LET TERS
HOLLOW PREACHINGS
I grew up a broke, male WASP (White
Anglo-Saxon Protestant) who regularly
attended a fairly conservative church.
Many of my friends in church, as it
happened, were gay and subsequently
pushed from our congregation via informal
excommunication, to borrow a Catholic
phrase, and were no longer welcome.
This impacted me immensely, and I
came to view both the theological and
social preachings of the church as hollow.
My church friends changed into my “gay
friends,” which I wore with a badge of
pride, shamelessly parading this fact
before others to show my rebellion against
other churchgoers and as a philanthropic
credit to me.
There comes a point where my
“protected class” friends ceased being
“gay friends” and became simply my
friends and their chosen partners.
Many of these friends want to get
married. While I’m glad Oregon will
permit their marriages, I look beyond
our borders to the country, continent and
beyond. In the name of liberty, justice and
even God, why the hell wouldn’t we allow
such state marriages?
I have neither the desire nor right to
prevent my friends from enjoying the same
legal benefi ts or candor and respect that
VIEWPOINT
we should show everyone, and that the
Christ of Galilee — who I no longer view
as a God, but as my favorite member of the
carpenter’s union — would show anyone.
Steven Coatsworth
Eugene
JUST GIVE HIM A FISH
Give a man a fi sh, they say, and you
will feed him for a day. But teach that man
to fi sh, my dear, and he’ll spend his days
just swilling beer and swapping lies with
lazy friends and making plans to go again.
Up at dawn and gone all day, gotta get that
one what got away.
Oh, he’ll need poles and reels and nets,
vests and hats and don’t forget hooks,
lines, sinkers, dry fl ies. Shoot! New hip
waders and dry fi t boots. There’s bait and
bobbers, license, lunch and, you know, I
have a hunch that charter fees will get his
goat and just like that you’ll own a boat!
Then comes the trailer, truck and hitch
and then the selfi sh son-of-a-bitch will
fi nd his sport is best enjoyed when he is
not fully employed. If you should say
“You can’t retire!” he’ll either get laid off
or fi red. Forsaking wife, son and daughter
just to get back on the water and drop his
line down through the brine pursuing fi sh
of every kind: halibut, salmon, sturgeon,
trout, catfi sh, squawfi sh, eel, horn-pout,
sailfi sh, marlin, mackerel, tuna, bass or
pickerel.
And don’t forget lobsters and clams,
crabs and oysters, man, oh man! Now he’ll
need traps, rings and pots; a smoker, too,
‘cuz he’ll catch lots. Weather will not slow
him down (for it’s in water that fi sh are
found). He will not quit because of age,
infi rmity or spousal rage. Frozen lakes
won’t bother him, he’ll drill a hole and fi sh
again.
And the years will keep on passing and
he will keep on casting until you’re old and
tired and cramped, impoverished in some
fi shing camp, and your one, true, fervent
wish ... is that you’d just GIVEN him a
fi sh.
Dave Perham
Eugene
PROTECTING THE SYSTEM
According to Pat Coogan [Letters,
2/27], I am one of the “self-righteous
fools” whose unerring tendency toward
internecine warfare constitutes the
proverbial circular fi ring squad and thus
safeguards the dominant order. Especially
regarding Lierre Keith, with whom we are
in “99.9 percent” agreement.
But in no way am I in agreement with
her public and well-known transphobia
or with her Maoist-like Deep Green
MORE LOCAL CONNECTIONS
Other fi lms shot in and around Eugene
[see EW cover story last week] include
Emperor of the North Pole, fi lmed in 1972
mostly in Cottage Grove, directed by
Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin,
Ernest Borgnine and Keith Carradine;
Animal House, 1978, fi lmed on and around
the UO campus, in Cottage Grove and at
the Dexter Lake Club, directed by John
Landis and starring John Belushi, Tim
Matheson, Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen
and others; Stand By Me, 1986, shot in
Brownsville, Cottage Grove and Eugene,
directed by Rob Reiner and starring Will
Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman,
Jerry O’Connell and Keifer Sutherland,
and Grand Tour: Disaster in Time, shot
in 1990 (released in 1992) in Drain and
Eugene, directed by David Twohy and
starring Jeff Daniels.
BY M A RSH A L L WIL DE
Revenue Solutions
LOOKING FOR FAIR WAYS TO CLOSE THE BUDGET GAP
A
s Eugene looks for ways to avoid
serious service cuts, the Revenue
Committee struggles to identify timely,
equitable and politically acceptable
taxes to generate the necessary
revenue. We have ample representation from the
business community, but we lack vocal representation
from disadvantaged segments of our community. This
opens us to the risk that our recommendations will fall
heavily on those least able to afford it. While business
is the ox that pulls the cart of government, it is working
families that keep that ox fed. Moving forward requires
that we navigate a thicket of legal limits to give the
City Council recommendations that put the interest of
the community fi rst.
“Why do we need new revenue at all? The overall
budget is fi ne!” In fact, a bewildering array of legal
limits often prevents the movement of money from
one fund to another to address genuine needs. Others
restrict the city’s ability to raise revenue fairly. For
instance, federal law prohibits us from using funds
from the airport on general fund activities, while state
law prohibits us from using parks bonds funds for
anything other than parks acquisition. We may differ
in our views of preserving Civic Stadium at partial
city expense, but the funds proposed for that project
can’t be used to preserve city services. The city has
done a terrifi c job at squeezing any expenses that can
fi t into special funds into those funds to avoid depleting
precious general funds. Unfortunately, we have reached
the limits of what we can do.
4
Resistance cult. Many have broken with
her and DGR for these reasons.
Coogan sees in unity the key value and
counsels against us fi ghting each other.
The point, however, is that what really
protects the system is the lowest-common-
denominator approach that accepts so
much — and hence the system itself.
John Zerzan
Eugene
March 6, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
On the revenue side, special interests
have successfully lobbied to prevent
local taxation of some of the most logical
sources of revenue. Localities in Oregon
may not tax tobacco products or any form
of alcoholic beverage, despite the fact
that Oregon ranks 28th in tobacco taxes and 44th in
beer taxes nationwide. I like a beer as much as the next
guy, but I also accept that increasing taxes on tobacco
and alcohol has signifi cant positive public health
implications, in addition to raising signifi cant revenue.
Further, state law stringently limits property tax levies,
which are also not paid by large segments of the local
economy and must be renewed with a public vote every
fi ve years. Taxes on gasoline and automobiles must
generally be used to fund roads and services directly
related to transportation. These laws prevent us from
using some of the fairest ways to generate revenue.
Several permissible progressive revenue options
have already met their fate. A proposal to impose a 0.9
percent marginal income tax on individuals making over
$125,000 per year and couples making over $250,000
died on the “nay” votes of members who would have
to pay such a tax. Proposals for a gross receipts tax,
a corporate income tax and a tax on businesses that
handle hazardous materials to fund the Hazmat Team
also died quickly, opposed by business interests. An
amusement tax on ticket sales may yet have a small role
to play, despite the UO’s refusal to participate in such
an arrangement. Similarly, other government entities
will likely support a utility tax, which they would not
pay, but oppose an increase in EWEB’s
contribution in lieu of taxes to the city,
which they would.
Of course, we all support taxes we
will never pay! Property tax measures
remain popular with representatives of
other government agencies, which don’t
pay property taxes. Taxes not usually
paid by city residents, such as hotel and
rental car taxes, are always popular.
We certainly should look to tax non-
residents who use our services without
paying taxes, but any tax that could raise substantial
revenue must have a broad base. We cannot balance the
budget solely on the backs of commuters and tourists.
Some reasonable options remain on the table. A 1 to 2
percent restaurant tax would completely solve the city’s
budget gap, tax a voluntary activity and have a minimal
economic impact on the restaurants. An earlier study
showed that this falls more heavily on higher income
people and visitors than the poor. A tax on e-cigarettes
would prevent these purveyors of nicotine from
benefi ting from a loophole in the state tobacco tax and
discourage kids from getting hooked. A small per-space
tax on parking spaces would incentivize appropriately
dense development, use of mass transit and be paid
more by big box stores than small businesses.
In sum, we must move beyond self-interest to arrive
at a fair revenue solution to preserve city services. The
proposals we forward should fi nd equilibrium between
a healthy business climate and the need to tax the
population justly. I hope that we can reach this balance
and provide the council equitable new revenue options
to address the budget gap.
Marshall Wilde is a citizen member of the Eugene Budget and Revenue
Committees. The next Budget Committee meeting is March 11 (see Activ-
ist Alert).