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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2014)
• What happens if the kicker kicks next year? Our news brief this week talks about how the Constitution-mandated tax rebate could be a big problem for the state budget. What we hear through the English ivy vine (Eugene’s equivalent to the grapevine) is that Phil Knight might be holding back on giving the UO big challenge bucks this year because it could trigger the kicker and the state could lose up to $300 million in the next biennium, hurting education. Crazy scenario. If big donors sell stock and give the money to Oregon universities, donors will pay taxes and boost state revenue. If donors just give stock to the universities, there’s no tax to pay. Regardless, an infusion of a billion or so into the Oregon economy will generate new contracts, new jobs, new spending and uh-oh, new taxes. The kicker was intended to prevent excess growth in government, but instead it’s added uncertainty to the economy, exacerbated the gap between rich and poor (the rich get most of the rebate bucks) and kept Oregon from building a rainy fund to get us through recessions. Let’s support efforts in Salem to get rid of it. • Here’s the ultimate test of popularity in Oregon. This comes from a pregnant mom, mother of two girls, that her baby boy probably would not be named Marcus (as in Mariota). Too many others are using that! • Will helping the unhoused help bridge the town and gown divide between UO and the city around it? Last week community members brainstormed with academics at a roundtable sponsored by the Department of Philosophy. Some of the ideas included direct aid such as the UO participating as an Egan Warming Center, permission for car camping in Autzen parking lots when unused for seasonal athletic events, allowing university land to be used as a homeless rest stop and the hiring of the unhoused for positions for which they are qualified. Other ideas were more academically oriented like course credit for supervised undergraduate fieldwork in support of the homeless, grad and faculty analyses of city policies and practices as they impact the unhoused with reports to the Eugene City Council and in general, more intentional university interaction with the problems that exist in the off-campus community where undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff live. Check out homelessness.philosophy.uoregon.edu for more on the effort. • Looking back on the elections, it’s clear the reelections of Gov. John Kitzhaber and Sen. Jeff Merkley and other progressives were due in part to the active role of Planned Parenthood and other organizations that support women and families. These groups rallied voters and helped define the candidates and their positions on women’s health and economic equity. Statewide, Planned Parenthood sent out 420,000 direct mail flyers, made completed phone calls to 24,655 households and endorsed 55 candidates. Volunteers put in thousands of hours in 572 shifts. Impressive. • Ever been inside Cabela’s at Gateway Mall in Springfield? It’s a surreal store that can provide culture shock for tofu-eating, yoga-contorting, Birkenstock-clad lefties. At Cabela’s you check your guns at the door and stuffed dead animals are everywhere, including deer with their nut sacks intact. How do taxidermists do that? Ping-pong balls? A scruffy buck’s butt stares you in the face when you descend from the discount “Bargain Cave” upstairs. Weird things on the racks up there: one leg of a pair of thigh-high hip waders. The clerk doesn’t know what happened to the other leg. Maybe there’s a one-legged shoplifter out there? She figures somebody will buy the leg eventually because, well, it’s a bargain. WTF! A sign-carrying protester appeared on the sidewalk outside EW last week, which is rare but always welcome. Shannon Wilson is one of our regular letter writers and told us he was protesting EW’s blanket endorsement of Democrats who are not much better, maybe worse, than Republicans when it comes to environmental issues. He’s pissed at Dems who go along with logging BLM’s O&C lands, selling off the Elliott State Forest lands and promoting nuclear power. We share some of his frustrations, but seriously? Most GOP candidates are not only rotten on enviro issues, but also on every other issue we care about. We wouldn’t mind endorsing some third-party candidates, but as a practical matter they are still very much on the fringe. Pacific Green candidates only got about 2 percent of the vote in statewide races this time. The way to build third parties is to get elected to school boards, city councils, planning commissions, utility boards, even neighborhood leadership positions. We see that happening in Corvallis with Green Party member Mike Beilstein winning re-election to the Corvallis City Council this month as well as running for the U.S. House. SL ANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHA SING NOTES COMPILED BY THE E W S TAFF. HE ARD AN Y GOOD RUMORS L ATELY ? CONTAC T TED TAYLOR AT 484 -0519, EDITOR@EUGENE WEEKLY.COM Congrats to NextStep Recycling founder Lorraine Kerwood McKenzie who was given the Toyota Standing O-Vation, a recognition of extraordinary people in communities around the country, during Oprah Winfrey’s “The Life You Want Weekend” in Seattle Nov. 8. The award was given by Winfrey and Paralympic bronze medalist snowboarder Amy Purdy. You can watch a video about Kerwood McKenzie’s life and work from her Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis to how NextStep has kept 22 million pounds of electronics out of the landfill and helped the community at wkly.ws/1ud. What will legalized pot mean for businesses and their personnel policies? Not much will change from a legal standpoint, according to Cascade Employers Association (CEA), which is planning a compliance update seminar in Eugene Dec. 11. Neither the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act nor Measure 91, which passed last week, contain any restrictions on employers regarding policies on pot use on or off the job. “Essentially, your employees can lawfully use but if they choose to do so and end up with a positive drug test (pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, random, etc.) then it can still be considered a violation of your company’s policy,” CEA advises. The organization recommends updating company drug and alcohol policies to include specific statements on the use of marijuana. Measure 91 goes into effect in July of 2015. See cascadeemployers.com. EWEB tells us Eugene area residents and businesses are getting scam phone calls that show up on caller ID as from EWEB, but they are not. The callers demand payments and attempt to gather personal information. Even if you are behind on your utility bills, EWEB will not be calling to tell you so but instead will send snail mail or leave a door-hanger. Veterans Day is this week and along with the usual events, discounts and freebies for vets comes free swimming for vets at Tamarack Aquatic Center at 35th and Donald in south Eugene. The heated saltwater pool will be open for vets and their families from 11 am to 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 16. The pool is fully accessible. Call 686-9290. The McKenzie Flyfishers annual auction in support of the club’s environmental programs will begin at 6 pm Monday, Nov. 17, at Lewis & Clark Catering, 2210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. next to the Mercedes dealership. Non-members welcome. The event is free but dinner is optional at $17. The silent and oral auction will include fishing gear, guided trips, hosted dinner parties, vintage wines and more. More info at mckenzieflyfishers.org or call 913-0710. The state’s Technical Review Team for the Calico Resources proposed gold mine in Malheur County meets in Salem 11 am - 4 pm Nov. 19. Meeting details and agenda are at bit.ly/caliconovember. The public may listen to the meeting by phone. For call-in instructions contact DOGAMI at 541-967-2040. For more on the gold mine see EW’s 2011 feature story wkly.ws/1ue. The nonprofit Skipping Stones magazine is celebrating 26 years in business and is planning a free event from 3 to 6 pm Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Odd Fellows Lodge at the corner of 12th and Charnelton. Live music and storytelling are planned for the family-friendly gathering. Email editor@ skippingstones.org or call 342-4956. Crescendo LLC is having the grand opening of its new tasting room Nov. 15-16 at 4065 W. 11th Ave. #47 in west Eugene. The company produces organic lime, lemon and orange liqueurs. “We just entered our eighth month of production,” says owner Kyle Akin. “We are already in 70-plus OLCC stores across the state.” The company is a member of the Distillers Guild and the Oregon Distillery Trail. See organicello.com or find the business on Facebook. eugeneweekly.com • November 13, 2014 11
