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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2018)
State Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, April 11, 2018 A9 Ruling makes it easier to rebuild houses on farmland Previous legal interpretation required taxation within five years By Mateusz Perkowski Capital Bureau Dwellings can be rebuilt on Oregon farmland regard- less of when the original structures were destroyed or removed, according to the Or- egon Court of Appeals. The ruling overturns an earlier interpretation of state law by Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals, which held that dwellings can only be rebuilt if they were subject to property taxes within the past five years. It will make it easier for homes to be built on farm parcels. Landwatch Lane County, a farmland preservation group, argues that the Oregon Court of Appeals has misconstrued the pertinent land use statute, creating an “end run” around the state planning goal of pre- serving farmland. “I would call it devastat- ing for Oregon farmland,” said Lauri Segel-Vaccher, the group’s legal analyst. Long-lost homes could be rebuilt on farmland regardless of soil quality and with uncer- tain proof they existed in the first place, she said. Counties are often “lack- adaisical” in protecting farm and forestland, so they may require only scant evidence of a dwelling’s location, Se- gel-Vaccher said. “Anybody could come up with a photograph or a diary entry from the 1800s,” she said. Landwatch Lane County hasn’t yet decided whether to challenge the decision before the Oregon Supreme Court, Segel-Vaccher said. Oregonians In Action, a property rights group, be- lieves state lawmakers were “fully informed” of the effect their revisions would have on the applicable land use statute in 2013. “The whole purpose of the bill was to allow property owners to replace dwellings that had been removed, in some cases, decades earli- er,” said Dave Hunnicutt, the group’s executive director. The notion that a signif- icant number of homes will be built as a result is “silly” because landowners must still demonstrate the existence of a dwelling, he said. “Most rural land is on par- cels that have never had farm dwellings,” said Hunnicutt. The legal dispute over re- placement farmland dwellings stems from the case of a land- owner who sought to rebuild three houses on 100 acres of farmland near Florence that were torn down more than two decades ago. Lane County officials per- mitted the construction based on a 2013 bill that eased the replacement process for di- lapidated or demolished farm dwellings. However, the county’s de- cision was reversed last year by the Land Use Board of Ap- peals, which found the dwell- ing replacement provision is “somewhat ambiguous” but only applies to a five-year “look back” period during which property taxes were imposed. The Court of Appeals has disagreed with that un- derstanding, ruling that it’s “logical to conclude that the legislature intended to excuse demolished dwellings from the taxation requirement alto- gether.” Initiative petition seeks Brown to sign tax bill, gun storage requirements calls for special session By Claire Withycombe Capital Bureau Advocates want to get a second gun-related measure on the statewide ballot in No- vember. Initiative Petition 44, filed Monday, would create addi- tional storage, transfer and re- porting requirements for gun owners. The petition’s filing fol- lows the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and subsequent stu- dent walk-outs and marches in support of tightening gun regulations. It also follows another statewide initiative petition, IP 43, that would ban the sale of certain types of firearms in Oregon and require current owners of those types of guns to undergo a new background check and register them. The new measure filed on Monday would amend state statutes to require that a per- son who owns or possesses a firearm to “secure the firearm with a trigger or cable lock engaged or in a locked con- tainer equipped with a tam- per-resistant lock.” It would also require a per- son who “owns, possesses or controls” a firearm to report if the gun was stolen or lost within 24 hours of learning of the theft or loss. Additionally, it would require people trans- ferring firearms to do so with a trigger or cable lock en- gaged or in a locked container with a tamper-resistant lock. Transfer is defined in the measure as “the delivery of a firearm, including, but not limited to, sale, gift, loan or lease of the firearm.” Finally, the measure would require that a person transfer- ring a firearm to a minor must directly supervise the minor’s use of the firearm. Under the measure, gun owners would also face lia- bility for injuries that result from failure to meet those requirements, unless the inju- ry “results from a lawful act of self-defense or defense of another person.” The liability would apply for five years af- ter a violation of the measure, such as an unsecured transfer. One of the petitioners, Paul Kemp, says part of the impetus behind the measure was the death of his brother- in-law, Steve Forsyth, who was killed in the Dec. 11, 2012 Clackamas Town Center shooting. The shooter, who killed Forsyth, 45, and Cindy Ann Yuille, 54, and injured a 15-year-old girl, before kill- ing himself, stole the gun, a Stag Arms AR-15, from a friend. “Most folks who have guns are pretty good about se- curing them,” Kemp, himself a gun owner, said. “The prob- lem is, there’s too many folks who aren’t.” The idea, says Jake Wei- gler, a spokesman for Orego- nians For Safe Gun Storage, which supports the petition, is to create an enforcement sys- tem in the event that a crime is committed, similar to how adults can be held liable if they furnish alcohol to a mi- nor. The state doesn’t go around searching your liquor Michael B. DesJardin Dentistry, PC cabinet, but if, for example, a minor gets into a car acci- dent while intoxicated and authorities learn that an adult purchased or provided them alcohol, then the law can be enforced. Kevin Starrett, head of the Oregon Firearms Federation, criticized IP 44, and said that a gun owner should have the right to store the gun in a man- ner they see fit and that is in line with their “personal cir- cumstances,” such as whether or not there are young chil- dren in the home. “This is not how you solve the problem of people who use guns in a criminal fash- ion, by punishing people who don’t use guns in a criminal fashion,” Starrett said. Starrett also took issue with a section of the measure that would hold a gun owner who transferred a gun with- out securing it — either with a trigger lock, cable lock or secured container — liable for another person’s injuries for five years after the gun is transferred. Gun control advocates have tried to pass similar leg- islation in prior legislative sessions, mostly focused on preventing minors’ access to firearms. Petitioners are aiming for the November 2018 ballot. In order to go forward in the ballot title process, the pe- titioners must collect 1,000 sponsorship signatures. Capital Bureau Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she’ll sign a controver- sial business tax bill into law and wants to convene a special session of the Legis- lature to extend a tax break to sole proprietorships. Oregon automatically conforms to the federal tax code unless state lawmakers pass legislation specifically to modify it. That’s what law- makers did with Senate Bill 1528. The legislation pre- vented owners of so-called pass-through businesses — sole proprietorships, partner- ship, limited liability corpo- rations and S-corporations — from deducting up to 20 percent of their business in- come from their 2018 state tax return. The deduction was created by the recent federal tax overhaul. Brown wants lawmakers to convene to tweak Oregon law so that owners of sole proprietorships can receive special tax rates offered to other “pass throughs” since 2013. Brown contends that making those changes and disallowing the 20 percent deduction would make the tax system for small business more equitable. “Through my review and analysis it has become ap- parent that Oregon’s existing preferred rate structure for File photo Gov. Kate Brown says she will sign a bill that keeps owners of small businesses from taking a 20 percent deduction created by federal law on their state tax return. She has also called for a special legislative session to extend special tax rates offers to other small business owners and owners of sole proprietorships. pass-through entities, which is relatively new, is not per- fect and has some inequities in it,” Brown, a Democrat running for reelection, wrote in a bill signing letter Friday to Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson. “...It is clear to me that sole propri- etors ought to be allowed to participate in this preferred rate structure.” Lawmakers passed the bill in the last days of the recent short session to blunt the effects of the federal tax overhaul on Oregon’s reve- nues. It is expected to raise $244 million in the current two-year budget cycle, which concludes in mid-2019. Many Republicans in the Legislature and some mem- bers of the business commu- nity had been vocal about their opposition to the bill and called on the governor to veto it. In a press conference Fri- day, Brown noted that those business owners already re- ceive special rates from the state and will be able to use the deductions on their feder- al returns. Brown said sign- ing the bill “prevents a third tax break at the expense of our schools, our children and our seniors.” Senate Republican Lead- er Jackie Winters, of Sa- lem, disagreed, saying in a statement after Friday’s an- nouncement that “the right thing to do would be to veto this partisan tax increase on small business.” “Start-ups, mom and pop shops, and young entrepre- neurs are doing great things for Oregon, but the majority party insists on passing an unfair tax increase that will stifle their growth, and harm the very Oregonians we should be helping,” Winters said. “There is no budgetary need to raise taxes on small businesses.” The Prairie American Legion Post #0106 would like to thank the retailers and participants who made our fund raising raffle a great success! Thank You! 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