Verizon. Comcast, the
state’s largest internet provider, esti-
mates that more than 180,000 house-
holds are eligible in its service territory
in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The new $14 billion Affordable
Connectivity Program is the successor
to the Emergency Broadband Benefit
that Congress established during the
pandemic.
The older program, which expired
Tuesday, drew on temporary funding
established by COVID-19 relief pro-
grams and paid up to $50 a month to
offset internet costs at a time when
millions of people were working and
attending school remotely.
Congress authorized the new
Affordable Connectivity Program last
fall as a long-term successor. It pays
$30 a month, or up to $75 for house-
holds on tribal lands. People qualify
if their household income is less than
double the federal poverty standard.
That means a single person with an
income below $27,000 a year quali-
fies; for a family of four, the qualifying
standard is $55,500. People also qualify
if they participate in certain federal
public assistance programs, among
them food stamps, Medicaid and the
National School Lunch Program.
The federal government is taking
applications online at acpbenefit.org.
Eligible applicants have the money
applied to their monthly internet bills.
Some families with low incomes
can receive free internet service
through the new program. Com-
cast’s Internet Essentials program, for
example, offers discounted internet
service to families that qualify for
free and reduced-price school lunches,
Medicaid, food stamps and other
programs.
People who qualify for Internet
Essentials, which offers downloads of
up to 50 megabits per second, can have
the entire cost of their internet connec-
tion paid for by the Affordable Connec-
tivity Program.
B
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
A sign marks a home for sale in La Grande on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. A judge in March 2022 blocked Oregon’s
law prohibiting buyers from providing “love letters” and personal photographs to sellers as a way to improve
their chances of getting the house they want.
Real estate
‘love letters’
Prospective homebuyers can again write personal
notes to appeal to sellers in Oregon
By APRIL EHRLICH
Oregon Public Broadcasting
S
ALEM — A federal
judge on Friday, March
4, granted a preliminary
injunction that prohibits Oregon
from enforcing a law against
“love letters” to home sellers.
In his court order, District Judge
Marco A. Hernández says Oregon’s
House Bill 2550 “likely violates” the First
Amendment rights of real estate agents.
“It is not in the public interest to
enforce a law that is likely unconstitu-
tional, even one aimed at the laudable
goal of reducing unlawful discrimination
in housing,” his legal opinion reads.
The 2021 law was the first of its
kind in the nation. It prohibited buyers
from providing “love letters” and per-
sonal photographs to sellers as a way
to improve their chances of getting the
house they want. Supporters argue that
these letters perpetuate housing discrim-
ination by revealing a buyer’s race, reli-
gion, sexual orientation or marital status.
The real estate market has grown
uneasy with love letters because they
risk raising a housing discrimination
claim. Many real estate agents won’t
accept them. Still, proponents say these
letters are often the only edge a first-
time buyer has against deep-pocketed
investors that buy entry-level homes.
Shortly after the law passed, the con-
servative Pacific Legal Foundation filed a
lawsuit on behalf of the Bend-based Total
Real Estate Group. They filed the lawsuit
See, Letters/Page B6
PORTLAND — Most Oregonians
have enjoyed steadily rising incomes
dating back to the end of the Great
Recession, but it’s been an especially
lucrative stretch for those at the top
end of the income spectrum.
Oregon had about 75,000 tax-
payers in the state’s top income tax
bracket in 2020, according to state
data, triple the number in 2010.
State economists call this “bracket
creep,” the steady rise in the tax rate
that people pay as their incomes rise.
And it’s a driving force behind Ore-
gon’s rapidly growing state revenues.
Oregon personal income tax rates
range from 4.75% to 9.9%. People
pay the top rate on incomes over
$125,000-$250,000 for couples filing
jointly.
While just under 4% of Orego-
nians pay the state’s highest tax
rate, they account for more than a
third of the personal income taxes
Oregon collects. And those rising
incomes fill the state’s tax coffers to
overflowing.
“Not only does that income get
taxed, the average tax rate goes
up because a lot of our taxpayers
now are moving into higher tax
brackets. And so they’re taxed at a
higher rate,” state economist Mark
McMullen explained to Oregon law-
makers in his quarterly revenue fore-
cast this month.
Not coincidentally, he forecast
that Oregonians will likely get yet
another kicker rebate in 2024.
Corporate tax payments are up,
too, but Oregon’s general fund relies
primarily on personal income taxes.
The general fund receives nine times
more from personal income taxes
than from taxes on company profits.
Company profits do filter through
to personal income taxes, too. A
decade of bull market returns on
Wall Street prompted people to cash
in, selling stocks and other assets
— thereby producing more taxable
income for themselves.
It’s a two-way street, of course.
Incomes usually fall when the
economy falters. And declines on
Wall Street are magnified in Ore-
gon’s personal income tax payments,
because people are less likely to sell
depressed assets. And if they do sell,
they sell for less.
“We get very drastic losses when
we have a traditional recession,”
McMullen said, “as taxpayers fall
out of this top tax rate.”
Potential county hemp restrictions raise concerns about Oregon industry
high demand and healthful
effects of cannabidiol, or
CBD, caused a surge in
SALEM — Oregon coun- hemp production that was
ties may suspend new hemp soon followed by a surplus,
production under a law
prompting many farmers to
recently passed by the Leg-
abandon or reduce cultiva-
islature, raising concerns
tion of the crop.
Acreage across the U.S.
in the hemp industry about
dropped by more than 50%
farmers missing economic
last year, while Oregon’s
opportunities.
Under Senate Bill 1564,
acreage plummeted more
which now awaits the sig-
than 80%, according to
nature of Gov. Kate Brown, Whitney.
county governments can
At the same time, Oregon
declare an emergency to stop law enforcement author-
ities have complained to
the issuance of new state
hemp licenses for two years. state lawmakers that hemp
Hemp production in
is being used to disguise the
Oregon has already fallen
illegal production of mar-
precipitously due to an over- ijuana, a related cannabis
supply, but county restric-
crop with psychoactive
tions could hinder an
properties.
industry resurgence at a time
“When you can’t regu-
late an industry, it makes no
when new uses for the crop
are multiplying, experts say. sense to add more work for
“The negative impact is it our regulatory agencies,”
sends a message to the rest
testified Nathan Sickler,
of the country that Oregon
Jackson County’s sheriff,
is not where you want to do
during a legislative hearing
hemp,” said Beau Whitney,
last month.
an economist who tracks the
The original language
industry. “It puts the state
of SB 1564 would have
farther and farther behind.”
imposed a two-year morato-
rium on new hemp licenses,
Excitement about the
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
CBD, including bioplastics
and livestock feed, he said.
The crop can even by used
as an alternative to lithium
in batteries.
Meanwhile, carbon
credits — which are sold
to offset emissions — are
poised to become a new
revenue source for hemp
farmers, he said.
“This regulatory uncer-
tainty is impacting the fiber
and grain side,” Whitney
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press, File said. “It’s suppressing the
Hemp is harvested from an Oregon field in this undated photo. A growth and development.
2022 bill that permits counties to suspend new hemp production has At the time Oregon should
raised concerns about farmers missing economic opportunities.
be supporting hemp on an
industrial scale, it’s trying to
but the bill was amended so port the narrative at all,” he
put restrictions on hemp.”
said, referring to licensed
that the decision was left to
Mark Taylor, founder
hemp growers allegedly pro- of the Southern Oregon
counties.
ducing black market mari-
The idea was to provide
Hemp Cooperative, said the
juana. “Will this really do
“local control” since the
bill could punish growers
any good? Probably not.”
problem with sham hemp
who wisely decided to stop
Whitney said it’s com-
farms was mostly reported
growing hemp tempo-
mendable that lawmakers
rarily due to the oversupply
in Jackson and Josephine
scaled back the bill’s scope
or for crop rotation. It also
counties.
in response to hemp industry blocks legitimate newcomers
However, the amount
concerns, but he fears the
with fresh ideas from the
of licensed hemp grown
bill still sends the wrong
industry.
in hoop house systems
“They’re penalizing us
common for marijuana rep- signal.
resents less than 2% of state
Hemp is seeing new
for their lack of pre-plan-
ning,” Taylor said of state
acreage, Whitney said.
demand in products that
lawmakers. “You restrict
“The data does not sup-
have nothing to do with
brainpower that could come
in and do it better.”
Oregon hemp farmers
have drastically scaled
back planting in response
to market conditions,
which isn’t recognized
by lawmakers who don’t
understand the industry,
Taylor said.
“The market self-adjusted
and they gave no due to that
whatsoever,” he said.
The state government
would have been more effec-
tive with outreach and edu-
cation to the hemp industry
and other farmers, warning
them to keep an eye out for
bad actors who’d attempt
illicit marijuana production,
Taylor said.
“I don’t think government
spends enough time on the
ground,” he said. “They’re in
their ivory tower.”
County restrictions would
diminish the industry’s com-
petitive spirit and amount
to the government “picking
winners and losers” by
allowing existing growers to
keep their licenses, Taylor
said. “It all speaks of gov-
ernment overreach.”