terms as Eugene’s most right-wing city
councilor, is the granddaughter of local
timber baron Stub Stewart and was trusted
by Sarah Palin to ask a pre-screened
question at a Republican fundraiser in
Eugene last year.
“We expect it will probably cost
around $100,000 to run this campaign,
and so we are just in the beginning stages
of that,” Solomon said. She argued that
Eugene schools should wait for changes in
education laws from the state Legislature
rather than acting locally.
So far the PAC against Eugene school
funding has reported raising $7,605,
including seven $1,000 contributions.
Those contributors include the Giustina
Land & Timber Co., Cascade Title
President Thomas McMahon, the Rosboro
Lumber Co. of Springfi eld, lumber broker
A.J. Giustina, McKenzie Properties,
McKenzie Capital Managing Director
Andy J. Storment and Stingray Holdings,
owned by developer Steve Lee, according
to state reports fi led by a Republican
operative in Rainier, Ore. along the
Columbia River.
Solomon announced that the anti-
school measure PAC’s campaign manager
is Roxie Cuellar, a lobbyist for developers
and home builders who lives on the coast
in Yachats.
Cuellar coached Solomon not to answer
a question at the press conference about
why the group is focusing on opposing the
Eugene effort to help schools rather than
on pushing for changes in Salem, as they
argue others should do. School supporters
have lobbied for a solution to the school
funding crisis in Salem for two decades
with no success.
In response to a question, Solomon
admitted that solutions in Salem could be
harder to pass than the local measure. “It’s
true that the state Legislature is a much
larger hurdle,” she said.
Asked repeatedly for specifi cs on
what changes from the Legislature the
group wants instead of the local funding,
Solomon provided few answers other than
calling for cuts in contracted health care
and retirement plans for teachers.
“We are not here to undermine the
morale of school teachers and staff,”
Solomon said.
The Koch brother’s AFP group, which
tried to drum up turnout for the anti-school
funding rally in Eugene, is now lobbying
in the state Legislature against bills that
would increase local school funding. The
shadowy Koch brothers live in Kansas and
New York City and have become leading
but often covert funders of right-wing
causes across the nation including Tea
Party radicals, according to press reports,
including an investigation by The New
Yorker magazine.
Kirsten Haugen, a volunteer mom in
the school funding campaign, attended the
opposition rally. “I did not hear a concrete
proposal of any kind, just their opposition
to a local response. What I want to know is
what they expect today’s kids to do in the
years that it takes Salem to come up with
any kind of solution?”
An angry woman at the opposition
rally demanded that an EW reporter reveal
whether he had any relatives working
for “the government.” The woman,
who refused to identify herself, said she
objected to questions about why the group
wasn’t instead focusing on the Legislature.
Laura Cooper in the opposition group
also said she objected to the questions at the
press conference. Cooper recently wrote
an opinion piece for The Register-Guard
opposing the school funding measure as
“nothing short of tyranny.” Cooper is listed
as the board council for the Lane County
Republicans group. She blogged last year
that “wealth redistribution through federal
tax collection shall be abolished.” Cooper
called in her blog for the repeal of health-
care reform because, in her view, it would
result in the “extermination of the unborn,
the elderly, or other medically vulnerable
people such as myself.”
Solomon said the 4J School Board’s
referral of a $70 million bond measure for
buildings to the same May ballot as the
income tax for school operations will make
it easier for her anti-tax group. “Having
those two issues on the ballot will frustrate
voters, and they are more likely to just vote
no, no.”
The 4J School Board last week
unanimously endorsed the city tax for
schools.
Eugene voters have a history of strongly
supporting school fi nance measures.
Last year, state Measures 66 and 67 to
increase income taxes on the wealthy and
corporations to help support public schools
passed in Eugene by a 3-1 margin.
“I am so frustrated that we passed
Measures 66 and 67,” Solomon said. ew
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