A8
State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Poll: Support for Measure 97
erodes when voters hear pros/cons
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Oregon conservation easement
program will seek $4.25 million
By Mateusz Perkowski
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
An overwhelming major-
ity of Oregon voters support
a corporate sales tax measure
on the November ballot, ac-
cording to a new poll by ic-
itizen, a nonpartisan survey
fi rm.
It’s the second poll in less
than a week to show Mea-
sure 97 with a big lead, but
the icitizen survey included
several follow-up questions,
which indicate that voters’
opinions change when they
learn more about arguments
for how the gross receipts tax
would work.
“This suggests messag-
ing about the effect on an
Oregonian’s pocketbook can
make for a tighter race in No-
vember, depending on either
camp’s ability to market the
measure in their favor,” said
icitizen polling analyst Cyn-
thia Villacis.
The measure, backed by a
coalition of public employee
unions, would levy a 2.5-per-
cent tax on certain corpora-
tions’ Oregon annual sales
exceeding $25 million.
The poll, taken from Sept.
2-7, found that 59 percent of
610 respondents favor the
tax and 21 percent oppose it.
After voters heard arguments
against the measure, that sup-
port dwindled to 40 percent
while opposition spiked to 31
percent. The poll has a 4-per-
cent margin of error.
For instance, 65 percent
of respondents said they
would be less likely to sup-
port the measure if they had
to pay $600 per year in the
form of higher prices and lost
job growth resulting from the
tax. That fi gure is based on
a May estimate by the non-
partisan Legislative Revenue
Offi ce.
Similarly, 59 percent of
respondents were more like-
ly to vote for the measure if
the revenue were to fi ll a $2
billion annual gap in funding
needed for quality education
in the state. That fi gure comes
from the nonpartisan Quality
Education Commission.
When asked how the
money should be spent, the
most common response —
from nearly a quarter of
those polled — was educa-
tion spending.
The icitizen poll mirrors
another independent survey,
this one by DHM Research
taken from Sept. 1-6, which
found 60 percent of respon-
dents support Measure 97,
while 30 percent oppose it.
“At 60 percent (support)
in back-to-back polls, Ore-
gonians are clear they want
corporations to pay their fair
share,” said Katherine Dries-
sen, a spokeswoman for Our
Oregon, the nonprofi t advo-
cacy group backing the mea-
sure. “When we share with
voters that large and out-of-
state corporations pay little
or no taxes, they’re eager to
hold them accountable. They
support 97 because Oregon
voters know great schools
and quality care for our se-
niors makes Oregon strong.”
So far, the campaigns
for and against the measure
have played out mostly on
social media and in front of
editorial boards and civic
groups.
“Generally speaking, the
numbers in the polls we’re
seeing is consistent with
polling we’ve seen since last
fall,” said Pat McCormick, a
spokesman for the Defeat the
Tax on Oregon Sales. “The
numbers haven’t changed
much because there hasn’t
been much robust campaign
dialogue.”
McCormick said cam-
paigning usually heats up
after Labor Day. The opposi-
tion campaign plans to debut
its fi rst television ad some-
time this month, he said.
The debate between the
campaigns centers largely
on who will pay for the tax.
Opponents contend that con-
sumers will pay for the ma-
jority of the cost of the tax,
while supporters argue that
many of the large corpora-
tions affected by the tax will
absorb most of the extra cost
into their national pricing
scheme.
The icitizen poll also test-
ed voters’ position on sever-
al other measures on the No-
vember ballot.
• Measure 94 removes
the mandatory retirement of
judges at age 75: 53 percent
oppose, 33 percent favor, 14
percent undecided.
• Measure 95 allows pub-
lic universities to invest in
equities: 29 percent favor,
24 percent oppose, 47 per-
cent undecided.
• Measure 96 devotes 1.5
percent of state lottery reve-
nue to fund veteran services:
83 percent favor, 8 percent
oppose, 9 percent undecid-
ed.
• Measure 98 devotes a
portion of new state revenue
to fund dropout prevention
and career and college read-
iness programs in Oregon
high schools: 64 percent fa-
vor, 19 percent oppose, 17
percent undecided.
• Measure 99 desig-
nates $22 million in state
lottery revenue for outdoor
education for all fi fth- and
sixth-graders in Oregon: 69
percent favor, 19 percent op-
pose, 12 percent undecided.
• Measure 100 prohibits
the sale of products and parts
of 12 types of endangered
animals: 85 percent favor,
7 percent oppose, 8 percent
undecided.
Capital Bureau
Oregon legislators will like-
ly be asked for $4.25 million
next year to pay for conser-
vation easements that would
protect farmland from develop-
ment.
Plans are beginning to so-
lidify for the Oregon Agricul-
tural Heritage Program, which
would provide grants to farm-
ers interested in easements and
succession planning, said Meta
Loftsgaarden, executive direc-
tor of the Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board.
OWEB, which will oversee
the program, plans to hold “lis-
tening sessions” this autumn
based on concepts developed
by agricultural and conserva-
tion groups before drafting pro-
posed legislation for the 2017
legislative session, she said.
“We didn’t want to go out
to farmers and ranchers with
a blank slate. We really want-
ed to have something they
could react to,” Loftsgaarden
said during the Sept. 12 Or-
The Eagle/Sean Hart
Roger Ediger, a rancher
in Mt. Vernon, has
decided to place a
conservation easement
on the land that will
preserve its current
condition in perpetuity.
egon Board of Agriculture
meeting in Pendleton, Ore.
Conservation
easements
are usually sold or donated by
farmers who give up their de-
velopment rights in exchange
for tax benefi ts and lower prop-
erty values, reducing inheri-
tance taxes.
They haven’t been as com-
monly used in Oregon as in
Poll: Dems outpace GOP in state races
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
Democratic
candidates
running statewide in Oregon are
leading by varying margins, ac-
cording to results of a new poll
released Tuesday.
Gov. Kate Brown was the
choice of 44 percent of those
surveyed, outpacing Republican
candidate William “Bud” Pierce
by 17 percentage points, accord-
ing to the poll conducted by
icitizen, a Tennessee company.
Twenty-three percent of voters
were undecided on their choice
for governor.
Brown’s lead over Pierce
mirrors the advantage Dem-
ocratic presidential hopeful
Hillary Clinton has over Re-
publican Donald Trump in Or-
egon. The icitizen poll puts her
ahead, 43 percent to 28 percent.
Libertarian Gary Johnson was
Pamplin Media Group
Secretary of State candidate Brad Avakian responds
to a question as GOP candidate Dennis Richardson
listens. A recent poll shows Avakian has a 3-point
lead over Richardson, with 45 percent of voters
either undecided or backing another candidate.
favored by 11 percent of the
respondents, while Green Party
candidate Jill Stein drew 3 per-
cent.
According to the poll, the
contest for the Oregon secretary
of state is much tighter.
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other states because of the state-
wide land use planning system,
but this system alone isn’t
enough to prevent the fragmen-
tation of working lands, Lofts-
gaarden said.
The $4.25 million wouldn’t
be enough funding for every-
one who wanted to sell an ease-
ment, but it would serve as a
pilot program — particularly
for lands inhabited by threat-
ened or endangered species,
or that are subject to “urban
growth boundary” expansion,
said Doug Krahmer, a blueber-
ry farmer who sits on a work
group advising the program.
The easements will have
a conservation component
and could be used to provide
properties with regulatory pro-
tections, offering an additional
incentive for farmers, Lofts-
gaarden said.
Currently, a similar ap-
proach is used for forestlands
where owners want to grow
trees older than 30 years but are
afraid of creating habitat for the
northern spotted owl, hindering
future timber harvest, she said.
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
The Democratic candidate,
Brad Avakian, leads his rival,
former state representative and
gubernatorial candidate Dennis
Richardson, by just 3 percent-
age points.
Avakian, the labor commis-
sioner, took in 29 percent, while
Richardson garnered 26 percent
of vote in the survey. Thirty-six
percent were undecided, and 9
percent favored a minor party
candidate.
Brad Pyle, Avakian’s cam-
paign manager, said Richard-
son’s views on abortion rights
and immigration are at odds
with those of most Oregonians.
“The election will not be
held until voters have had time
to see that Dennis Richardson
represents the Trump wing of
the Republican Party,” Pyle
wrote in an email response to
the poll results.
The icitizen poll, conducted
online from Sept. 2-7, asked 610
Oregon voters who they would
vote for if the election were held
today. It has a margin of error of
4 points. Many polled remained
undecided about their choice for
secretary of state, as did many
who were polled about the trea-
surer’s race.
Just under half — 48 percent
— of voters surveyed said they
were undecided in the contest
for treasurer.
Democratic candidate Tobias
Read, a state representative from
Washington County, received
25 percent of votes. Republican
Jeff Gudman, a Lake Oswego
city councilor, took 18 percent.
The third candidate, Chris
Telfer, an Independent Party
candidate from Bend, was the
choice of 9 percent surveyed.