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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, July 7, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Transportation package sorely needed in Oregon It was disappointing, for many Hermiston, the trafic snarl after school each day is not only reasons, to watch a $300 million frustrating but potentially dangerous, transportation package dissolve at the hands of the legislature last year. as it clogs the roadway directly in front of the ire station. The same is The deal was created by a true in Stanield, where downtown bipartisan committee representing development is hampered by truck all corners of the state, and would trafic on Highway 395 that will have pumped some much-needed only be remedied funding into with some serious Oregon’s lagging In Hermiston, the work. infrastructure. Business in Unfortunately, trafic snarl after Umatilla and Morrow it hinged on a school each day is counties also has bill — the clean fuel standards — that not only frustrating plenty to gain. The Highway 395 had already passed. but potentially corridor between Democrats had no interest in altering dangerous, as it Hermiston and has the it and Republicans clogs the roadway Umatilla potential for great wouldn’t budge unless it was directly in front of growth, but is far from adequate right changed, so the the ire station. now. Same goes for nearly unrelated the former Umatilla transportation Chemical Depot, which could be package died on the bargaining an economic powerhouse in the table. Northwest with some help with It didn’t help that the package access. showed up late in the legislative Out Pendleton way, a real estate session after much work behind the scenes and was viewed by some as a agent shared a real-life story of a lost business because of poor last-ditch effort instead of a well- infrastructure — Costco, which had reasoned plan. been looking at a lot near Exit 210, We’re hopeful that legislators pulled out of negotiations at least in have learned from these missteps part because an access road couldn’t and will deliver some cash in the next session for projects both crucial manage the trafic. These were just a few of the and commercial. A committee tasked with drawing examples given, and we know the committee will have their ear bent at up the new transportation package every stop of the listening tour. visited Hermiston last week to see It’s good these legislators where the dollars could be put to use are doing their homework and in the region. coming out to see irsthand our Some projects, like Hermiston’s transportation shortcomings. We First Place and Stanield’s hope they’ll pass the real test during Main Street, would make those the 2017 session. communities more livable. In Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS ‘Success’ an overstatement for energy tax credit program The Oregonian/OregonLive, July 2 O ptimism must be a job requirement for leading the beleaguered Oregon Department of Energy, now on its ifth director since 2009 and buffeted from one controversy to the next. Optimism also might explain the silver-lining summation that director Michael Kaplan offered legislators last Monday in assessing the agency’s disastrous Business Energy Tax Credit program, a now-defunct initiative beset by serial mismanagement and possible fraud. “From an economic development strategy, the program worked,” said Kaplan, as The Oregonian/Oregonlive’s Hillary Borrud reported. Despite the department’s failures to vet projects, verify documentation and responsibly oversee its signature program, Kaplan said, “the amount of projects that we saw in a very short period of time and the amount of money that was invested in those projects, I think, invariably cascade down to a signiicant impact on the state.” How signiicant? Who knows, although Kaplan is likely right to some degree. Granting nearly $1 billion worth of transferrable tax credits in a seven-year-period to public agencies, nonproits and private businesses that promise green-energy or eficiency upgrades certainly has some effect on economic activity. The supersizing of the tax-credits program in 2007, the year before the economy went into recession, may have also provided a well-timed boost. The problem, however, is that there’s little data to show the extent of it and how much was triggered by the BETC program. At the same time, The Oregonian/OregonLive and other organizations have documented abuse after abuse, from the granting of $30 million in tax credits to a project that qualiied for only $10 million to the possible backdating of documents in a solar-panel project now under criminal investigation. Legislators, who are weighing whether to pare back or abolish the energy department, should view Kaplan’s comments about such economic impact with deserved skepticism. “Economic development” efforts are based on a conscious strategy, with identiied goals and follow-up measurements of whether those goals were achieved. As Kaplan himself admits, the agency lacked the expertise to steer economic development. Instead, the agency simply opened its doors, accepting thousands of applications for tax credits and applying little scrutiny to each project’s goals. Ask Kaplan to provide data on the total value of project investments, the number of jobs created, the amount of energy saved or generated and his response is the same: He does not know. “I do not have conidence in much of the data that currently resides at the Department of Energy,” he told legislators. But he maintains there have been “thousands of successes” despite the “drastic missteps,” many of which predated his tenure as director. “Without talking about those throughout the program’s life,” he told legislators, “we lose the ability to see it in its entirety.” Perhaps. But under that logic, the state could argue that Cover Oregon was also a success from an economic development point of view. Sure, the state wasted $300 million on a health-insurance exchange that failed to launch. But some of that slug of cash went toward employing Oregonians and hiring vendors in the state to assist with the work. Taken to an extreme, one could contend that economic activity continues to this day, thanks to the millions that the state and software vendor Oracle are spending in legal battles over who is to blame. Clearly, this is not a winning economic development strategy that any public agency should pursue. Kaplan acknowledges that economic development gains from energy department programs don’t necessarily outweigh the long list of problems in BETC and multiple other energy department programs. But his efforts to highlight such “successes” does neither the agency nor legislators contemplating its future any good. Economic development accomplished by accident is not an argument for keeping the energy department around. OTHER VIEWS GOP blue-collar heroes laud Trump T he Washington Examiner’s Jim Finally, there is Buchanan, who Antle recently noted that despite 25 years ago sounded some of what talk of a Republican “consensus” are now thought of as Trump themes. on trade, “three runners-up for the When Trump said, “Our workers’ Republican nomination who received loyalty was repaid with betrayal,” strong conservative support — Pat Buchanan thought back to his Buchanan in 1996, Mike Huckabee in own 1998 manifesto on economic 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012 — nationalism, “The Great Betrayal.” were to varying degrees protectionist.” “I think Donald Trump gave Byron And that suggests the consensus isn’t the best speech on trade from the York standpoint of economic patriotism and really as much of a consensus as some Comment economic nationalism of any candidate might think. in this century,” Buchanan, who won “It doesn’t exist, as far as I’m the New Hampshire primary and three others concerned,” Santorum told me in a phone in 1996, told me Wednesday. “I’ve read it and conversation Wednesday. The former re-read it, and I found it hard to believe at senator, presidential candidate and author of times — but there were echoes of my youth “Blue Collar Conservatives” has endorsed there.” Trump and attended Trump’s trade speech Indeed there were. Buchanan saw Trump’s in Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania trade speech as a “precise rejection” of a Tuesday. globalist economy philosophy embraced by “It was exactly what I think a lot of folks Republican leaders over many years. “This is from my end of the state, and I guarantee one of the basic tenets of Ryan Republicanism, you from all throughout the Rust Belt, have Romney Republicanism been waiting to hear from a Bush Republicanism,” presidential candidate for a long Trump has an and Buchanan said. “And Donald time,” Santorum told me. In 2012, Santorum, who as opportunity to Trump is saying this has led us to disaster.” a member of Congress voted test just how far Why did those themes against NAFTA and urged work for Trump in the 2016 George W. Bush to impose economic Republican race when they steel tariffs, won 11 primaries did not win for Buchanan in and caucuses with an economic nationalism 1996? Of course there were message focused on Americans can go in a other factors at play — money, left behind in the changing U.S. Trump’s celebrity, and more economy. At times in the race, general election — but I asked Buchanan: What Santorum appeared on the verge campaign. has changed between then and of overtaking Mitt Romney, now? who, having made a fortune “What has changed is the in private equity, seemed to results have come in that we predicted would represent everything Santorum did not. happen in the ‘90s,” Buchanan said. “I was “I was talking about the 74 percent of saying in ‘91, ‘92, this is what will happen. Americans who don’t have a college degree, You will lose your entire manufacturing base. who are not beneiting from the globalization It will be gone.” of the economy, and who ... see continuing “Those were predictions,” Buchanan globalization, combined with open borders, as continued. “And now Trump walks out there not in their best interest,” Santorum told me. and can point to the largest trade deicits any And now, the current Republican nominee Western country has ever seen, the loss of has taken a position on trade not far from Santorum’s own. “Trump nailed it,” Santorum 55,000 manufacturing plants since the turn of the century, six million manufacturing jobs, said of Tuesday’s speech. every state, every community has seen a plant Likewise, Huckabee, who won eight that is gone. All the returns are in now.” primaries and caucuses before losing to Besides some of their positions, Santorum, John McCain in 2008, went a long way on Huckabee and Buchanan have at least economic populism — with a Southern touch one other thing in common: They did not — from the beginning of his irst presidential become president. They didn’t even win the campaign to the book, “God, Guns, Grits Republican nomination. Trump has already and Gravy,” that set up his 2016 run. Now, won his party’s top prize. In recent weeks he Huckabee, too, has endorsed Trump. has been distracted, suffering from mostly “Trump is saying what I said in 2008 and self-inlicted wounds. But if he can stop 2016 — and the reactions were the same administering those wounds — a huge “if” from the elites,” Huckabee said in an email for anyone who has followed his campaign exchange. “I was called a protectionist and — Trump has an opportunity to test just how a populist and attacked with millions of far economic nationalism can go in a general dollars of TV spots. Trump recognizes, as did election campaign. several of us, that the political, inancial and ■ media institutions have failed working-class Byron York is chief political correspondent Americans. I’m glad Trump is getting traction for The Washington Examiner. for the truth.” LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.