Opinion
4A
Saturday, May 30, 2020
The Observer
EO Media Group
The Oregon Capitol has been closed amid the coronavi-
rus pandemic and stay-home orders in Oregon.
OUR VIEW
Lawmakers need
to get answers
O
regon lawmakers have the opportu-
nity Saturday to question officials about
the much-criticized performance of
the Employment Department in handling a record
number of claims during the shutdown of business
activity in the coronavirus pandemic.
And this time, the legislators need to earn their
pay.
The agency has responded to about 90% of
people submitting applications for unemployment
assistance. But tens of thousands of Oregonians
still are not receiving assistance. Many just can’t
get through on the phone. Some were incorrectly
informed they needed to reapply for benefits. And
in the beginning at least, the state said it would
not be able to provide Oregonians with some ben-
efits even though the federal government provided
money for it.
Legislators need to get to the bottom of all this,
but during a Wednesday session on the situation,
that never happened.
The committee called on Oregon Employment
Department Director Kay Erickson to testify, and
she and an aide, David Gerstenfeld, sucked up the
entire 60 minutes with a Powerpoint presentation.
If it wasn’t so outrageous, it would have to earn
admiration as one of the more impressive bureau-
cratic filibusters in state legislative history.
Perhaps more outrageous, the committee
chairman, Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, did not
allow questions during the hearing.
Is that the kind of legislative leadership Ore-
gonians want? And what does it say about the
interest of the Employment Department leadership
in listening to what the elected leaders of the state
want to know? It’s not flattering.
Saturday’s hearing — this time a full three
hours, from 9 a.m. to noon — is the result of crit-
icism for Wednesday’s tone-deaf handling of a
major failure of the state.
Lawmakers now need to press for answers, and
Oregon Unemployment Department officials need
to be frank in their responses. Not listening to leg-
islators, not allowing questions feeds the percep-
tion that people in state government care little for
the people they truly work for — Oregonians.
OTHER VIEWS
Make Facebook and Google pay for local news
f you are a newspaper subscriber
new product development.
or you pick up a copy at a local
The irony is that the news and
retailer, you pay for the news
content that newspapers pay journal-
ists to provide is used by Google and
and information you receive in your
paper’s print edition or digital outlets. Facebook to steadily drive adver-
tising revenue away from newspa-
But it may surprise you to learn
pers, and into their coffers. The two
that the multibillion-dollar digital
digital giants now gobble up 60% of
behemoths Facebook and Google
all online advertising in the United
don’t pay for the enormous amounts
States — an
of news content
amount cer-
they scoop up
tain to increase
from newspapers
DEAN RIDINGS
with the cra-
every second.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPERS
tering of news-
Facebook doles
paper ad revenue
out a little bit
caused by the
of money through
It’s long past time for
coronavirus pan-
grants and funds
demic. Facebook
to a few publishers Google and Facebook to
and Google don’t
— and Google pro-
do what newspapers and have reporters
vides some small
grants through its
the associated
their subscribers do: Pay or
News Initiative.
expense. They
While these are
rely on small and
for the local news that
positive steps, they
large newspa-
pers to feed their
in no way make up benefits them so richly.
search results.
for the news con-
tent they are using for free.
Here’s why this patently unfair sit-
uation should concern you and your
Newspapers’ original reporting,
community: It now threatens the
especially on the community news
existence of some local newspapers,
and information that only local
the source of news and information
papers can provide, drive traffic
that underpins democracy and civic
to Facebook and Google, keeping
life itself.
people on their sites longer and
It’s long past time for Google and
attracting advertisers.
Facebook to do what newspapers and
And news is a rich source of rev-
enue for the Big Tech platforms. A
their subscribers do: Pay for the local
2019 study conducted by the News
news that benefits them so richly.
Media Alliance concluded that news
There are ways for that to happen.
publishers’ content makes up 16-39% Ideally, Google and Facebook would
of Google’s search results, which
take the responsibility and volun-
tarily propose a method to share rev-
goes largely uncompensated. That
figure doesn’t include the more intan- enue with newspapers and other news
gible benefits that news content, and
organizations. They already pay
the data that comes with it, provide
licensing fees to music publishers, for
the search giant, such as using it for
instance.
I
Realistically, though, the two
behemoths will have to be forced to
a solution. America’s Newspapers,
an association of some 1,500 news-
papers including many operated by
families for multiple generations,
along with the News Media Alliance
and other media associations have
urged Congress to pass the Jour-
nalism Competition and Preservation
Act, allowing newspaper publishers
as a group to negotiate rates with Big
Tech.
Other nations around the world
have taken notice of the ill effect the
market dominance of Google and
Facebook has on the viability of inde-
pendent journalism. Australia is now
developing a code that would require
Google and Facebook to compen-
sate news organizations when their
content is used in the digital giants’
news products. Similarly, France just
ordered Google to negotiate with
news publishers over pay for news
content.
This public health crisis has
demonstrated the importance of the
reporting of local newspapers, even
as it has wreaked economic havoc
on them, forcing layoffs and even
silencing printing presses on some
days. Requiring Google and Face-
book to pay their fair share for news
would go a long way to restoring
the long-term health of your local
newspaper.
About the Author
Dean Ridings is CEO of Amer-
ica’s Newspapers, an alliance of
local newspapers and related estab-
lishments committed to explaining,
defending and advancing the vital
role of newspapers in democracy and
civil life.
OUR VIEW
Oregon Legislature should be making tough budget choices
regon’s general fund
budget may take a
$2.7 billion hit in
this current budget cycle.
Oregon cannot legally have
a budget deficit. How will
the state cut that money?
There are essentially two
ways. The governor can do
across-the-board cuts. Leg-
islators could choose to let
that stick or they can come
up with their own plan.
The governor and legis-
lators should work together
to come up with some-
thing more discriminating
O
than across-the-board
cuts. That’s what we elect
them for — to set priori-
ties and make those tough
decisions.
Gov. Kate Brown
already asked state agen-
cies to make plans to cut
their budgets by 17%.
That may be slightly
more than what is needed,
but the plans will be a
good starting point for
discussion.
Since 2002, governors
on five occasions have used
what’s called allotment
reduction due to recessions.
Allotment reduction is just
the official name for across-
the-board cuts. But when
the governor does that, the
governor can’t pick and
choose.
The assumption must be
that all general fund budget
allotments have the same
priority and each gets cut
by the same percentage.
Some parts of state gov-
ernment actually can’t get
cut under this process. For
instance, the secretary of
state, the state treasurer, the
lottery, public universities
and the judicial branch are
exempt.
It also gets complicated
because agencies do get
some discretion in imple-
menting cuts. An agency
doesn’t need to spread
them out equally within an
appropriation from the gen-
eral fund. It could decide
certain departments could
get cut and others would
not.
If the Legislature is con-
vened, it has much more
authority to fine tune any
cuts. It could fully elimi-
nate a program or service
that had been authorized.
That can’t be done without
the Legislature.
The Legislature also
could, for instance, decide
that it would be silly to
cut anything from the
state’s employment depart-
ment at this time because
the agency has had so
much trouble meeting the
demand for unemployment
payments.
Additionally, the Legis-
lature has the authority to
cut spending for any entity
under its budget power
and can eliminate jobs and
positions.
Oregon does have about
$1.6 billion in rainy day
funds, and Congress may
take more action to help
states. Regardless, the state
will have some tough deci-
sions to make. Because the
Legislature has the power
to more precisely decide
how Oregon will respond
to the budget challenge, the
Legislature should convene
to do so.