FRIDAY, 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.
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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
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PAGE 10
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