A6
State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Three-tiered minimum wage plan passes
Grant County
rate will increase
to $12.50 by 2022
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A three-tiered
minimum wage plan cleared
its last hurdle Thursday when
the House of Representatives
approved the measure 32 to
26.
Gov. Kate Brown said she
plans to sign the bill. The Sen-
ate approved the bill last week.
“Today’s action advances
one of my priorities for 2016:
raise the minimum wage,”
Brown said in a statement
Thursday.
The plan increases wages
to $14.75 in the Portland metro
area, $12.50 in rural and coast-
al areas with struggling econo-
mies, including Grant County,
and $13.50 in the rest of the
state by 2022. The ¿rst pay
bump starts in July, from $9.25
to $9.75 statewide.
Supporters of a ballot ini-
tiative to raise wages to $15
Pamplin Media Group/Paris Achen
Demonstrators chant for higher wages and rent
control outside Gov. Kate Brown’s office during
a floor debate on minimum wage in the House of
Representatives.
in the next three years said the
legislative plan raises wages
too slowly given skyrocketing
costs.
They have yet to decide
whether to pursue placing the
initiative on the 2016 ballot.
They are continuing to gather
signatures but plan to meet in
the next couple of weeks to dis-
cuss whether there is enough
support and resources for the
ballot measure to succeed, said
Justin Norton-Kertson, cam-
paign manager for Oregonians
for $15 Now.
'uring more than ¿ve
hours of debate Thursday, the
House rejected proposals by
Republicans to send the pro-
posal to the ballot.
“Let the 2.2 million voters
decide what is best for Orego-
nians and for themselves,” said
Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Ore-
gon City.
Lawmakers also rejected
a proposal by Republicans
to send the measure to the
Joint Committee on Ways and
Means for a ¿scal analysis.
The legislative ¿scal of¿ce
has said the total cost of the
bill to state government is in-
determinate because the plan
is phased-in and it’s unknown
how many wages will be af-
fected each year.
“The decision by the major-
ity party to bypass our budget
committee in favor of an expe-
dited approach to passing this
bill is nearly unprecedented,”
said Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep-
pner. “We owe it to Oregonians
to fully vet this proposal, ¿gure
out what it is going to cost tax-
payers and make sure we have
a plan for addressing those
costs.”
Rep. Tobias Read, D-Bea-
verton, said raising the wage
also would save revenue be-
cause fewer people would
need public assistance.
In rural areas, the minimum
would increase to $12.50.
Those areas include Mal-
heur, Lake, Harney, Wheeler,
Sherman, Gilliam, Wallowa,
Grant, Jefferson, Baker, Union,
Crook, Klamath, Douglas,
Coos, Curry, Umatilla and
Morrow counties.
Amended energy bill lowers cost increase caps
By Hillary Borrud
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A bill to dou-
ble Oregon’s renewable en-
ergy mandate is headed for a
vote as soon as Wednesday in
the state Senate, where it faces
an uncertain fate.
The Senate Committee on
Business and Transportation
voted 3-2 Monday afternoon
to pass an amended version
of the bill out of committee.
Committee chair Sen. Lee
Beyer, D-Spring¿eld, wrote
the amendment in an attempt
to address concerns that the
bill, which was negotiated
behind closed doors by the
state’s two investor-owned
utilities,
environmental
groups, the renewable energy
industry and Citizens Utili-
ty Board of Oregon, will be
costly to consumers and busi-
nesses.
Beyer said the amendment
strengthened the role of the
Public Utility Commission, in
response to criticism the earli-
er version would have weak-
ened commission oversight.
Utilities objected to a pro-
vision in the amendment that
would lower the annual cost
cap for the renewable energy
mandate from 4 percent to 3
percent. The existing renew-
able energy mandate allows
utilities to ask the Public Util-
ity Commission to approve
rate increases based on costs
incurred to meet the law.
“I’m not sure why chang-
ing it advances the policy
now,” said Scott Bolton, a
vice president at Paci¿Corp.
Ry Schwark, a spokes-
man for Paci¿Corp, said he
expected the bill might still
undergo changes. “Since this
now will likely need to go to
conference, much will depend
upon what comes out the other
end of that process,” Schwark
wrote in an email.
Beyer’s amendment also ex-
panded the types of energy the
utilities could use to meet the
renewables mandate to include
certain hydropower projects,
biomass and power plants that
burn municipal solid waste.
Emails seem to contradict
Oracle’s Cover Oregon claims
By Nick Budnick
Pamplin Media Group
The words you are about to
read are ones that Oracle has
been ¿ghting to keep secret.
The multinational soft-
ware giant insists that it’s not
to blame for the website ¿as-
co turned national punchline
known as Cover Oregon.
However, a document re-
viewed by Pamplin Media
Group last week contains internal
communications that seemingly
contradict what Oracle has been
telling politicians and the public,
and suggest the company’s own
employees felt Oracle did not
give Oregon its money’s worth.
The interof¿ce corre-
spondence has never been
disclosed publicly in the two
years since the faulty health
care exchange cost the state
more than $300 million.
In fact, the California-based
contractor, with annual revenue
of about $38 billion, is battling
in court to keep its internal com-
munications under wraps.
Oracle repeatedly has
blamed the failure of the Cov-
er Oregon website project
on state mismanagement and
politics. It has found plenty of
backing in thousands of docu-
ments already released public-
ly by the state of Oregon.
The state, meanwhile, has
argued that Oracle knew its
work was faulty and kept vi-
tal information from the state.
What’s more, the state in court
says it now has internal docu-
ments that support that claim.
But, because Oracle has desig-
nated the documents as con¿-
dential, the state has been un-
able to share publicly what it
calls proof of its claims.
Last month the Oregon At-
torney General’s Of¿ce submit-
ted a 24-page brief in Marion
County Circuit Court arguing
that Oracle was wrongly clas-
sifying its internal documents
as con¿dential. The brief said
several examples of Oracle’s
internal correspondence are
not trade secrets and should
be disclosed. But, because the
documents remain under seal,
the passages are redacted —
covered with a black bar.
Last week, however, the
Pamplin Media Group was able
to review a version of the brief
without the redactions. The
passages include summaries
(and a few selected quotes) of
private exchanges between Or-
acle employees. They reveal:
Some of Oracle’s own em-
ployees in reports and emails
dissed the company’s work for
Oregon, according to the brief.
One company assessment in
November 2013 found its soft-
ware development “didn’t pass
the ‘laugh test.’”
In a Nov. 22, 2013, internal
email that appears to contain
two typos, one Oracle develop-
er wrote that an “army” of pro-
grammers for the company was
“rapoing the state f Oregon on
something that will never work
well,” according to the brief.
Yet another passage, from a
March 16, 2012, internal email,
suggests a company executive
may have opposed the state’s
plan to hire a prime contractor to
oversee Oracle’s work out of a
desire to preserve the company’s
lucrative position as Cover Or-
egon’s prime contractor. Oracle
now, in contrast, says this lack
of oversight is at the heart of the
project’s problems.
Concerns about the proj-
ect prompted Oracle’s founder,
billionaire Larry Ellison, to re-
quest daily progress reports in
a Nov. 16, 2013, email.
Church Services In Grant County
CHURCH OF THE
NAZARENE
Sunday School..............................9:30 am
Sunday Worship Service .............. 10:45 am
Sunday Evening Service................6:00 pm
Children & Teen Activities
SMALL GROUPS CALL FOR MORE INFO
Weekdays: Sonshine Christian School
521 E. Main • John Day • 541-575-1895
wwww.johndaynazarene.com