The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current, June 09, 2017, Image 4

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The Baker County press., June 09, 2017, Page 4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextFRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2017 4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS Opinion / Local Reminder note to readers My apologies in advance, but due to family obligations, the June 16, 2017, is- sue of The Baker County Press will not be released on that Friday as usual. I realize other weeklies occasionally skip a print run, but that practice is some- thing I have always tried to avoid. During that week I will be in Boise at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital while my ﬁve-year-old daughter has surgery, then caring for her afterward. Needless to say, my mind won’t be on books or newspa- pers that week. BCP reporters will continue to cover stories from that week—and I’ll run them together with articles the following week in what is likely to be a larger paper, com- bining two issues. To help make up for the inconvenience, I’m also bumping the subscription end- dates for subscribers back a week. Thanks for your understanding. I’ll print a reminder closer to June 16 (which would be this printing) so no one is caught off guard. County hears Lime, watershed update — Kerry McQuisten, Editor — Guest Opinion — On the education budget Todd Arriola / The Baker County Press Christo Morris, Executive Director of PBWC. By Rep. Greg Barreto This week, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means approved an $8.2 billion K-12 education budget for the 2017-2019 budget cycle. The budget, which represents an 11.2% increase over the K-12 allocation in the 2015- 2017 biennium, is the largest education budget in state history. Yet even with the increased funding, few are celebrating. We had previously watched as this budget painfully clawed its way out of the Joint Ways and Means Education Subcommittee late last week. There were three members of the subcommit- tee who did not agree with the appro- priation: Rep. Parrish (R-Tualatin/West Linn), Rep. Whisnant (R-Sunriver), and Rep. Hernandez (D-Portland). Rep. Hernandez’s opposition meant that the budget did not have the necessary votes to pass out of committee. However, in- stead of going back to the drawing board to ﬁnd a solution we could agree on, ma- jority party Democrats simply replaced Rep. Hernandez with Rep. Nathanson (D-Eugene), who voted in his place to pass the bill out of committee. What’s interesting about this commit- tee vote, aside from the obvious politi- cal maneuvering from the Democratic majority, was that the “no” votes were bipartisan. This is because education is not a partisan issue. The problem isn’t that some are okay with being 47th worst in graduation rates, and some are not. There is not a single legislator in the Capitol who disagrees with the no- tion that our education system should be functioning for best results, and that our students and our teachers deserve better than what they are being given. We all want the best for our students and teach- ers, but the current system simply is not working. Recently, The Oregonian/OregonLive published an editorial that touched on a few important elements in the conversa- tion around education that deserve to be highlighted. Chief among them was the overwhelming and misplaced assign- ment of blame. Rep. Smith Warner (D- Portland) argued that Oregon students will receive a year’s less instruction than will Washington students. The feeling of frustration, when we have a booming economy and not enough money to meet the desires of the state, lead her to the conclusion that we have a “broken rev- enue structure.” As the editorial rightful- ly pointed out, the National Education Association recently found that Oregon currently outspends Washington by about $2,000 per student. It is also worth mentioning that Oregon is 6th highest in the nation on overall per capita spending at $9,245. The editorial goes on to ask: how do we use that money differently so students get the education Oregonians are paying for? This is a great question. Rep. Smith Warner (D) also pointed to the school boards, asserting that they are charged with how the money is spent, rather than the Legislature, and that Oregonians should be looking to them instead. Rep. Parrish then reminded the committee that state interference often prohibits any real action from school boards to save money or to be more ef- fective with their resources. Her statement echoed a comment from a previous hearing this year in the Higher Education Committee. Rep. BY TODD ARRIOLA Todd@TheBakerCountyPress.com Submitted Photo Rep. Greg Barreto serves Union, Umatilla and Wallowa Counties. He can be reached at (503) 986-1458. Whisnant asked Oregon State Univer- sity President, Ed Ray, what the higher education presidents are doing to ad- dress major cost drivers. President Ray answered, “We don’t control the cost drivers. 70% of our costs are people. When we were allowed to have our own individual boards we were told, ‘You will stay in PEBB, you will stay in PERS, and you will negotiate as a group with SEIU.’ We had no latitude to do anything about what are, in fact, the main cost drivers that we face.” I think this statement by President Ed Ray speaks volumes as to who really runs the state. When you follow the money trail, the public unions are the largest contributors to the Democratic Party campaign funds. What we are seeing across the board in K-12 education, higher education, busi- ness, and beyond, are ever increasing mandates from the legislature on how they are to operate. This is complicated by an out of control public employee pension system that is going to continue to force massive cost increases well into the future. To put the blame any- where but at the feet of the Legislature is irresponsible and unacceptable. We have been operating our state on ideals without any real plan on how to pay for them, fundamentally missing or, more likely, entirely ignoring that these things come at a massive cost. Without proper planning and budgeting, Oregonians will continue to pay a steep price. It would seem, with an over 30% increase in state revenue over the last six years that we should not be short on money. Yet, year after good year, rather than saving excess revenue, Democrats used it to create new programs and grow our bloated bureaucracy. This outcome was predicted when we ﬁrst started outpac- ing our revenue with our spending, and we did nothing. We are simply watching it come to fruition today. Again, I will go back to Senator Devlin’s comment at the beginning of the session when he said, “The scope of what we think we should provide we ﬁnd we cannot af- ford.” When it comes to the budget, the buck stops with lawmakers. Investing in education is critical to the future of our state. More allocation of dollars to education would be well worth it if we could count on that money getting to the classrooms, to the stu- dents, and to provide better outcomes. But, when we outspend nearby states by thousands per student, continue to cut programs and teachers, and then lag sorely behind in graduation rates, it does not logically follow that pumping more money into the same system is the answer. We won’t feel any better in the next biennium if we produce the same outcome and continue in our search for more revenue because we didn’t manage the taxpayers’ dollars well. The Baker County Board of Commissioners held its ﬁrst, regular session of the month, on Wednesday, June 7, 2017, 9 a.m., in the Commission Chambers of the Baker County Court- house, which included a Powder Basin Watershed Council update, from Executive Director Christo Morris. Present from the Board were Chair Bill Harvey, Commissioner Bruce Nichols, and Executive Assistant Heidi Martin. Commissioner Mark Ben- nett was absent. Attendance also included Baker County Planning Director Holly Kerns, Baker County Planner Car- son Quam, Baker County District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff, Baker County Juvenile Court Supervisor, Baker County Road Master Jeff Smith, Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash, Baker County IT Director Bill Lee, Ed Hardt, Ken An- derson, Randy Joseph, and Lori and Rich Daniels. The session was called to order, and Harvey provided the Invocation, and led in the Pledge of Allegiance. The agenda was adopted, with one addition, with a motion from Nichols, and a second from Harvey. Citizen Participation included Joseph, who discussed two issues, the ﬁrst of which is a concern of his regarding a road ac- cess gate to a wind turbine site in the area of Lime. He said, “That gate’s always been problematic; it’s in a bad spot, but, it’s never really been used...” He asked about anyone expressing any interest in leasing property there, which would mean the gate would be kept closed if cattle were around, and Harvey said that only Ed Trindle had spoken to the County about that interest. Joseph’s second issue is a concern of his with the Planning Department-re- lated fees, according to the County Fee Schedule, and that there had been some complicated Plan Amend- ments and Conditional Use Permits, requiring more time, staff work, and funds. “There’s no mechanism for the County to recoup that...” He said that the budget and time constraints limit what the Planning Department can accomplish, and he sug- gested the County inves- tigate a Fee Schedule that could “...keep the County neutral.” The minutes from the Tuesday, May 30, 2017 special session were ap- proved, with a couple of noted changes, with a motion from Harvey, and a Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker County Press reserves the right not to publish letters containing factu- al falsehoods or incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or detracting from speciﬁc for-proﬁt businesses will not be published. Word limit is 375 words per letter. Letters are limited to one every other week per author. Letters should be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCountyPress. com. Advertising and Opinion Page Disclaimer: Opinions submitted as Guest Opinions or Letters to second from Nichols. A public hearing was held in the matter of Ordinance No. 2017-03, Adopting An Ordinance Authorizing The Operation Of All-Terrain Vehicles On County Roadways, which included Smith, who ex- plained some details in the ordinance. These include two changes, regarding seat belts (they’re required if they were installed by the manufacturer, or installed later), and At- tachment A, which lists roadways closed to ATVs (there’s an exception for County commercial use, and agricultural use). These closed roadways in- clude Hughes Lane, Cedar Street, Pocahontas Road, West Campbell Loop, Wingville Lane, Chandler Lane, and Anthony Lakes Highway. The ordinance was adopted, with a mo- tion from Harvey, and a second from Nichols. Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) No. 148536, between Shirt- cliff, and the Oregon State Department of Human Services (DHS), for the services of local court case handling, was approved, with a motion from Har- vey, and a second from Nichols. SEE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PAGE 10 the Editor express the opinions of their authors, and have not been authored by and are not necessarily the opinions of The Baker County Press, any of our staff, management, independent contractors or afﬁliates. Advertisements placed by political groups, candidates, businesses, etc., are printed as a paid service, which does not constitute an endorsement of or fulﬁllment ob- ligation by this newspaper for the products or services advertised. — Contact Us — YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS The Baker County Press President Donald Trump PO Box 567 Baker City, Ore. 97814 202.456.2461 fax Open Monday-Thursday for calls 9 AM - 4 PM Open 24/7 for emails 202.456.1414 Whitehouse.gov/contact US Sen. Jeff Merkley 503.326.3386 503.326.2900 fax Merkley.Senate.gov Phone: 541.519.0572 TheBakerCountyPress.com US Sen. Ron Wyden 541.962.7691 Wyden.Senate.gov Kerry McQuisten, Publisher Editor@TheBakerCountyPress.com US Rep. Greg Walden Wendee Morrissey, Advertising and Sales Wendee@TheBakerCountyPress.com 541.624.2402 fax David Conn, Advertising and Sales David@TheBakerCountyPress.com Published weekly every Friday. Subscription rates per year are $29.95 all areas, e-mail delivery. $39.95 print issue, home delivery, Baker City city limits only. $49.95 print issue, mail delivery, outside Baker City city limits only. Payment in advance. A division of Black Lyon Publishing, LLC 541.624.2400 Walden.House.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 503.378.3111 Governor.Oregon.gov State Rep. Cliff Bentz 503.986.1460 State Sen. Ted Ferrioli 541.490.6528 Baker County Commissioners Bill Harvey; Mark Bennett; Bruce Nichols 541.523.8200 Copyright © 2014 -2017 541.523.8201