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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS. OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EOITOR Smith uses tax refund to buy voters’ support ■ OUR OPINION: M i - j checks to slate taxpayers wastes money that Oregon cannot afford to lose If you paid Oregon taxes last year, your < her k is in the mail. And it will only ( Ost |In state $823,000 With public schools and higher odui ation in desper ate need of funding, new prisons being built, im reased juvenile crime, declining polii o fort es and a dying timber industry. $163.6 million in overpaid taxes is being mailed to state taxpayers Oregon has a “kicker" law that requires the state to send back to citizens any tax income in excess of its pro diction. Thus, ti the state estimates it will receive $120 billion in taxes in a giV'-tt year, am thing more than that is returned to the people. Although it sounds ext it ing, the chin ks amount to an average of 0,7 percent of the taxi's paid. As such, the peu pie who earned the most last year w ill get the most hat k Annie Student opens her mailbox to a $2.03 t heck, while Ms. (I'lanmure gets to spend an extra $2,000 tin that trip to the islands. Of course, that type of money disbursement is sta tus quo. What makes this refund unique is that nor mally the refund is credited to the following year's taxes. This year, the refunds are being printed and mailed at the additional cost of more than $800,000 So why the i hange? Gordon Smith and elect ion-year politics. Smith spearheaded the refund-mailing legislation, ami it's no coincidence that tho checks are arriving at tin* same time primary bal lots are due With Smith already spending millions on his campaign for Hob Pack wood's US Senate seat, it’s doubtful he will let this sharing of the wealth slip by without taking the credit. it's also not surprising that the biggest refunds will be given to corporations, some of them ro< eiving ( hecks in the St million range. Of course, the corpo rations' refunds are being credited, no! mailed. People vote; corporations support campaigns The mein problem, how ever, is tiie "kii ker" law itself. With the state lx*set with the aforementioned problems, not the least of which is education-funding, the last thing the money should !w* used for is insignifu ant < he< ks for the poor and thousand-dollar ch«H ks for the wealthy . The money should be used to pay teachers more, re establish extracurricular sports and other after-school activities, or (gasp!) lower the < ost of higher education. The $16TO million means only SI 20 per Oregonian on average, but it could mean much more if the money were used for the common good. The Democrats tried to get this law repealed but were snuffed out by Republicans Once again, big money and big business took priority At the very least, our elected officials should save the paper and stamps. If Gordon Smith really wants to help Oregonians, why not give the money to the homeless? 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Nm -i-r AeAf l »-«• S**^» w.'. Vv JVVTff Mi-. > Torr >s-Vr W- ' tfvl Vnftt ‘-x lAt htttKou '-n*.v*^ (Jv«d W'.v . Amm Ro.fn* CV*^ngh*.^ *u>t iVt«Mi fiaion Htjmin. Cam* xrn u<t fcrtgrn Uo«N McCtmt Ct^y SctUrtmt m* s«f*.«r> A&tCft Sto*mo S««rtt tMufm IAk.mnc* 1'dv»j lupnvw Jwt|i ConnoMy ft «**•*}«■ j*f* JofWKm Jorw l o«g S*** MtvtiooM mun MMttt lvt «ni ’ *-i Gtkj&mi .n«Tj(^rr AJvt'M-ftfl ktj uiirti UMJ4J Visit to doctor makes ill student sick Sniffle — cough cough — sniffle* — aichoo. As sure as the rain falls in Oregon and Dead Week deprives us of sleep. the flu season is here and its got an attitude Recently, a nasty case of the erud for* ed me to step inside the Halls of Medicine ' Yep, 1 had to go to the doc tors office You know, that place that smells kind of sterile and funny, and has a waiting room filled with wheeling, sneezing and crying children? And invariably, there's that one person with a gross, gurgling smokers hack trying to keep from coughing up a lung right there on the car|>et f very time I have to wait in a room iiko that (which isn't very often). I feel as if I'm being exposed to a new strain of the Bubonic Plague Why do all those sick people hang around in there anyway? It's enough to give a person the The doctor turned oul to be a really t ool guy who knows his trade inside and out After he finished all his doc toring stuff, he started to leave the room and said: "Conte on out to the lab area so we t an get a biota! sample from you." Mood sample? From me? My palms went clammy and I stuttered tan k "You want me to So out there?" OPINION "Yeah, just no right over there and they'll tuke care of you." Thai's exactly what 1 was afraid of Actually. I wasn't that nervous I've never had a hi# problem with getting shots or having blood drawn. 1 mean, it's not like I'd ever fainted 12 times or anvthing like that Only four times. And only when it involved either blood or a medical procedure. So. 1 walked over to the lab area and met Mike the radiology technologist. This is where things started to get interesting If you have an aversion to human blood or humiliating situations, you may want to stop reading right now. Mike was cool. He handed me n little Nerf likc* ball and told me to roll up my sleeve. He instructed me to squeeze the ha I! three times, make a fist, and let my fingers relax slowly. “I'm not going to look." 1 told him as he got the needle ready to draw some of my precious blood. "Neither am 1,1 never do — it makes me ner vous." Mike said back. Sue h a funny guy. And 1 laughed because he was only kidding. Wasn't he? His needle found my vein on the first try and I could tell he was getting blood because, well, you can kind of feel a yucky pull as the blood leaves the vein lif took the needle out. put a cotton bell on the "hole" and told me to hold the cotton in place for about three to five minutes. By that time l started to fuel a little light-head ed. That was no lug dual because I usually got light-headed after giving blood. And the next thing 1 knew. I had flat out faint ed 1 was gone; checked out — see you after Christmas break Every time I’ve fainted 1 seem to go to a very happy place — where there's nothing but bright ness and happiness I think I tan fly or at least slam-dunk a basketball there. The bummer is I can never seem to stay long enough to find out what the cost of living is there. Then suddenly, there was this face in front of me asking questions like: "Do you know where you are?" I didn't. "How many fingers am I holding up?" 1 think ! answered at least one of the questions, hut 1 remember being quite puzzled as to why the man (whom I began to recognize as Mike) was yanking rite away from funland and bring ing me back to reality. I didn't like reality very much because reality meant that I had fainted in the doctor's office and, during the high drama. WET MV PANTS. 1 he lab people half carried my soggy mar end into a separate room where they laid me on a tied. 1 here I was, all bundled up in a blanket, feel ing lousy and mortified. Mike even accused mo of camping out. I stayed there, with my legs elevated, for almost two hours. Several staff members checked on me as the shock wore off and my blood pressure returned to normal. 1 finally got to the point where 1 thought 1 could make it home I sat up and slid off the bed, and stood for aliout five minutes to make sunt I didn t do a Fosberry Flop right there on the floor. 1 sheepishly walked out into the lab area and apologized to everyone for flooding the place Ihen 1 struck out the side door and went home hut not liefont Mike gave me a diaper so 1 wouldn't get the car seat wet. What n guy. I ake it from me: fiat your veggies; try to get some sleep; wash your hands; get a flu shot, and drink lots of liquids And whatever you do, never, never. NEVER go to a doctor when you're feeling sick I could be hazardous to your ego's health. David Bartlett. a junior premajoring in journal i sm. is an editorial editor for the Emerald.
