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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1981)
emerald Eugene, Oregon 97403 Friday, June 5, 1981 Vol 82, No 170 KWAX receives reprieve from Legislature Mew transmitter pulls in funds By PAUL TELLES Of tw Emerald KWAX may have been granted a stay of execution in the Legislature Thursday, but its future is far from certain Right now we re feeling okay, but the next month and a half will tell the story,” says KWAX station manager Janet Ken ney On Thursday the education subcom mittee of the Joint Ways and Mean Com mittee recommended a 25-percent cut in the station's $117 000 operating budget The recommendation was taken as good news at the station because the sub committee had earlier recommended that is entire budget be eliminated "You never thought you would have said something like a $30,000 cut and smile, ' Kenney says However even if the recommendation “You never thought you would have said something like a $30,000 cut and smile. ” is approved by the Legislature, the station still faces possible cuts in University funding We re just thrown back in the mix with a little less money, Kenney says The cut m state funding also could make the station ineligible for federal grants and National Public Radio affilia tion To qualify for the grants and NPR programming a public station must have an operating budget of at least $105.000 The subcommittee s recommendation would reduce KWAX's budget to about $85 000 Kenney says the station will try to make up the difference with fundraisers A fundraiser completed Tuesday brought the station 718 new and re newed subscriptions worth $15,500 Called a Friendraiser," the five-day event far exceeded the station's goal of making 500 new friends KWAX's new Blanton Heights transmitting facility was partly responsi ble for the success of the fundraiser, Kenney says The facility expanded the station's listening area to Salem and Roseburg The station even received one pledge from Portland, as well as many from its cable listeners on the coast Kenney says this new capacity makes it possible for the station to raise the additional $30,000 The expanded ser vice gives the station a potential audience of 700,000, she estimates In fact, it was the response from KWAX listeners who helped pay for the new service but were afraid they wouldn’t benefit from it that prompted the sub committee s change of mind, Kenney says Although KWAX’s legislative progno sis has improved, staff morale at the station still is rather low, Kenney says Staffers are worried about the one or two layoffs that could result from the budget cut Let down from the euphoria that accompanied the station's 30th anniversary in April and the acquisition of the new transmitting facilities last month, the staff is worn out from anxiety over the station s future, she says “Everybody would like a month off But not because we re going off the air ' Photo by Erich Boekelheide KWAX station manager Janet Kenney says staff morale is low because one or two positions at the station may be terminated through budget cuts. Agribusiness blamed for high electricity costs Agribusiness in Oregon had its nose rubbed in the dirt Thursday evening during a talk on Northwest natural re sources Speaking at the final “Peace and Justice Forum" at the Emerald Baptist Church, Idaho environmentalist Diane Jones accused the Boeing Corpora tion, Prudential Life Insurance and the Simtag Corporation of running small farmers out of business Jones says these corporations acquired large tracts of desert in Oregon and Idaho at dirt-cheap prices by taking advantage of federal desert land acts Then through irrigation they turned the once-barren land into large farming operations "People all over the Northwest will be subsidizing this irrigation development with higher electric bills," Jones says Over-irrigation depletes Oregon rivers of water necessary for producing elec tricty, she says The utility companies in turn must charge higher rates in order to make a profit or build nuclear and coal fired plants to make up the for lost electricity, Jones says After an investigation by the Idaho Citizens Coalition into irrigation developments in Eastern Oregon and Southern Idaho, Jones says she became convinced the public and small-scale farmers were being ex ploited Graphs presented during a slide pre sentation showed that while the number of acres of developed farm land has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, the actual number of farms has plunged “Obviously the farms are getting a lot bigger," she says. “In Washington the saying was only Boeing has a farm ’ " Jones also criticized large-scale farmers for exporting much of their yield and spending the profits outside the state Jones' talk was sponsored by a local chapter of the Clergy and Laity Concerned.” Committee restores partial station cut By GREG WASSON Of the Emerald SALEM — KWAX got a break from the Legislature Thursday, but its struggle isn't over. The focus merely shifts from the Legislature to the State Board of Higher Education and the University administration. The education subcommittee of the joint Ways and Means Committee agreed to reduce the itemized funding cuts for the radio stations at the University, Southern Oregon State College and the Oregon Institute of Technology from $200,000 to $50,000 The panel shifted the remaining $150,000 to a discretionary fund already totaling almost $2.5 million. Once the dollar figure is finalized, the state board will be given the task of reducing the budget by that specified amount as it “Curricular matters ought to be left to the discretion of the board." sees fit. The shift came in part because of a request from Chancellor Roy Lieuallen that the Legislature not involve itself in such institutional-specific cuts. “The guiding principle of the whole message was that those matters which are more curricular than simply bud getary ought to be left to the discretion of the board." explained Lieuallen after the hearing A letter to the subcommittee signed by 11 lawmakers, including the co-chair of the full committee, Sen. Ed Fadeley, D-Eugene, made the same point “As legislators we should address ourselves to broad policy questions,” the letter said “If each institution decides to cut its radio program as a means of meeting its overall budget, than that is each institution’s responsibility ” However, that argument failed to carry the day with physical education service courses and state support of intercol legiate athletics at state colleges The panel balked at suggestions that those decisons should be left to the state board "The elimination of the general fund money to the colleges may very well have the effect of terminating those programs,” Lieuallen said. "The board wants to take a careful look, if possible, before drawing the conclusion that we re going to have to terminate those programs at the colleges ” It appears unlikely, however, the board will get that chance In its original recommendations for budget cuts to the subcommittee, the board did not suggest sacrificing athle tics. When the panel learned that it would take more than $500,000 to support athletic programs over the next two years, some committee members were incredulous “If we re talking about cutting back academic services, keeping students out of the system, what possible justification is there for not putting this on the block early on?” Sen Jim Gardner, D-Portland - However, the necessity for some or all of the cuts may be alleviated if Gov Atiyeh’s proposed tax increases are approved
