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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1995)
The Clackamas Print Page 2 Wednesday, Feb. 1,1995 OPINION Letter to the Editor: Oregon Education Endowment Senate president's proposal promotes education by Gordon H. Smith Senate President On January 9,1 challenged this legislature to be bold. Before a joint session of your new Legis lature, I proposed the creation of the Oregon Education Endow ment The idea is simple: by the end of this century, create a $3 billion endowment and dedicate its interest income to education - - kindergarten through college. I proposed that we begin to fund this endowment through the dedi cation of future lottery revenues, the sale of nonessential state as sets and the retention of surplus income tax revenues paid by cor porations. For years, the Oregon Legis lature has grappled with the ques tion of how to adequately fund education with a stable source of revenue. Unfortunately, for the past 25 years, proposed solutions have focused on raising taxes — a sales tax in particular. The cre ation of the Oregon Education Endowment can begin to move Oregon beyond this tired sales tax conversation and serve as a start ing point for a new discussion of stable funding for education. Assuming a 10% annual rate of return on $3 billion, the endow ment could provide $600' million each biennium dedicated to edu cation kindergarten through col lege. Obviously, with schools (K- 12) expected to receive a general fund allocation of $3.5 billion in 1996-97 alone, $600 million from an endowment will offer only a fraction of what is needed to ad equately fund schools. However, if endowment income were tar geted for a particular use such as capital construction, special edu cation^ technology improvements, college scholarships, or even low ering local property taxes to re turn an element of control -to lo cal school districts, the endow ment could not only serve as a sta bilizing funding influence, but have a positive, long-term impact on the quality of our entire edu cation system. Thanks to a robust economy and the popularity of state lottery games, state government enjoys a healthy financial environment. The legislature no longer faces the dire budget crisis predicted by many within govemrnent. In the short-term, this is good news. Unfortunately, for those of us who want to downsize the cost and scope of state government, a healthy state revenue picture cre ates new challenges. Specifically, how to maintain future pressure to reverse or limit government’s growth. The Oregon Education Endowment offers one solution. The constitutional dedication of a set percentage of future lottery proceeds to an education endow ment would not only ensure a dedicated, stable source of educa tion funds, but it would provide future lawmakers with a mean ingful alternative to merely feed ing the state bureaucracy. In Oregon, as across the na tion, the trend is away from cen tralized bureaucracy in favor of local, free enterprise solutions to public concerns. In Oregon, we should lead this movement by placing unused and nonessential state property in private hands, returning them to local property tax rolls. The Audits Division of the Secretary of State has identi fied the following land-owning state agencies that could poten tially liquidate property: Dept, of Administrative Services, Division of State Lands, Dept of Forestry, Dept of Fish & Wildlife, Dept, of Justice, Dept, of Higher Edu cation, Dept, of Corrections, Dept, of Human Resources and the Military Department. The long term potential revenues from the sale of these lands could ex ceed $1 billion. To make this a reality we must first develop an inventory of all state property (none currently exists), establish a process to value the properties, and finally establish a procedure for asset liquidation. The retention of surplus cor porate income tax revenues is pos sibly the most controversial ele ment of the funding proposal. This is especially true because it comes from a Republican and from one whose business would benefit from a refund. Looking long term, however, with this sig nificant financial commitment ($130 million), the business com munity has the opportunity to pro actively demonstrate its collective commitment to education. Most business people will agree that in addition to a pro-growth, pro-in vestment tax structure and a bal anced regulatory environment, an educated work force is the key to remaining competitive. If we do nothing, we will give the advo cates of higher taxes unnecessary ammunitioh in their inevitable campaigns to reform the tax sys tem and fund education by in creasing taxes paid by employers. This is an opportunity to strengthen the bond between busi ness and education. If you like the idea of the Oregon Education Endowment, I need your help. Flease call or write your legislator and ask him or her to support this plan. (800) 332-2313 or Sate Capitol, Salem, Oregon 97310. Oregonians quake at shaking earth Do we take precautionary measures to extremes? by Jocelyn Gauthier Features Editor Why is it that every time someone else in the world has an earthquake, we Oregonians think we have to have one, too? Do we ried about ourselves so that every one else will feel sorry for us and give us attention. We also love it because it gives us a sense of ur gency to get prepared. 1 recently bought a car, and very seriously, but not to the ex tent that secretly, deep down, we want one just to liven things up and give us something to make money off of! “I survived the quake” was a really not have a life to the point that we wish destruction on our selves to get attention? Seriously though, the time that our news covers an actual quake site is about equal to the time they prepare Oregonians for their own quake. “Japan just had a really bad earthquake, but don’t worry, we’ll get one soon, and we’ll tell you how to prepare for it!” I can just see everyone rush ing excitedly to get a pen and pa per so they can get the survival list from Channel 8. The truth is, people love to be scared. We love to get all wor- the previous owner had kept the trunk literally full of survival equipment I think Oregonians are partly looking forward to an opportunity to go camping. Do we really have it so easy that we crave the opportunity to just barely survive? I admit that I fit into this category of weirdos, and I think it’s sick. I was even jeal ous of a girl in first grade because she broke her arm and got so much attention that I wanted a broken arm, too! Don’t get me wrong though. We are very prone to earthquakes, and the possibility should be taken phrase we put on T-shirts and bumper stickers as a way to im press our out-of-town friends and family, as if it were some cool new ride at Disneyland. Sure, we should be prepared for quakes, but not to the extent that we have “quakophobia.” We’ll never be mentally prepared unless we want to become ex tremely sick and twisted. So get your own life, Oregon, and get your attention some other way. The rest of the nation already sees Oregon as a place where lots of bad things happen, and a quake wouldn’t change that. Ike Claduum Ptini Editor-In-Chief: Tina Guinn (Ext. 2576) News Editor: Anjanette Booth (Ext. 2576) Feature Editor: Jocelyn Gauthier (Ext. 2577) Sports Editor: Jason Hunter (Ext. 2577) Photography Editor: Chad Patteson (Ext. 2578) Copy Editor: Cori Kargel (Ext. 2578) Business Manager: Zach Kreinheder (Ext. 2578) Editing and Design Editor: Jeff Kemp (Ext. 2578) Opinion Editor: Christ Snavely (Ext. 2576) ♦ ♦♦♦ Staff Writers/Photographers: Eric Eatherton, DonnyKemp, Jesse Sowa, Delores Ward ♦ ♦♦♦ Secretary: Cheryl Willemse (Ext. 2309) Advisor : John Knowlton (Ext. 2310) The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, professional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of die student body, college administration, its faculty or The Clackamas Print's advertisers. Products and services ad vertised in The Clackamas Print are not necessarily endorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication distributed every Wednesday except for finals week.- The adver tising rate is $4.50 per column inch. All letters to the editor will be considered for publication and must be submitted by 1 p.m. the Friday prior to the next issue. Clackamas Common tiy College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045; Barlow 104; (503) 657-6958, ext. 2309. Cmediw The Clackamas Print reserves this space to make cor rections or clarifi cations on any pre viously printed ma terial. In the last issue of The Clackamas Print, we ran a story on page one in which we stated that all day classes would be can celled Feb. 23 for the Skills Contest. We need to clarify that only day classes on the main cam pus will be cancelled that day. All other classes will be running as regu larly scheduled. ¡ATTENTION WRITERS! letter W riting campaign FEB. 1-3 10AM.-2PM. IN CCC MALL ARE YOU INTERESTED IN EX PRESSING YOUR VIEWS TO THE OREGON LEGISLATURE REGARDING RADICAL CHANGES IN THE FUNDING FORMULA FOR THE OREGON NEED GRANT? IF YOU SUP- PORT THE RE-INSTATEMENT OF THE FLAT RATE FORMULA BE THERE OR; JOIN US IN SALEM ON FEB. 23RD. LET YOUR VlOCE BE HEARD
