Region & State
By +LOOary BRrrXG
Capital Bureau
Christmas Lighting
Contest
The City of Mt. Vernon will be sponsoring a
Christmas Lighting Contest
There will be two categories open within only the
City limits of Mt. Vernon:
• Business – 1 st place $100/2nd place $50
• Residential – 1 st place $100/2nd place $50
Judging will occur the evening of Tuesday,
December 22 and winners will be announced
Wednesday, December 23 at 9am.
Pick up application forms at
Mt. Vernon City Hall
199 W. Main St.
Applications must be returned
to Mt. Vernon City Hall
by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday,
December 22.
Use of 2.5 million acres in central and southern Malheur County in question
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Area in
detail
VALE — It’s full steam
ahead for the committee
opposing a wilderness or
monument designation in
Malheur County.
Malheur County Court
members voted Wednesday
to direct the Task Force in
Opposition to the Wilder-
ness/Monument Proposal of
the Owyhee Canyonlands
Coalition to continue its
work fighting both designa-
tions.
The court also agreed to
move ahead with an adviso-
ry vote on the wilderness/
monument proposal tenta-
tively planned for March 8.
The filing deadline is Dec.
9.
The task force, chaired
by County Commissioner
Larry Wilson, has been busy
gathering signatures on pe-
titions in opposition, getting
letters of support from oth-
er counties in Oregon, plus
letters from cities and busi-
nesses.
Wilson said 18 counties
are supporting Malheur
County’s position.
Task force members are
seeking face-to-face meet-
ings with the secretary of
interior, both Oregon U.S.
senators and the White
House before a monument
decision is made.
John Blake, task force
co-chairman, said he has not
been able to set up a meet-
ing with either senator.
Ore.
BAKER
26
Proposed national Ontario
conservation area
Nyssa
20
Jordan
Valley
Burns
Junction
Idaho
Ore.
SALEM — Oregon econ-
omists painted a rosy picture
for the state’s revenues and
economy over the next two
years, during a forecast
Wednesday morning.
Economists said they
expect the economy will
continue at “full throttle”
for another year or two, as
the post-recession recovery
continues.
“For the last couple
years, we have been becom-
ing more optimistic about
the (2015-2017) bienni-
um,” state economist Mark
McMullen said Wednesday
morning.
Oregon’s economists ex-
pect the state will receive
$56 million more in general
fund and lottery revenues in
the current biennium than
they had projected in the
summer, when lawmakers
were drafting the budget.
The latest forecast is for
$19.5 billion in total state
revenues.
McMullen said the
strong revenue forecast for
the current two-year bud-
get meant lawmakers would
not have to adjust their rev-
enue expectations at this
point.
“I wish the same could be
said on the spending side,”
McMullen said.
“This report is not full of
surprises, which generally
means we like it,” said state
Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eu-
gene, chair of the House
Interim Committee on Rev-
enue. Lawmakers on the
state House and Senate rev-
enue committees held a joint
meeting to hear the econom-
ic and revenue forecasts and
other reports.
It could still take another
year for the number of jobs
in Oregon to catch up to the
number of workers, said
senior economist Josh Leh-
ner. Lehner and McMullen
said the lack of affordable
housing — particularly in
the Portland metropolitan
area, Hood River and Bend
— and weakness in the man-
ufacturing sector could be
signals of future problems
for the state’s economy.
Lehner said housing af-
fordability is now a problem
“for people up and down the
spectrum.”
Lawmakers and the state
economists spent little time
discussing the less rosy out-
look beyond the current two
year budget. In 2017 through
2019, economist projected
that general fund and lottery
revenues could decrease by
$47.5 million.
Gov. Kate Brown said in
a press release that she will
continue to monitor the rev-
enue outlook.
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“We need to get anyone
and everyone involved (in
the opposition),” Commis-
sioner Don Hodge said. “It’s
a big deal.”
While a wilderness area
has to be created by Con-
gress, a monument can be
declared by the president
under the Antiquities Act.
Oregon Natural Desert
Association, which is part
of the Owyhee Canyon
Coalition, is proposing a
national conservation area
of about 2.5 million acres,
most to become a wilder-
ness area in central and
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Capital Bureau
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southern Malheur County.
Other members of the
coalition are seeking a mon-
ument designation for the
area.
“This proposal for a
monument/wilderness area
is a gross overreach and
misuse of existing laws and
policies, which we can-
not influence very effec-
tively,” task force member
Andy Bentz said. “If made
a monument or wilderness
area, the health of the land
will suffer greatly due to
the progress just started
on addressing the invasive
species (being) stopped or
made cost-prohibitive.”
He said a monument or
wilderness area this size
will greatly impact the eco-
nomic future of local in-
dustries, tribes, businesses,
disabled veterans, senior
citizens, communities and
schools.
ONDA and other coali-
tion members maintain that
local industries, particularly
ranching, will not be affect-
ed by wilderness or mon-
ument designations. They
also say that the area be-
longs to everyone, not just
the residents of Malheur
County.
Bentz addressed the lat-
ter issue before the County
Court.
“Those of us that live in
the environment and open
space of southeast Oregon
share the belief that it is not
land just to visit on vaca-
tion,” Bentz said. “For all of
us, it represents our culture,
our customs. It’s spiritual,
it’s our economics, it’s our
livelihood, it’s our home,
while others see this land as
only a place to occasionally
recreate.”
The recreation that oc-
curs in the canyonlands
does not have the econom-
ic benefit that supporters
of a monument or wilder-
ness keep promising, Bentz
said.
The County Court had
three options Wednesday,
including urging the com-
mittee to keep fighting the
designation. The other op-
tions included doing noth-
ing or having the task force
set up a meeting with the
members of the Owyhee
Canyonlands Coalition.
The third option was not
a negotiation but a listening
meeting, Bentz explained.
The County Court will
send a letter to U.S. Sen.
Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon,
and U.S. Ron Wyden, D-Or-
egon, covering many of the
same points that Bentz gave
and urging the lawmakers to
support language approved
by the U.S. House in July
prohibiting funds for a na-
tional monument declara-
tion through the end of the
fiscal year.
That language was in-
cluded in an appropria-
tions bill in the House. The
court is requesting the sen-
ators support its inclusion
in a Senate appropriations
bill.
Legislator proposes
regional minimum wage
02942
State forecast paints
rosy picture of revenues
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Ore.
Idaho
Blue Mountain Eagle
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SALEM — Spurred by
two ballot initiatives to raise
Oregon’s minimum wage, a
Portland lawmaker plans to
propose legislation in Febru-
ary that would set different
regional minimum wage rates
based on cost of living and
median income.
Sen. Michael Dembrow,
who chairs the Senate work-
force committee, said a leg-
islative agreement could help
avert an acrimonious and pro-
longed battle over minimum
wage at the ballot box.
“Our hope is if we can
pass it in February, that the
campaigns will stop collect-
ing signatures, and they’ll feel
comfortable with it,” Dem-
brow said.
A legislative work group
began at the end of last ses-
sion looking at some of the
issues to consider in setting a
minimum wage.
“What became clear from
that was we needed to do
something that is not one-
size-¿ ts-all,” Dembrow said.
“We needed to take into ac-
count cost of living and eco-
nomic vitality in different
parts of the state.”
Dembrow said he envi-
sions setting three regional
minimum wage rates — with
the highest rate in the Portland
metro area and the lowest in
rural areas.
The rates would be phased
in during a three- to four-year
period, he said.
“Our goal here is to get
the wage where families can
make it without relying on
public assistance,” he said.
Senate workforce commit-
tee members have yet to settle
on exact numbers but hope
to have those details ready in
time for a public hearing Jan.
14.
The regionally tiered min-
imum wage would address
the need for higher incomes
in Portland, where housing
costs are skyrocketing, with-
out crippling businesses in
slower economic areas such
as the southern coast, Dem-
brow said.
One ballot initiative un-
derway proposes hiking the
state’s minimum wage to $15
per hour by 2019. Another ini-
tiative by a union-led coalition
seeks to boost minimum wage
to $13.50 and give cities the
authority to hike wages be-
yond that.
Dembrow’s
legislation
would not repeal state pre-
emption on wage hikes, which
prohibits municipalities from
increasing minimum wage.
Giving cities the authority
to independently hike wages
can be problematic, Dembrow
said.
“If Portland does raise the
minimum wage, and Beaver-
ton doesn’t, there is a concern
a lot of businesses would re-
locate,” Dembrow said. “We
have had a lot of experience
with the state setting its own
minimum wage but haven’t
had a lot of experience with
cities doing it. That is a rela-
tively new phenomenon.”
In the past two years,
Washington, D.C., Seattle,
San Francisco and Los Ange-
les have taken action to grad-
ually raise minimum wage to
$15.