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
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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