TO THE EDITOR
BY TOM LININGER
Fee-for-All
Watch out for new fees in lieu of taxes.
L
ast fall the Board of County Commissioners referred six revenue measures to the
voters. We lost all six. The technical term for this performance is an “oh-fer” (i.e., 0-
for-6). Lately the county seems to have more “oh-fers”
than the Detroit Tigers.
With a shortfall of revenue, the county has resorted to
fee increases to pay for certain services. Cynics say it’s just
the law of supply and demand: If you’re going to reduce
the supply of services, you might as well reduce the de-
mand by charging more for the services you still provide. In
reality, we’re not that clever. We’re just broke.
Recently I supported a fee increase for developers seeking
permits from the Land Management Division (LMD). I wasn’t
thrilled to charge more for permits, but LMD needs the money to do its job. The problem
with a fee-based budget is that revenue goes down when building goes down. Critics claim
that LMD has a natural incentive to grant permits for big multi-stage projects, so LMD can
collect fees at each step of the way. (One critic says that LMD stands for “Let’s Make a
Deal.”) I believe that LMD is more scrupulous than that, but I hope some day we can sup-
port LMD from the general fund again so we can avoid any appearance of bias. How com-
fortable would you feel in court if your opponent were paying the judge’s salary?
W
hile I supported the fee increase for LMD, I refused to impose an admission fee
for the county park at Mount Pisgah. I’m happy to report that Pisgah is still free.
When the board voted again on the Pisgah fee last week, I joined a 3-2 majority
with Anna Morrison and Pete Sorenson to reject the proposed fee. If Anna and Pete op-
pose something together, it’s probably a bad idea. (Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy team up
more often than Anna and Pete.)
Why not charge for Pisgah? Stop and think about what makes that park special. It’s not
a boat ramp. It’s not a water slide. It’s nature. This park lacks the man-made amenities that
have justified fees at other county parks. Pisgah is named after the biblical mountain
where Moses stood when he first viewed the promised land. I reread the book of
Deuteronomy the other day, and I somehow missed the part about Moses paying an ad-
mission fee.
I understand that the Parks Department needs $177,000 in new revenue to cover main-
tenance costs throughout the parks system. I’ve proposed fee increases totaling $130,000,
including increases in fees that companies pay for large picnics at county parks. Last
month I even gave tentative approval for a $2 fee at Pisgah. But on reflection, I think Lane
County needs to have at least one major park that is always free for individuals and small
groups. The best choice for that free park is Mount Pisgah — where nature, not man, did all
the heavy lifting.
Even if you share Lane County’s current fee-mania, it’s hard to know where to draw the
line. Why not charge the public a $2 fee to use the bathrooms in the county building? The
arguments for a bathroom fee would be identical to the arguments for new fees at Mount
Pisgah and LMD. The public uses the service; the cost to the county increases with each
use; and we could probably extort the fee from people who are committed to using the
service. There’s no end to the possibilities once you accept the premise that users of a
service should pay a fee for it.
But let’s not blame the county staffers who are trying to scrape together money for
their programs. The real fault lies with our collective lack of will to fund government ade-
quately. The New York Times ran a story May 1 characterizing Oregon as the “Mississippi
of the West.” I e-mailed the story to my college buddy who lives in Mississippi, and he fired
back, “I think that comparison is insulting to Mississippi.” Ouch! Maybe we should charge a
fee for ridiculing our state. That would put some money in the coffers.
Tom Lininger is county commissioner for the East Lane District..
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HISTORICAL PARALLEL
After Nazi Germany finished celebrating
their easy victory over an obviously defense-
less nation, they started planning their next
“preemptive” attack. Czechoslovakia was mis-
treating its German population and the Nazis
needed to stop this human rights abuse. Next it
was Poland. Nothing can stop us now but our
own conscience, if we still have one.
Cheryl O’Neill
Junction City
If there is no alternative to oil, can there be
any other than this horrible future for
America? Glad I am so often wrong that I can
just see this as the daydream of a fool. I can
trust my leaders, both in business and politics.
They are smarter and wiser and more compas-
sionate than I. They know how to run a country
without oil; with an increasing population;
with economic chaos around every turn —
hope so.
Hugh Massengill
Eugene
DEAD MEAT
MATTER OF TRUST
Recently there have been several letters
condemning EW for running sexually oriented
advertising. Some people find these ads offen-
sive, but I see something printed on the back
page amongst these ads that is truly disgusting.
It is the cartoon called “Red Meat.” It is never
enlightening or humorous. Its existence de-
grades the other fine comics that EW presents.
I remember the comic being dropped shortly
after the initial few installments. When it was
revived, I expected Max Cannon to prove the
comic worthy of a second chance. The most re-
cent cartoon about the finger found in a dump-
ster was truly disturbing. Why give credence to
this drivel by publishing it? This comic is far
more embarrassing to your publication than
the sex ads.
Jeff Levy
Springfield
To those individuals in the community who
feel that I am irresponsible for opposing U.S.
military action in the Middle East, and the
handing over of power to the Bush administra-
tion in this time of “crisis”:
I have recognized a key element: You trust
Bush, and I don’t. Imagine yourself in my po-
sition. What if it were Bill Clinton or Richard
Nixon asking for unprecedented powers over
decision-making, allocation of resources and
the lives of our young men and women? I
would certainly not blame you for having
some doubts. It is clearly not un-American to
oppose handing over power to someone you
don’t trust, and if it is treason to ever mistrust a
president, then we are all guilty.
I actually think it is perfect just the way it
is. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance,”
they say, and we get to take turns.
Art Peck
Eugene
FLAG-WAVING
Since the war machine has cranked up in
this country everyone has been waving the flag
and professing their love and support for our
troops and veterans. I really have to question
these shows of patriotism. Where is all your
love and support when your elected officials
under-fund the VA year after year? Why aren’t
you speaking up for veteran’s who are forced
to wait sometimes over a year to be seen by a
doctor if they are lucky enough to be seen at
all? Part of the tax cut for the rich and corpora-
tions President Bush wants is going to be
partly funded by cuts to the already strapped
Veterans Administration. Why aren’t you
protesting that?
America, if you really love your veterans,
put your money where your mouth is and sup-
port full funding for the Veterans
Administration and fair treatment of veterans
in the VA system.
Tina Marie Mercurio
Springfield
INTO THE FUTURE
Interesting future, ours. As the oil runs out,
it will become precious. The oil “producers”
will either join in the American economic car-
tel, or be invaded and destroyed. This country
will be deliberately bankrupted through war
and tax cuts. “Labor discipline” will be in-
stilled through starvation wages at private in-
dustry. Unions will be outlawed, as the busi-
ness model will be Wal-Martian. All factions
will be played off against the other. Business
will be represented in Congress, with the right
to vote. The media will be controlled by em-
bedding reporters in business and the military;
their salaries will be paid by the government.
National Forests will be privatized and sold
to the highest bidder. Anxiety will be the na-
tional emotion, but declaring that 80 percent of
the population has a “mental illness” will con-
trol it. The country will resemble America in
the 1890s: No tax for the rich as they spend and
so produce jobs.
ROOT ROT
In smashing and looting the Iraqi National
Museum and other cultural sites and burning
the National Library, the evil ones of the U.S.
military and Bush regime have destroyed the
roots of western culture.
These repositories of the stories of ancient
western culture were our elders, our grandpar-
ents. By destroying our elders, they have de-
stroyed our stories. By destroying the stories,
they have destroyed the roots and source of our
culture, and thus the culture will die. By de-
stroying our culture, they have destroyed our
humanity. We are a dead people. We are
ghosts, condemned to wander forever without
a home.
Unfortunately, they have also killed many
of the roots of Asian and African culture at the
same time. Whether humanity can survive
with so many of its roots destroyed, we do not
know. Perhaps this is the beginning of the
death of the human species.
Ann Tattersall
Eugene
MMM … PERCHLORATE!
It is the mother of all ironies that our presi-
dent has spent billions of dollars and sent thou-
sands of troops halfway around the world only
to find a barrel of rocket fuel.
Thanks to the Pentagon and a former
Nevada rocket-fuel factory, 88 percent of our
nation’s lettuce crop is irrigated with Colorado
River water, which is contaminated with per-
chlorate, a salt used to make rocket fuel.
Lettuce from an organic farm contains per-
chlorate contamination 20 times as high as the
amount California now considers safe for
drinking water.
Our president has vowed to give billions of
dollars to his contractor buddies so that they
can clean up the damage our military has done
in Iraq; at the same time, he is pushing laws
through Congress that would exempt military