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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1985)
Editorial New tax system is needed for schools Recent failures of school levies throughout the state ex posed the inadequacy of the current system for funding public education. The state needs to find a solution to the problem. Levies presented in 11 of 29 school elections held last week rejected, and as a result, two school districts were forced to close. One has since reopended, hut a 1,444-student district will remain closed until at least Dec. 4 when an emergency election will be held. 1985 is certainly not the first year the state has been plagued by threats of school closures. But the situation has erupted into a serious problem. The state has never faced as many districts still in need of school levy approval this late in the year, and the difficulty associated with getting levies passed has intensified. In addition, the number of emergen cy elections held so far this year has surpassed that of previous years. Also, prior to this school year, only six schools closed due to a lack of funds. This year has already seen two closures and may see three more if school levies are shot down at emergency elections next month. Every time a school closes, lessons are interrupted, children lose part of their education, teachers and school staff members are laid off and many families must arrange and pay for child care. It is an unplea sant situation all around. Some voters may be unhappy with the school systems themselves, but as a whole, rejection of the levies appears to be a rebellion against property taxes. Citizens are using their voting power to obtain property tax relief and voice dissatisfaction with the current tax level. Thus divorcing school funding from property taxes and generating money through an alternative tax system is the key to a solution. The sales tax proposal was an attempt to do just this, but it was strongly rejected by voters earlier this year. If a new tax system is not sought, only two viable alter natives remain. The state could attempt to convince voters to accept higher property taxes or cut school budgets. If schools are already closing, it is clear that officials have already tightened budgets as much as possible without significantly damaging the quality of education. The quality of education should remain a priority. The state might be able to persuade voters to approve property tax increases by convincing them that their money is needed and is being used efficiently. This could be at tempted through a wide-scale information campaign via the mail or media, but it is not clear how much a campaign of this sort would cost or how long its effectiveness would last. As long as school funding is tied to property taxes, the state will be forced to fight a constan* battle to persuade voters to pass levies. Instead, the state should seek an alternative tax struc ture. It should start by determining why voters rejected the sales tax. It appears that rejection of the proposal was linked to suspicions that instead of realizing property and income tax relief, the public would simply be burdened with an ad ditional tax. Others feared that the state would be able to raise taxes without voter approval. If these fears can be allayed, voters might be willing to reconsider the proposal. If it is found that taxpayers will reject both property tax increases and a sales tax, the state should conduct a survey to find out what taxpayers will support. It is clear that a new system is desperately needed. Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon Dally Emerald is published Monday through Friday except during exam week and vacations 51 the Oreaon Daily Emerald Publishing Co., at the niversity of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 07403 The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices on the third floor of the Erb Memorial Union and is a member of the Associated Press. The Emerald is private property. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. General Staff Advertising Director Susan Thelen Advertising Sales: David Wood ■ Sales Manager, John Boiler - Intern, Michael Gray, Robin Joannides, Carlos Lamadrld, Marcia Leonard, Snawn Leuthold, Julie Lewis, Catherine Ulja - Intern, Brett Pickman, Anne-Marie Vranizan - Intern, Laura Willoughby. 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Thomsen. Photographers Kamila Al-Najjar, Shu-Shing Chen, Steve Gibbons, Rob Hare, Derrel Hewitt, Jim Marks, Ross Mar tin, Steven Wall. News and Editorial 880-5511 Display Advertising and Business 06*3712 Classified Advertising 6664343 Production 086-4301 Circulation 080-5011 Letters Tax was unfair This letter is in response to the editorial “City takes positive approach" (ODE, Nov. 8). The defeat of the Eugene Agenda tax should be seen as more than a rejection of a method of obtaining funds. Even if you accept that these kinds of projects should be done by government, the procedure used by the City Council to put together the proposal is basical ly flawed. Putting together a "wish list" of projects that individually have majority support, without taking into account the cumulative cost of all the pro jects (not to mention existing ci ty services) cannot possibly result in a package that meets the true needs of the city. The resulting budget will not reflect the priorities even of the majori ty, let alone the priorities of tax payers with other ideas of how to spend their hard-earned money. A county tax for airport ex pansion will not solve the basic problem. It would increase the number of non-users who would be forced to subsidize the airport and would still allow heavy users to avoid paying their share of the costs. If users don't have to pay the real cost, they will naturally demand more than they really need. On the other hand, if county tax payers see they will have to sub sidize the operation, they may stand in the way of an expan sion that really would be beneficial. The consequence of making such decisions through the political process will lie not only an unfair tax. but also an incorrect assessment of what kind of expansion is really worthwhile. Joseph W. Dehn III Chairman Libertarians Against New Taxes No war is good William Moore's letter "Ask Inmates" (ODK 11-6) was very thought provoking. What I'd like to address, though, is not the genocide inflicted on Hast European and Asian people by Marxist governments, but the effects of war on soldiers. No war in history hasn't adversely affected people — regardless of the justification for the war. Unfortunately, the liberal media has given people the impression that only veterans of Vietnam have been subject to guilt — thus cultivating the impression that their emotional problems are due to the "immorality" of our involvement in Vietnam, an un fair presentation to those men to say the least. Our generation was taught to view World War II as a "good war." Unlike Vietnam, we weren't shown the horrors in flicted on people unless it was done by the Nazis or Japanese. Sure, the anti-nukes barrage us with pictures of atomic blast victims. But rarely, if ever, would they show us pictures of German. Italian or Japanese children burned alive by phosphorous bombs. Remember, more innocent peo ple died in the Allied firebomb ing of Oresten, Germany than in both atomic blasts combined! I knew one World War II pilot who still suffered from the pain of knowing he must have hit schools, churches, houses, etc. on various runs. And no soldier couldn't feel pain at realizing he killed men who were belov ed fathers, brothers and husbands of someone. War is ugly no matter if it's Vietnam. World War II or even Afghanistan la>t us never forget that! Michael Cross Senior. Political Science Moral choices? Mr. Moore. In your letter (OUR. Nov. 12). you condemn the United Way for imposing destructive and immoral in fluences upon the masses. You also say that the United Way organization opposes the im position of one’s morality upon others. And what is your solu tion? Forcing your morality upon us instead? Please Mr. Moore, give me a break. From what I understand, there are at least 4.5 billion other people on this Earth beside yourself. That’s a fair amount of human beings — all of whom think, eat. defecate, sleep and try to survive to see tomorrow. Now you come along and think you are the only one among 4.5 billion other humans who knows how all of us should live. Wow. You may think premarital sex, homosexuality and abor tion are wrong, but that is your opinion. I am sure that with the proper attitude and by taking certain precautions, you can successfully avoid these occur rences in your life. If you are happy in your beliefs, fine. But in the words of Monty Python, ’’I can live my own life, in my own way if 1 want to.’’ And so can 4.5 billion others. Matthew D. Beck Telecommunications/Film Letters Policy The Emerald will attempt to print all letters con taining fair comment on topics of interest to the University community. letters to the editor must be limited to 250 words, typed, signed and the iden'ification of the writer must be verified when the let er is turned in. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style. letters to the editor should be turned into the Emerald office, Suite 300, EMU.
