TO THE EDITOR
BY TOM LININGER
Brewhaha
Beer tax faces opposition.
I
loved the headline in The Oregonian editorial April 28:
“Beer is the Answer.” Hear, hear! Now what was the question?
The Oregonian was considering various means for raising revenue in
Oregon, and the newspaper endorsed a proposal to increase the beer tax
(among other options). By raising this tax a few cents, the state could generate
about $100 million in new revenue, along with $28 million in federal matching
funds. This money would be used for alcohol and drug treatment, mental health
treatment and law enforcement. Oregon’s beer tax is now the third lowest in
the nation, and it hasn’t been increased since 1977.
Last week Commissioner Bobby Green and I attended a press conference in
Salem to promote the proposed increase in the beer tax. Every speaker began
by answering the question, “Where were you in 1977?” Bobby said that at this
time in 1977, he had just graduated from UO and was about to marry: “Beer and
wine never tasted so good.” Bobby eloquently explained why Lane County
needs the revenue that a higher beer tax would generate. He pointed out that
hundreds of county residents have been denied treatment for alcohol depend-
ency, drug addiction and mental illness over the last year. (I’m glad that I wasn’t
on the speaker list, because in 1977, I was an 11-year-old kid who wore bell-bot-
tom jeans, worshipped Farah Fawcett Majors, and loitered at the disco-skating
rink.)
The press conference ended with a speech by Sen. Bill Morrisette, who co-
authored the proposal to increase the beer tax. Bill is a masterful legislator.
He’s tried to increase the beer tax in prior sessions, and this time he improved
the odds by assembling a group of moderate legislators — a “mod squad,” in
Salem parlance — to endorse the proposal. No one should be surprised by Bill’s
poise in front of the TV cameras: This is the guy who upstaged Charlton Heston
with his cameo in Michael Moore’s latest movie, Bowling for Columbine, which
won an Academy Award.
T
he beer lobby strenuously opposes the tax increase. To hear the lobbyists
talk, you’d think that we’re treating Joe Six-Pack like Joe Camel. But this
tax doesn’t aim to punish beer drinkers or change behavior. The tax just
seeks to recover some of the costs that alcohol abuse imposes on the rest of so-
ciety. I’m sure there are a few zealots chanting “Give me cheap beer or give me
death,” but a poll in Oregon showed that 80 percent of the respondents would
support this tax increase. The major newspapers, including The Register-Guard,
are also backing the proposal.
The beer lobbyists say that the new tax would force the closure of some
small breweries in Oregon. I’m not sure why Oregon’s small breweries require
the third-lowest tax rate in the nation to survive. In any event, proponents of
the new beer tax are considering the possibility of reducing the tax for small
producers. And when I hear the suggestion that Budweiser needs a lower tax in
Oregon than in 46 other states, I can’t help but say, “WASSSSUP?!!!” (That’s a
reference to a Budweiser ad that appeared virtually every 10 minutes on sports
broadcasts last year. The advertising budgets for big breweries make me confi-
dent that they’re not on the verge of closing if Oregon imposes the same beer
tax that other states have imposed.)
I’ll do my best to hold local breweries harmless by increasing my consump-
tion of Oregon microbrews once the new beer tax takes effect. And if the mis-
sus complains, I’ll say I’m just doing my part for mental health.
Tom Lininger is the county commissioner for the East Lane District.
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EDITORIAL
Editor Ted Taylor Executive/Arts Editor Lois Wadsworth
Associate Editor Aria Seligmann Contributing Editor Anita
Johnson Staff Writers Alan Pittman, Bobbie Willis
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or monthly fees and receive fresh fish. The fish-
ing boat operators get an economic safety net.
This works quite well for some family organic
farms in the Willamette Valley.
Denny Guehler
Eugene
world to view the creative ideas that are being
implemented. To strike a blow for the worlds
forests, support sustainable agriculture and
forestry and urban and family planning.
Monty Wilson
Blue River
BRING IT ON
BOOKSTORE STRUGGLE
I would like to begin by thanking EW for its
nice cover article on BRING Recycling (5/29).
The chair with all the tools shown was one of
my chairs. It was a pleasant surprise to see it in
print, thanks.
As someone who volunteers, shops at and
donates to BRING. I wish to say that I totally
support BRING and all the wonderful things it
provides for this community. I also support
wholeheartedly the ideals and vision of those
presently leading BRING. I greatly look for-
ward to their future relocation in Glenwood, the
plans are quite exciting and work on the first
building has begun.
Charging minimal fees for your products
sounds nice, until you realize even a non-profit
needs funds to pay its employees and provide
benefits, as well as supply educational pro-
grams. In my opinion, to undercharge for nice
reused materials is to devalue it, which is exact-
ly the wrong message to send. Deconstructing
lumber entails disassembly, denailing, cleaning,
sorting and stocking. All these value added costs
have to be added to the retail cost to allow
BRING to continue financially.
I see reuse being done on many different lev-
els, neighbor to neighbor, dumpster-diving or
non-profits such as St. Vincent dePaul, BRING
and MECCA (through reused art supplies), to
mention a few.
I would like to thank all those who con-
tribute so much to make BRING what it is and
to ask those who are less familiar with BRING
to pick up a newsletter or talk with someone
about what BRING is and what it will be in the
future. I will be helping at the BRING booth at
the Country Fair, stop by and visit and talk about
reuse and voluntary simplicity circles with me.
Tim Boyden
Eugene
Bobbie Willis’article (6/12) on the establish-
ment of a union by the staff at Mother Kali’s
Books was welcome, but incomplete in impor-
tant ways. A fuller picture would have resulted
had she not only spoken to current bookshop
personnel but taken the time to interview the for-
mer staff and manager who advocated for a
change throughout a long and painful struggle
with a one-person board and who were eventu-
ally replaced with the current bookshop manag-
er and staff. (One worker chose to remain out-
side the conflict.) While the former staff’s expe-
riences were and remain silenced, it was their as
yet unreported struggle that resulted in the cur-
rent staff’s privilege of being heard by the com-
munity and their ability to unionize with the
approval of a new board.
Willis’ erroneous description of a “wildcat
strike” by the former workers during the “height
of the September textbook rush” distorts events
that should have been researched. By simply
repeating this version of the story, Willis has
unwittingly but harmfully fed accusations of irre-
sponsibility that were leveled at the time by the
board and the community itself against the work-
ers and against manager Tova Stabin, whose
forced removal without grounds was only one of
several major issues the staff was protesting.
Willis is correct, however, that “restitution”
has not yet been made to any of the people
whose positions are now held by the current
staff and manager and who paid with their jobs
and reputations for the changes that the store so
proudly announces now.
Ellen Rifkin
Eugene
RENEWABLE FORESTS
Quality Northwest federal forests are being
conserved through preservation, restrictive envi-
ronmental regulations, sound science and evolv-
ing forest management that uses natural distur-
bance regimes, diverse rotations and, above all,
a veneration for all forest values.
Forests are among the most renewable
resources on earth. The use of wood encourages
the growing of trees and that assures that forest-
lands will not be converted to other uses. Ninety
percent of the deforestation occurring in the
world is from urban and agricultural expansion.
Forests are not inert, they are born, they
grow and they die. Agents of forest change
include fire, insects, disease, wind and, yes,
humans. If forests are not paved over or con-
verted to farmlands, they will regerenate as they
did following the last Ice Age.
Forests, depending on resource objective,
may be grown on extended rotations to achieve
an array of objectives. To maximize biological
diversity, grow and harvest a forest — in lieu of
hemp.
Large tracts of wildlands and old growth
forests should be cherished as an important part
of our culture. Large tracts of well managed bio-
logically diverse forests that provide amenities
and commodities should also be cherished.
Step beyond the evangelistic rhetoric by vis-
iting the most productive resilient forests in the
CALL TO (LOCK) ARMS
These are days when it seems sanity has left
us. Many Americans live afraid of tomorrow.
Our civic neurosis is maintained by being kept
living in a constant state of color-coded mental
emergency. The besieged mind retreats into
thinking only of base human needs: safety and
security. Leaders who promise to provide and
protect these needs are then revered.
However, it is during times like these that
enormous change is possible. Humans are only
willing to change if they are uncomfortable, and,
for one reason or another, most Americans are
not at all comfortable with what they see hap-
pening to their country.
We’re discovering that more security does
not make us more secure. We’re realizing that
respect garnered out of fear is not admiration.
We’re remembering that in all human history,
war has never really brought the promised
peace. And, as always, we’re hoping for some-
one else to come along and make it all better.
But there is no one else.
Our nation is at the intersection of restoration
and decline. It is up to each of us to restore
America to its founding ideals. It is up to all of
the many divergent progressive interest groups
that collectively represent the majority of
Americans. It is up to all of us who have rested
satisfied in being right while those in power
have remained busy being in control. It is time
to coalesce else we remain powerless to stop the
decline. It is time for us to take back America.
Todd Huffman, MD
Eugene