FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2017
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Opinion
— Guest Opinion —
— Guest Opinion —
The SB719
debacle
Safe drinking
water is a
bipartisan
issue
By Kevin Starrett
Special to The Baker County Press
By Rep. Greg Walden
All of us in Oregon and across the
country deserve access to safe, clean
drinking water. That’s why the Energy
and Commerce Committee —where
I serve as Chairman—just passed
bipartisan legislation to modernize the
nation’s drinking water infrastructure.
Today, drinking water flows to our
homes and businesses through more
than one million miles of pipes oper-
ated by both publicly and privately-
owned water systems.
Many of these pipes were laid in
the early to mid-20th century with an
expected lifespan of 75 to 100 years.
In fact, some communities in Oregon
still rely on wood stave water pipes
that are reaching the end of their life.
While in most places, drinking water
quality remains high, we also have
seen horrible problems from Flint,
Michigan to drinking fountains in
Oregon schools.
Our legislation focuses on address-
ing drinking water systems’ physi-
cal needs, aiding states and utilities
with compliance and operation of the
drinking water program, and encour-
aging the wisest use of money that is
spent.
For the last 20 years, Congress has
helped drinking water delivery sys-
tems meet the challenge of providing
consumers with safe and affordable
water through the Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
From the end of 1997 through 2016,
Oregon has received more than $274
million in grants to help improve
the safety and quality of tap water,
comply with drinking water rules and
reporting requirements, and give a
helping hand to the most economically
distressed communities struggling to
provide their residents safe drinking
water.
This fiscal year, Oregon is set to
receive nearly $12 million in funding
to improve its water systems.
Many rural communities across Ore-
gon struggle with failing infrastructure
and a limited ability to afford these
Submitted Photo
Rep. Greg Walden represents
Oregon’s Congressional District 2,
which includes Baker County.
increasingly costly projects. They turn
to the DWSRF for help.
In Malheur County, rural com-
munities such as Vale and Nyssa are
completing new water treatment and
storage facilities to bring safe drinking
water to their residents.
In Umatilla County, the city of
Pendleton is upgrading more than 30
miles of water lines that are nearly
a century old—Mayor John Turner
said this project would be impossible
without the program.
Our bill, the Drinking Water System
Improvement Act, continues those im-
portant investments and authorizes $8
billion over five years for the DWSRF
while also expanding the number of
ways in which the fund can be used
to improve delivery systems. In fact,
we’re authorizing an increase of $350
million in funding for next year from
which states such as Oregon could
benefit.
Perhaps most important is how the
bill looks to the future, using smart-
technology to monitor drinking water
quality in real-time.
This allows us to better prevent,
detect, or rapidly respond to contami-
nants in our water systems. The ability
to have up-to-the-minute information
helps ensure water is safe and clean,
system leaks and recent contamination
are identified quickly, and the accu-
racy and availability of compliance
data is maintained. We also included
a program to help our schools replace
drinking fountains that might contain
lead.
These are just some of the highlights
of the bill. As this measure heads to
the House for a vote, I will continue
working with my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle to ensure it passes
and we do our part to make sure the
water Americans drink is safe.
Oregon PERS debt at
$52,100,000,000
Submitted by Sen. Ted
Ferrioli’s Office
Taxpayer-funded pen-
sion systems are combusti-
ble by nature, but Oregon’s
ticking time bomb known
as PERS is on the brink of
exploding.
Among the impending
disaster’s collateral dam-
age, Republicans say.
Under Oregon’s one-
party-rule taxpayers are
now on the hook for an
estimated $52,100,000,000
in taxpayer-held pension
debt. Simply put, to avoid
getting smacked with an
Illinois-like credit rat-
ing of near “junk” sta-
tus, late last Friday the
PERS Board adjusted the
taxpayer funded-pension
system’s (PERS) assumed
investment earnings rate,
lowering it by three-tenths
of one percent, down to 7.2
percent from 7.5.
“Tinkering with the
PERS rate won’t solve the
long-term problem of sol-
vency. It’s another failed
‘progressive’ strategy like
selling off public lands
and temporary account-
ing gimmicks aimed at
diverting attention from
the need to increase PERS
savings directly by capping
the final average salary
included for PERS benefit
calculations and by elimi-
nating ‘pension spiking’ by
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extending the final average
salary calculation to the
last five years of public
employment,” said Senate
Republican Leader Ted
Ferrioli, of John Day.
The newly set assumed
earnings rate is not as low
as Oregon Investment
Council’s moderate recom-
mendation of 7.1 percent,
but it is still much higher
than Oregon actuary Milli-
man’s realistically estimat-
ed 6.7 percent earnings rate
over the next two decades.
The Brown administra-
tion’s action, in the span of
just seconds, flooded the
PERS debt another $2.1
billion dollars.
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been authored by and are not necessarily
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When the Oregon Legislature passed
SB 719, there was very little attention
from the mainstream media. This is
unfortunate because 719 is the most
dangerous and draconian gun control
bill ever passed in Oregon.
The bill was the work of Democrat
Senator Ginny Burdick and Republi-
can Brian Boquist.
If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not
alone. While the bill forces firearms
confiscations from people who have
committed no crime, many police
don’t even know about it. Here’s how
it works.
If a member of your “household,” a
member of your family, or any police
officer tells a court that they believe
you are a danger to yourself or others,
police will be dispatched to your home
with an order for you to surrender all
firearms and “deadly weapons” under
your control.
If you have a concealed handgun
license, that will be seized as well.
You will not have been informed that
someone is making this accusation
against you.
You will have no opportunity to de-
fend yourself from these accusations
until after your property is confiscated
and your rights stripped from you.
And then, only at your own expense.
You are guilty until you can prove
yourself innocent and the burden of
proof is on you.
Here are some of the reasons you
can have your firearms confiscated;
If you have ever had a DUI.
If you have recently used marijuana.
If you have lawfully purchased a
firearm in the last six months.
That’s right. You can lose your guns
and your rights because you bought a
gun.
While Senator Boquist promoted the
bill as a “veteran’s suicide prevention”
bill (after the suicide of his stepson)
the bill contains not a single word
about getting help for a person who is
actually self destructive.
The bill contains not a single word
about providing protection for the
people in the home of someone who is
actually dangerous.
In fact, the Democrats in control of
the legislature refused to even con-
sider an amendment that would have
required there be some minimal effort
to seek professional help for a person
who was really troubled.
Senator Boquist has claimed this is
Submitted Photo
Kevin Starrett heads up the Oregon
Firearms Federation, fighting for
Second Amendment rights.
“not a gun bill.”
He has accused people who opposed
the bill of “not caring if veterans blow
their brains out” but clearly the bill is
nothing more than a massive attack on
the private ownership of firearms.
If the people whose guns will be
confiscated are truly a danger to them-
selves or others, why is there nothing
in the bill that requires those people be
confined or committed?
A person too dangerous to have a
firearm is too dangerous to be free
without a custodian. But in spite of
Boquist’s cynical and deceitful com-
ments to the contrary, the bill does not
even pretend to address getting help
for a person in crisis.
If you believe that surely the courts
will not issue a gun confiscation order
without solid proof of need, remember
the words of Oregon Judge Kenneth
Walker who recently stated, that
nobody, not even the police, should be
allowed to have firearms and if it were
up to him, all guns would be placed on
a barge and dumped in the ocean.
There is indeed virtually no incen-
tive for any judge to ever refuse to
issue one of these orders.
And if, after losing your property
and your rights you choose to go to
court to challenge the confiscation and
humiliation, you must now somehow
prove you are not dangerous.
Oh, and if you get an assessment
from a mental health professional that
says you are perfectly fine, that may
not be considered by the court!
How these orders will be carried out
remains to be seen.
Will a SWAT team show up at your
home in the middle of the night?
Will your home be torn apart in a
search?
And if a person truly is self destruc-
tive, would this not be the perfect
opportunity for “suicide by cop?”
Boquist’s disgraceful exploitation
of his stepson’s death will not help
a single person. It will however, be
used by vindictive family members to
destroy other’s reputations.
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