State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
A9
Commission wrestles with wolf questions
By Eric Mortenson
Capital Bureau
A couple of items emerged
June 8 when the citizen com-
mission that sets Oregon’s
wildlife policy sat down once
again to gnaw on the state’s
plan for managing wolves.
Among them: There’s a
question about who should
investigate when Oregon
wolves devour livestock.
A “depredation,” as it’s
called in wildlife manage-
ment-speak. The Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
says it could use some help.
Cattle ranchers would like to
see properly certified local
groups involved, to speed
up the process. Depredation
investigations are important
because wolves involved in
enough of them can end up
dead. “Lethal control,” is the
polite term.
Oregon State Police say
no thanks. The OSP Wild-
life Division head, Capt. Jeff
Samuels, said his game offi-
cers would need eight hours
of training each, about 1,000
hours total. That’s expensive.
“I don’t think it fits into
our mission,” Samuels told
the commission members.
“Depredations are not a law
enforcement issue.”
He said OSP is happy to
help ODFW biologists, but
making the call on whether
wolves were responsible for
killing livestock is not its re-
sponsibility.
While Samuels was
handy, ODFW Commission-
er Bruce Buckmaster said the
commission has heard allega-
tions that wolf poaching has
increased.
“There
certainly
is
Contributed photo/Baker Aircraft; ODFW
After radio-collaring a subadult female of the Chesnimnus
pack Feb. 23 in Wallowa County, an ODFW biologist
double-checks the fit of the GPS radio-collar.
poaching of wolves,” Sam-
uels responded. He didn’t
provide more details and
the commission didn’t ask
for any. Groups such as Or-
egon Wild, Cascadia Wild-
lands and Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity maintain wolf
poaching is on the rise.
Another issue: Does the
burden of Oregon’s wolf
management approach weigh
too heavily on private land-
owners? People in Northeast
Oregon, especially in Wal-
lowa County and especially
cattle ranchers, would say of
course. Russ Morgan, ODFW
wolf program manager, said
74 percent of confirmed wolf
depredations occur on private
land.
Michael Finley, the ODFW
Commission chair, raised the
question. He said it’s a dichot-
omy: Private land with private
expectations, and a public re-
source — wolves — is doing
damage and costing owners
money.
He wondered out loud
whether wolves on private
property ought to be man-
aged differently. For example,
require only two confirmed
depredations on private land
instead of three, the uniform
private-public standard.
It’s complicated because
Oregon land is about 50-
50 public and private, often
butting up against each other.
Wolves go where they want
and ranchers use both, be-
cause grazing is a permitted
activity on land managed by
the BLM and Forest Service.
Todd Nash, a Wallowa
County commissioner who is
wolf committee chair for the
Oregon Cattlemen’s Associa-
tion, agreed property lines are
intermixed and sometimes un-
fenced. But he said cattle are
private property, and ranchers
wouldn’t allow someone to
rustle their cattle, for instance,
no matter where they were
grazing. Insert eat for rustle
and the point is made.
Tension over revenue, transportation erupts into confrontation at Capitol
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
Tension over a state trans-
portation funding bill erupt-
ed into a confrontation be-
tween union leaders and
lawmakers June 7 during a
hearing on the legislation.
Some union leaders indi-
cated at the hearing that they
would oppose the package if
legislators fail to pass corpo-
rate tax reform this session,
which ends July 10.
“We believe it would be a
mistake to leave this session
in solving one problem and
leaving the other for anoth-
er day and another session,”
said Steven Demarest, presi-
dent of SEIU Local 503.
The union represents
55,000 in Oregon, including
employees of the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion, homecare workers and
others.
“The transportation pack-
age would tax workers, driv-
ers and car owners. At the
same time, the current bud-
get would cut the hours for
homecare workers who care
for seniors and people with
disabilities, meaning many
would face decreases in their
Capital Bureau/Paris Achen
Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, presents provisions of the
state transportation funding bill at the Oregon Capitol
in Salem in May 2017. He accused unions of political
blackmail over testimony during a hearing on state
transportation funding bill June 7.
pay,” he continued.
His testimony prompted
Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scap-
poose, to ask: “Is SEIU really
willing to sacrifice the trans-
portation package…if reve-
nue doesn’t materialize?”
“We believe they have to
go together, yes,” Demarest
replied. “We don’t believe
the transportation package
goes through without reve-
nue reform.”
Sen. Brian Boquist,
R-Dallas, who sits on each
of the joint committees re-
sponsible for the transpor-
tation package and revenue
reform, then spoke up and
accused Demarest of playing
“political blackmail.”
Demarest denied that
unions are trying to black-
mail lawmakers.
“We’re here to protect
and advocate for working
Oregonians, in particular
low- and middle-income
Oregonians, so the idea that
workers, individual tax-
payers are currently paying
more than their fair share
to increase that burden
even greater is not accept-
able,” the union president
said.
Boquist retorted that what
Demarest was “proposing is
one or the other.”
“If you want to play po-
litical blackmail games, let’s
make sure it’s all over ev-
ery newspaper in the entire
state,” Boquist said. “… I
am one of the individuals
that has to put this thing
together on both sides, and
your union isn’t helping;
your union is hurting, … and
no, I’m not interested in lis-
tening to you anymore.”
Throughout negotiations
over the transportation bill,
lawmakers aimed to craft
a package that would be at
low risk of a challenge at the
ballot.
Another union leader,
Dan Smith of Yamhill Coun-
ty SEIU, spoke to the legis-
lator’s greatest fear, suggest-
ing that voters might try to
refer the package to the bal-
lot and defeat it.
“If it were a good deal,
I would suggest it wouldn’t
collapse by voters,” Smith
said.
Unions have been trying
to recover after suffering
a setback at the ballot last
November when they at-
tempted to pass a measure
that would levy a tax on
corporate sales. Business
groups unified to defeat the
measure.
The Joint Committee on
Revenue Reform has been
working on a proposal for a
commercial activity tax on
corporations, which would
raise less revenue than the
tax that voters cast down in
November.
05745
Democrats propose ‘breakthrough’ plan for revenue reform
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
In the waning weeks of
the legislative session, two
leading Democrats have
come up with a tax reform
plan to address the state’s
$1.4 billion revenue short-
fall.
The plan by Sen. Mark
Hass, D-Beaverton, and
House Speaker Tina Kotek
would raise an estimated
$900 million in the next two
years.
“Momentum is building
to go forward with revenue
reform this session. ... Now,
we finally have a break-
through,” Kotek said June 7.
“This plan, along with long-
term cost containment, is
our best chance to increase
investments in education
while also providing sig-
nificant tax relief for small
businesses and personal tax
relief for middle and low-in-
come families.”
Hass emphasized that the
plan is a package that in-
cludes tax reform, contain-
ment of state government
costs and reductions in state
employees’ pension benefits.
“These are hard votes
for Democrats in the House,
but I think they will vote for
those, if they know there
also is a revenue tax reform
package. Without a revenue
package, those won’t pass,
so this is a two-step dance.
We have to have both.”
If revenue reform fails
this session, union leaders
say they are poised to peti-
tion for a ballot measure to
make corporations pay more
taxes.
Hass and Kotek have yet
to seek official approval
from the Joint Committee
on Tax Reform, which has to
vote on the proposal before
it can move to the House
floor.
The plan would tempo-
rarily hike corporate income
taxes in 2017 and 2018 from
6.6 percent and 7.6 percent
to 8 percent and 9 percent in
order to raise the $900 mil-
lion. The corporate income
tax would then be repealed
in 2019 and replaced with
a commercial activity tax
on businesses with annual
sales of $3 million or great-
er. The change would effec-
tively mean small businesses
would no longer have to pay
corporate taxes, only a $250
filing fee, Hass said.
Other states have pursued
similar tax reforms to help
stabilize their corporate in-
come revenue, he said.
The five-tier rate is pro-
posed at 0.75 percent for
services, 0.35 percent for
retail trade, 0.25 percent
for wholesale, 0.15 percent
for agriculture, forestry and
fishing, and 0.48 percent for
all other industries.
The new tax would come
in tandem with a reduction
in the personal income tax
to account for any nominal
price increases resulting
from the commercial activi-
ty tax, Hass said.
PUBLICATION FOR SONSHINE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Sonshine Christian School will be accepting pre-registrations for the
2017/2018 school year. Registration fee for students is $75.00.
Zoo Phonic Programs Taught
Pre School students must be 3 years of age before September 1 of the
school year and able to attend to toileting without staff assistance.
Their classes will be offered 2 days a week from 9-11am.
Pre-Kindergarten students must be 4 years of age before September 1 of the school year.
Their classes will be offered 3 days a week from 9-11:30am.
05534
Registration packets can be picked up at the church office, 521 E Main Street, John Day.
The office is open Tuesday-Thursday 9am-3pm. For information call (541) 575-1895
or e-mail Trace at the church e-mail address, judy@johndaynazarene.com
05642