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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1976)
Dist. 43 Representative Hays: Strong leaders can help cut spending hikes By WALLY BENSON Of the Emerald Republican Maxine Hays is a Junction City insurance agency executive running for the Dist. 43 State Representa tive seat currently held by Democrat Ted Kulongoski. Hays feels Oregon voters need strong leadership in the legislature—“people who know they are up there to do a job, and to do it the whole time they are there," She says such leadership will help curtail the increase in spending from legislature to legislature. "We need to elect officials who have a view toward fiscal 1/ / V Maxine Hays spending—who are frugal,” she says. “We have hit the end of the spending syndrome and it’s time to take a good hard look at government expendi tures.” She supports an annual legislative session with a time limit of about 60 days for the off-year session. “We have a citizen legislature, and they would have to be professional legislators if we had a full ses sion every year.” She feels the interim committees and the Emergency Board, which op erate in the off-year, are busier and have more power than they should. She thinks the Land Con servation and Development Commission (LCDC) has not done a very good job, as she says they have too much power. “It is an appointed board, and it shouldn’t have as much power as it does." She feels the members of the board don’t sincerely consider citizen input when making de cisions. She favors keeping the LCDC a statewide board, but believes it should be elected rather than appointed. Hays is not in favor of the initiative petition to prohibit corporate farming, because she doesn’t think it will do the job it is meant to. She favors saving family farms, but is not sure corporate farms should be banned, because in many instances, corporate farms have the capital to harvest more efficiently. She hopes for improvement in field burning control and favors an extension of the 1978 burning cutoff date if a viable solution cannot be found. To ease the energy crunch, Hays says the consumer needs to realize that we are, indeed, losing our resources. She opposes the nuclear safeguards ballot measure, and feels we have to develop nuclear power as an energy source. She opposes ballot meas ure A, which takes money from the state s highway fund and channels it into mass transit, because “there is no limit on who can be taxed and for how much.’’ She favors an open primary, because “There are a great number of Independents who are not represented in the cur rent system. An open primary would be worth a try.” The only way Hays says she would support restoration of the death penalty would be in the case of terrorists. She feels a better way to deal with serious crimes is to increase sentencing for felonies involv ing arms. Kulongoski: Hopes to end field burning, cut legislative spending By WALLY BENSON Of the Emerald Eugene attorney Ted Kulongoski is seeking re election to the District 43 State representative seat he has held since 1974. Kulongoski believes in the legislative mandate of 1971 and hopes it will put an end to open field burning in the Wil lamette Valley." He feels time will develop an adequate field burning machine, but wants more emphasis put on de veloping straw utilization. He says if more straw is baled and McDonald: Cut unemployment by attracting new business By WALLY BENSON Of the Emerald Jim McDonald, Republican running for the Dist. 43 State Representative seat currently held by Democrat Ted Kulon goski, is a Veneta sales rep resentative. He has never be fore held an elected govern mental position. His main goal is to reduce Oregon’s unemployment by attracting new businesses wishing to expand. Jim McDonald Oregon Daily Emerald McDonald doesn't think the Land Conservation and De velopment Commission (LCDC) has done a good job. He favors land use planning through districts closer to home, such as the Florence Planning Committee, wherein local planners will have real public input and will care more about their area. McDonald admits he is “right down the middle" on the subject of corporate farming. He says with the cost of de veloping land being eight times what the land costs, no family farm in Oregon can handle the expense. He does, however, favor small farms when feasible. On the field burning issue, McDonald says, "Let ’em burn it," but with strict Department of Environmental Quality re strictions. He wants a "right now solution" for a field burn ing apparatus to hold down smoke pollution. He feels we have to resor to nuclear, “at least for a while until we develop wind, solai and geothermal energy." H€ doesn’t like nuclear power be cause it needs too many safeguards and is too expen sive, but considers it a "neces sary evil stopgap." McDonald supports an oper primary, “so people can vote for whom they really want.” He says he already works with eight legislators to get the open primary. Concerning the Legislature, McDonald sees “strong merit” for some sort of annual ses sion. “we’ve got to start look ing at 30-45 day sessions in the off year,” he says. He doesn’t want to go to a yearly session, but fears that is the direction in which the Legisla ture is heading, as the number of bills before it increases. He wants to stop the 37 per cent average increase in spending from one session to the next. He says he would do this by eliminating some ser vices to streamline the budget. He pledges to work for reten tion of the vital services—fire and police protection to name a few—but to cut out the “fat.” Regarding mass transit, McDonald favors the possibil ity of electric cars on railroad tracks for inter-city travel. Also he likes the idea of commuter plane service, if it can be made to work. McDonald also favors capi tal punishment in a few cases—“like the life-time sen tenced felon who kills a guard a year"—and opposes all gun i control legislation. sold, machines will have an easier time burning the stub ble. He is a strong proponent of regulating corporate farming. He’s not opposed to it, as long as there is a “way of regulating the prices on the products they sell.” Kulongoski says cutting legislative spending is difficult in the face of “more and more citizens demanding services from the government.” He proposes to offer no more ser vices than the citizens ask for, but acknowledges the neces sity of spending. "If people keep asking government to supply new services, how can we cut taxes?” He favors an annual session of the Legislature, as it is a “horrendous task to consider 3,000 bills in a six-month period, especially because the subject matter of the bills is so broad." Kulongoski feels we can’t have an effective gov ernment if it only meets once every 18 months, and that it is extremely difficult to budget two years in advance. He thinks the off-year session could be held to 90 days, and concern itself solely with budgetary matters. Kulongoski says he has no great argument with allowing Independents the right to vote for whichever candidate they want, but fears that an open primary system may violate the freedom of association. “If a person wants to vote for the officers of a club, he should have to be a member of that club.” He favors mass transit in urban areas, but admits that ridership is a problem. He says for any mass transit system to work, the citizens have to change their lifestyles volun tarily. Ted Kulongoski Kulongoski feels the Land Conservation Development Commission (LCDC) is doing what it is required to do. He says it was created to inform local governments of the needs of land use planning in their areas. He feels a problem arises because the local gov ernments don't want to do any planning. With respect to energy con servation, Kulongoski feels that in the end, solar energy will be the answer to our energy needs. He says indi viduals need to do more to curb energy use, and that the government needs a program telling people how to con serve. He opposes nuclear power for cost reasons—‘‘Why spend so much time and money when nuclear power is just a short term solution to the problem?” Kulongoski does not favor restoration of the death pen alty. He feels only those from the lower social-economic class will be punished under the statute. Page 15 Section B
