A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
January 25, 2017
Wallowa County Chieftain
Thank you
for reading
and your
patience
W
e owe you, our subscribers, a big thank you for
your patience last week when print issues of the
Wallowa County Chieftain were delayed due to
road closures between our print facility in Pendleton and
Wallowa County.
You reminded us all, again, how important your paper is
to you and its late delivery is a disruption. We heard from a
lot of you last week, who called — Wednesday, Thursday and
into Friday — to find out why your paper hadn’t arrived yet.
We lost track of how many calls we received, but we
appreciate everyone
who was patient and
understanding.
We apologize that your
paper was delivered late,
Voice of the Chieftain
but Mother Nature and
the Oregon Department of
Transportation had no sympathy for our need for news —
and Safeway coupons — last week.
The printing facility our company owns is in Pendleton,
in the building of our sister paper, the East Oregonian, which
prints its own paper, The Chieftain, Blue Mountain Eagle,
Hermiston Herald and Capital Press, and several other
products for us, like the monthly real estate guide.
Usually, that is a good arrangement for all of our sister
publications, except when road closures prevent those papers
from getting out of Pendleton. Maybe we should have
contacted some of the innovative mushers participating in the
Eagle Cap Extreme, who managed to find ways to get around
road closures to make it in time to race.
If — or perhaps when — that ever happens again, those of
you who use smartphones and computers can still get access
to the information we publish in the printed paper using our
website, e-edition (which shows you electronic version of our
print pages) and email newsletters. If you are a subscriber,
you have the ability to activate your digital subscription free
with your subscription. Some news and information is also
available free to all users of our website.
We also use our Facebook page to share links to some
of our stories each week and post other news, photos and
announcements via the social media site.
For example, we also used Facebook last week to share
information about a power outage that was affecting a large
portion of Wallowa County. The outage was short, but
with no power in our building we also could not use our
computers and office Internet connection to post what we
knew about the outage to our website (until the power came
back on). However, we still had cell phone service, and could
post updates to our Facebook page.
Today, the Wallowa County Chieftain, is more than a
weekly newspaper. We have multiple products and ways to
deliver news and information to Wallowa County, and the
world beyond in print and digitally.
We realize that digital products, like Facebook pages,
Twitter accounts and websites, are not for everyone. The
printed paper is still the most important thing we do to us.
We are proud and pleased that it is still important to so
many of you, too. But as Mother Nature taught us last week,
sometime we need other tools to keep doing what we do. We
hope you will use those tool too, by signing up for our email
newsletters, liking our Facebook page, activating your digital
subscriptions to our website and even following us on Twitter
so we can share news regardless of road conditions.
As for getting those coupons to you, we may need to work
with our advertisers and digital experts to find a solution to
that issue.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing.
Thank you for advertising. And thank you for supporting
the advertisers who support us and our community. And
thank you for calling us last week to activate your digital
subscriptions and telling us how important your newspaper
is to you.
We heard you. Loud and clear.
EDITORIAL
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Contents copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Volume 134
A look back at the progress
of the Obama years
America needed
inspiration outgoing
president provided
In 2012 and again in 2014, I wrote
columns which attempted to summarize
the economic progress that had been
made up to those points during Obama’s
presidency. Now that a new president
has been sworn in, and especially in light
of Mr. Trump’s penchant for claiming
credit for any recent advances that were
occurring even prior to his inauguration,
this seems like a good time to reflect on
how much conditions have improved in
the last eight years.
In this season of “fake news,” it is
worth recalling that President Obama’s
term began in the middle of the deepest
recession our country had faced since the
Great Depression. The housing market
collapse that began in 2006, the stock
market plunge that started in 2007, and
the banking industry failures, which
culminated in the crisis of September
2008, were all features of an economy
that was hurtling downward on Obama’s
inauguration day.
The stock market bottomed out in
March of 2009 (the same week that the
economic stimulus package was adopted
by Congress), and it has moved steadily
upward ever since then. Today all major
stock market averages are about three
times what they were nearly eight years
ago at their low ebb.
Unemployment is always a lagging
POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
John McColgan
indicator in any recession, so it reached
its worst point a little later, at 10 percent
in October of 2009, before that measure
slowly began turning the corner. Now, as
Mr. Obama leaves office, his successor
inherits a very healthy unemployment
rate of 4.7 percent. And while many
of President Obama’s critics will point
out that this number does not reflect all
those people who are underemployed
or who have given up looking for
work, that factual observation could
always be made about any “official”
unemployment rate, and is especially an
aspect of employment figures during or
shortly after any recession. Nor does that
observation erase the typical monthly
gains of about 200,000 jobs that have
occurred since the fall of Obama’s first
year in office.
The 2009 budget deficit (which
fiscal year began in October of 2008)
was saddled with the unusual burdens
of bailouts for the banking and auto
industries, and ran the largest sea of red
ink in our nation’s history, at over $1.4
trillion. By 2015, the deficit had shrunk
to one-third that size, at $439 billion, and
even though 2016’s deficit is estimated
at about $544 billion, we should be
reassured that the overall trend has been
downward for the past eight years.
Meanwhile, other measurements that
relate to consumer buying power are also
positive. Inflation remains at a modest rate
of about 2 percent, gas prices have stayed
relatively stable and well below their
peaks of the summer of 2008, and interest
rates for 30-year home mortgages are still
at about 4 percent. Housing construction
and home sales have rebounded to about
their pre-recession levels, and the bailouts
of the banking and auto industries –
however unpopular – appear to have
served their purpose of restoring stability
in both these vital economic areas.
It is also worth noting, especially
as Congress debates its repeal or
replacement, that under the Affordable
Care Act, about 30 million more
Americans gained health care coverage.
Partly because the Republicans succeeded
in branding the program “Obamacare”
and partly because of the flaws that were
inherent in an imperfect, patchwork
solution right from its inception, the
progress that has been made in this area
will probably not be recognized until its
absence is sorely felt by those who will
no longer have access to these recent
improvements.
As a staunch supporter of President
Obama, I am thankful that he took the
helm at a time when America badly
needed his inspiration of hope for better
days. I believe that history will treat him
far more kindly than his opponents did,
and that his humility, grace and leadership
will be sorely missed in the years ahead.
John McColgan writes from his home
in Joseph.
Experts: State budget is bleak
Oregon’s future looks bleak — at
least per the Legislature’s budget
experts.
Teachers, counselors and other
school employees could lose their jobs;
and class sizes could soar. Thousands
of low-income Oregonians could lose
medical and dental. Justice could move
more slowly in the state courts.
The co-chairs of the Legislature’s
Ways & Means Committee —
Democratic Sen. Richard Devlin of
Tualatin and Rep. Nancy Nathanson
of Eugene — last week presented their
state budget framework for the next
two years. Unlike Gov. Kate Brown’s
proposed budget, it would rely on
existing revenue instead of new taxes.
But unless the Legislature does raise
taxes, Oregonians across the state would
receive fewer services.
That debate — more taxes, cost
efficiencies or both — will frame this
year’s legislative session, which begins
Feb. 1.
The irony is that Oregon will have
nearly $1.3 billion more in revenue to
spend during 2017-19 than during the
current two-year budget period.
However, Oregon faces a $1.8 billion
shortfall between that revenue and what
the state would need to keep agencies,
GUEST EDITORIAL
From the East Oregonian
programs and schools operating at the
same level as today.
This gap was not a surprise. Many
lawmakers, especially Republicans, had
warned that the state budget was on an
unsustainable path even though Oregon
— especially urban Oregon — had
emerged from the Great Recession.
The reasons have long been known.
Federal funds that financed a vast
expansion of the Oregon Health Plan are
being cut back, leaving Oregon to either
pay a larger share of that insurance or
take coverage away from some people.
PERS bills continue to rise for schools
and government agencies. Voters added
more costs in the ballot measures they
approved this fall.
Meanwhile, too many legislators
expected the budget hole would be filled
by Oregonians. They counted on voters
this fall to pass the largest corporate tax
increase in state history. Instead, voters
wisely said no.
This budget crisis — this fiscal fiasco
— illustrates why Oregon needs a more
disciplined and long-term approach to
budgeting. “
We’re uniquely good at identifying
problems and spending money to
solve them. We’re not as vigorous at
looking at efficiencies,” state Sen. Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, said.
The state lacks a guiding set of
priorities of which programs and
services are most important and most
cost-effective. So interest groups —
many of them representing worthy
causes — fight to make their case with
lawmakers every two years.
“The big challenge always is to
provide the services people want and
expect with the resources they give
you,” said Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena,
who is starting his 35th year as a public
official.
The budget framework released
Thursday leaves Hansell fighting to
preserve the state police forensics lab in
Pendleton and to ensure state funding to
deal with wolves that prey on livestock.
And across the state, legislators and
parents are worried about the state’s
financial roller-coaster will hurt schools.
The Legislature’s No. 1 responsibility
is to pass a balanced budget. That will
happen. But will it be a responsible,
forward-thinking budget?
The value, benefit of public lands
I write with concern about Congress’
recent decision to assign zero value
to public lands (House Resolution 5).
This step allows the new Congress to
sidestep requirements that a bill giving
away a piece of federal land does not
decrease federal revenue or contribute
to the federal debt.
This decision directly impacts
people who hunt and fish in Eastern
Oregon and those who rely on outdoor
recreational spending. Public lands
LETTERS to the EDITOR
generate millions of dollars in revenue
for our state and local businesses, in the
form of outdoor recreational spending
and tax receipts.
This decision opens the door to
a transfer and sale of thousands of
acres in the Wallowa , Umatilla, and
Malheur National Forests. This results
in reduced access and increased costs
of management for state and local
governments.
In a time when political differences
between residents of Eastern and
Western Oregon are often laid bare, I
hope that all Oregonians can support
and protect our public lands for current
and future generations benefit and
enjoyment.
Scott Leonard
Milwaukie, OR