Wednesday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR^MICHAEL J. KLECKNERopededitor@journalist.com
Oregonians would be wise to winterize
One summer’s day, a
grasshopper was hop
ping about, chirping
and singing to its heart’s
content. An ant passed by, carry
ing with great toil an ear of corn to
its nest.
“Why not play,” said the
grasshopper, “instead of toiling
and moiling in that way?”
"I am laying up food for the win
ter,” said the ant, “and recommend
you do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?”
said the grasshopper. “We have
plenty of food at present.”
We all know the ending. When
winter comes the grasshopper
starves because of its short-sight
edness.
Aesop’s fable of the ant and the
grasshopper reminds us of the tax
measures on the November ballot.
Measures 86,91,93 and 8 would
all make unwise tax policy a part
of the Oregon Constitution and
threaten higher education fund
ing. They treat our booming econ
omy like the grasshopper: There’s
plenty of money right now, so let’s
cut taxes and limit the state’s abili
ty to plan and invest wisely in the
future.
Well, guess what? As we saw
from Monday’s heavy rain, winter
is coming. And if we tie our hands
now, state services will suffer
through the dreary, wet winter —
when it comes.
Measure 86 enshrines the state’s
“kicker” law in the Constitution.
The kicker law says that when ac
tual taxes collected exceed the
state’s estimates, the extra taxes
are returned to taxpayers. This can
be a good thing: it acts as a check
on the legislature so they don’t un
derestimate and spend the extra
money for special interest proj
ects. But this is already the current
law. If we write it into the state
constitution, our legislators can’t
react when the state needs extra
funds. This is bad planning that
takes our current boom for grant
ed.
Measure 91 is appealing. Cur
rently, Oregonians can only
deduct $3,000 of their federal tax
liability from their state income
taxes. Measure 91 would allow a
deduction of the entire federal tax
liability. Initially, this sounds fair.
But this change cuts state rev
enues , to the tune of $800 million a
year, without offering any replace
ment. And the majority of the sav
ings goes to large businesses,
which have already benefited
greatly as a result of our strong
economy — and plenty of tax cuts
in the last 20 years. According to
the state’s Legislative Revenue Of
fice, in 1979, businesses shared
sure 91 is poor fiscal policy.
Measure 93 treats politics in
credibly naively. Sponsored by
Bill Sizemore, the same man re
sponsible for Measure 91 and a
grasshopper of the highest order,
Measure 93 would make voters ap
prove all “new or increased taxes,
fees or charges proposed by state
and local governments, unless ex
empted.” There are few exemp
tions. The vast majority of fee in
creases — like hairdresser license
fees and photocopy charges at the
county courthouse—would need
to be approved by voters. Ahh,
grasshopper, this is why we elect
lawmakers. If we’re that cynical
about our representatives, then we
had better vote for someone differ
ent or completely change our form
of government. This constitutional
spending. It would limit the state’s
two-year spending plans to 15 per
cent of Oregonians’ total personal
income in the prior two years. Ore
gon currently spends about 18 per
cent of our prior personal income.
This change would cut funding by
nearly $3 billion per year, some of
which would have to come out of
higher education. Given the cur
rent summer of abundance in Ore
gon, we should be thinking of in
vesting some money in our future.
If businesses operated on the same
strict rule (this measure would
also be written into our constitu
tion, unchangeable by our law
makers), major capital invest
ments wouldn’t occur. Oregon
deserves investment in its future.
All of these measures treat tax
payers as though their only con
check. But most taxpayers aren’t
so concerned with reducing taxes.
Recent polls conducted by The
Center on Policy Attitudes, The
Washington Post and ABC News
show that only 20 percent of
Americans want to cut taxes. The
rest of us want to use our com
bined wealth to improve our coun
try and save for later.
Measures 86,91,93 and 8
threaten the future of higher edu
cation and the future of our state.
Vote no on these constitutional
amendments that chirp and sing
all summer long, without a
thought for the cold, rainy winter
ahead.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
LJLAO LCLA. UU1 LICil Willi iilUl V 1U Udl5 111
Oregon equally. By 1998, busi
nesses were only paying 39 per
cent of the state’s bills. It isn’t fair
to hand successful corporations a
big tax break at the expense of the
state—especially at the expense
of education. A good school sys
tem is crucial to our
economy.
Mea
amenumeni is ioonsn, ana wouia
tie the hands of government agen
cies to levy taxes and collect fees
for the services they provide.
Measure 8 poses a real danger,
by arbitrarily reducing
cern is simple greed
about the size of
their pay
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
OCA condemns ‘liberal dogma’in schools
Guest Commentary
Barry Dean
_Williams
The Oregon Daily Emerald (10/9) accused
the Oregon Citizens Alliance of trying to rip
Oregon apart again and said the previous
Measure 9 subjected homosexuals to harass
ment, death threats and physical abuse. The
biggest news story of that period, claiming
harassment, death threats and physical
abuse to a homosexual was proven to be
false. The facts are that the Mahons’ home
was shot into, OCA members had their cars
vandalized, pink triangles painted on their
garage doors and yard signs stolen or van
dalized.
Recently in California, homosexual ac
tivists destroyed more than 1,000 yard signs
during the vote to defend traditional mar
riage. The "tolerance/diversity" crowd has
cost the Boy Scouts of America $3 million as
it defended its right to have God in its oath
and to set moral standards for its organiza
tion. Conservative speakers have been pre
vented from speaking at some universities.
Attempts were made to censor a Jewish
woman, defending biblical morality, from
radio and TV.
Liberals/homosexuals seek to create revo
lutionary changes in our society and if you
dare oppose them, they will demonize you
as hateful, intolerant, narrow-minded, igno
rant, divisive and diseased (homophobia).
The only way to avoid these labels is to
blindly submit to their dogma. This is not
valuing tolerance and diversity. It is tyranny
enforcing liberal dogma.
My dogma is already banned from the
public schools. Measure 9 simply removes
the promotion, encouragement and sanc
tioning of liberal dogma on homosexuality
from the public schools. If you want to con
tinue to have public schools, they will only
survive if they focus their mission on those
objectives on which there is broad consen
sus.
If we really value tolerance and diversity,
then we should direct the full per-student
share of the educational budget to parents
through vouchers, paying for their choice of
home-schooling, private, public or some
combination, as long as their child scores
appropriately each year on standardized
testing, as home-schooled students already
do.
Why not let the anarchists have their own
educational approach as well as the liberal,
conservative, homosexual, heterosexual,
Amish, Christian, humanist, etc.? Liberals
won’t accept this, because they want mas
sive public institutions to turn us all into lib
erals, just like themselves. The Emerald sug
gested we err on the side of tolerance. Well,
that is what it would look like and I am
ready for it.
Measure 9 does not prevent HIV/AIDS ed
ucation. Just teach objective facts. Teach that
condoms don't work. Abortion is Planned
Parenthood's backup plan and we have had
to use the backup plan 30 million times.
One-third of the siblings of University stu
dents are missing, murdered in the womb.
Condoms are even less reliable for prevent
ing disease and the backup plan is death.
Thirty percent of HIV-free individuals using
condoms with HIV-positive individuals will
get HIV/AIDS (and die). The sexual revolu
tion is over. Liberal sexuality will kill you.
The baby boomers were wrong. Sex isn't
free. The price of free sex was to send di
vorce and sexually transmitted disease rates
off the chart and to abort 30 million chil
dren.
See the evidence at www.ocayeson9.com.
Protect our children from dangerous and
failed liberal dogma. Vote yes on Measure 9.
Barry Dean Williams is the Lane County director of the
Oregon Citizens Alliance.
Letters to the editor
Vote yes on Measures 20-38,20-39
On July 5, 2000, the Lane County Do
mestic Violence Council voted to sup
port Measure 20-38, the Work Camps,
Jails and Services Levy, and Measure
20-39, the Jail Improvements Bond.
The Council urges voters to vote yes
on these measures because they will
help keep victims of domestic violence
and their children safe from batterers
and stalkers. The measures will do this
by:
• Increasing the number of slots at
the Forest Work Camp and the jail’s in
take center, making more space avail
able for abusers. This will mean that
when domestic violence offenders are
arrested, they can be held longer in the
jail.
• Funding services for juveniles,
many of whom grew up in violent
homes. Studies show that without in
tervention, some of these youth will be
come batterers or victims themselves.
• Maintaining funding of existing
public services, so that resources al
ready in place will not have to be cut.
Please vote yes on Measures 20-38
and 20-39.
Emily Heilbrun
coordinator
Lane County Domestic Violence Council