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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2005)
Today Friday Saturday High: 53 High: 52 High: 53 Low: 41 Low: 40 Low: 40 Precip: 100% Precip: 90% Precip: 30% IN BRIEF Sponsors, Inc. to answer questions at area meeting Representatives from Sponsors, Inc. will be at tonight’s West Uni versity Neighbors meeting to an swer questions about the program. Sponsors, Inc. is looking to buy a house in the West University neigh borhood to provide a place where parolees and ex-convicts currently residing in the area can live together in a supervised environment. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Central Presbyterian Church on the corner of East 15th Avenue and Patterson Street. Eugene Police Chief Robert Lehn er will discuss policing and crime related issues in the neighborhood and answer questions for neighbor hood residents at the meeting. West University Neighbors board mem ber and University student Don Goldman has lambasted the police at past meetings for unfairly target ing college students and writing tickets without proper justification. West University Neighbors Chair Drix Rixmann said Lehner will par ticipate in a group discussion about how to throw safe parties in the neighborhood and how to party responsibly. “I’m all for parties; it’s just get ting people to be aware that there’s neighbors,’’ Rixmann said. There are two open spots on the group’s board of directors, and Rix mann said members of the ASUO contacted him to express their inter est in attending the meeting and seeking election to the board. Rixmann said the ASUO repre sentatives were not very friendly to him and left him feeling rather dis heartened about the state of the University’s student government. “I just kept thinking, ‘Man, what a shitty way to be,’” Rixmann said. ASUO President Adam Petkun said he is not sure who spoke with Rixmann on the phone and said the ASUO has not decided which staff member will attend the meeting. Rixmann said he has been bom barded with phone calls in the past month from people interested in talking with the neighborhood asso ciation, and he is excited about the responses. “The bottom line is we have ac tivity, and that’s what we wanted,” Rixmann said. — Meghann M. Cuniff House approves bill to adopt tax changes SALEM — A bill to tie Oregon in come taxes to recent changes in fed eral tax law won House approval Wednesday after Democrats failed to have two business tax breaks re moved from it. The Republican-run House passed the bill 37-23. The measure now goes to the Democrat controlled Senate. The Legislature regularly updates Oregon tax law to include most federal changes in deductions and exemptions, which simplifies tax fil ing for the average Oregon tax payer by minimizing differences between state and federal tax forms. The minority House Democrats argued that lawmakers shouldn’t go along with two new corporate tax breaks that they said would reduce state revenue by an estimated $27 million for the 2005-07 budget. Their attempt to delete the breaks from the bill failed on a 33-27, par ty-line vote. One of the breaks passed by Con gress last year gives domestic man ufacturers a tax deduction for part of their income from producing a wide variety of goods. The other federal change gives a tax-free subsidy to employers who continue providing prescription coverage for workers after the new Medicare prescription drug plan takes effect next year. Opponents of the breaks said they will enrich big companies but do lit tle or nothing to help Oregon be cause they reduce tax revenue for education and other needs. Rep. Larry Galizio, D-Tigard, said linking the state to federal tax breaks across-the-board “fully adopts the corporate subsidies pur chased by high-powered lobbyists in Washington, D.C.” But supporters of the federal-state tax link said the tax breaks would help Oregon create jobs. “This is about competitiveness,” said Rep. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas. He said states that have adopted the federal changes would have an ad vantage over Oregon when compet ing for businesses. — The Associated Press ASUO: Candidates say stipends need review Continued from page 1 attended a finance retreat two years ago when he was on the Athletic De partment Finance Committee, adding that retreats will be “very beneficial. ” “We will have a retreat with the ASUO Executive where president takes a hands-on role,” he said. Presidential candidate Anthony Caruso said the retreat will offer opportunities and a bonding experience. “Once you have a well-bonded group of people, they feel more moti vated to work together for a better cause,” he said. “I feel like the retreat will be more well monitored this year, especially under the scope of the media eye; with transparency in volving everyone and the media looking at us, it’s not like it would happen again.” Vice presidential candidate Christopher Haak said student money should be spent on retreats, but they don’t need to be held in Sunriver. “It can be done there; it can be done here,” he said. “Leadership can be done anywhere. ” Vice presidential candidate David Goward said retreats are “extremely important” but proposed the retreat be held at a camp near Junction City, which would cost about one-third of the roughly $3,200 of student money spent on this year’s retreat. Presidential candidate Adam Walsh said, “Instead of a retreat to Sunriver, our administration would have a bonding experience in the skylight of the EMU.” ASUO Student Senator Rona Yang asked the candidates why they had n’t attended controversial Programs Finance Committee meetings this year and what they would do to ad dress the controversial pay model r formulated by the committee. Daniels said the PFC “isn’t working.” “The reason I haven’t been at these meetings is that I don’t feel wel comed, and that’s why I’m running for this office,” he said. “I tried to find information on the budget; I got the 2000-2001 budget. I have no idea what’s going on because they won’t let me, and the meetings are held up on the third floor in a dark room, and there’s room for 17 senators and the vice president.” Hudson said he sat on the Senate during a special meeting Monday to approve the PFC budget. “The stipend model has to be fixed,” he said. “There are some budgets that 60 percent of their budg eting goes to the stipend, so it does need to be fixed.” Walsh said he attended the emergency PFC meeting last week, adding that the stipend model needs to be reevaluated. Goward said he has been an ad ministrative assistant for the PFC and his running-mate, Evan Geier, has at tended multiple PFC meetings this year. Goward said pay for student leaders should be paid directly to those leaders. “It’s important to have the money going directly to the students because when you enter the real world, your employer will not pay your bills for you, so we won’t be paying students’ bills,” he said. Haak said it is important to pay student government leaders because they work long hours. He added that he did not attend the meetings. “I can’t say I’ve been to a meeting. I don’t know where they’re held; I don’t know much about them,” he said. “But I’d encourage that anyone who gets elected, we should sit in on all their meetings. ” Caruso said he didn’t learn about problems with the PFC budget until he was busy with finals, gone for spring break and involved with political campaigns. PFC member Anker-Lagos said she as “learned so much” from her time on the committee. “I find it very difficult to hear a bunch of students talk about PFC when they did not go through the process,” she said. “It’s very long process with many variables.” Online voting through DuckWeb runs through Friday at 5 p.m. parkerhowell@dailyemerald.com ■ How to vote ASUO primary elections run through Friday. Students must log onto their DuckWeb accounts to vote at duckweb.uoregon.edu. Students can vote for all general and at-large candidates but will only be able to vote for academic senators running for the seat related to their majors. Each student can vote only once. Twenty seats are up for grabs in the primary elections, with 46 total candidates vying for po sitions. Eight of the races are uncontested, with only one candidate currently slated to run for' those positions. However, students may write in candidates for all positions. Students must vote by 5 p.m. on Friday. The top two candi dates from the primary elections move on to the general elections, which will be held from April 13-15. However, if any candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the primar ies, he or she gets the seat. Students can vote from any computer with ac cess to DuckWeb. 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