LET TERS
HEALTHY POLITICS
Sen. Ron Wyden sets a great example
of transparency and listening to the pub-
lic with his town halls and the recent in-
terview with the Eugene Weekly (July
13). His work against the Senate health
care bill, along with the raised voices of
citizens across the country, paid off: the
bill was dropped.
In addition, the attempt to just repeal
the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) hit a
dead end as well. Now it is time for both
parties to work together for a bill that pro-
vides affordable care for all Americans.
So let’s continue to raise our voices,
this time to demand a bill that will pro-
vide affordable care for everyone. Perhaps
Sen. Wyden will set the example again, by
working across the aisle to see this happen.
Willie Dickerson
Snohomish, Wash.
CUTHBERT GESTAPO
We went to the Alice Cooper concert at
the Cuthbert Amphitheater on June 17. The
musical performance and theatrics were
very entertaining, but due to the invasive
manhandling, all in the name of security,
which we had to endure to enter the venue,
we will never return to the Cuthbert again.
Not only were we given full body pat-
downs worse than most TSA pat downs,
but we were asked to empty all our pock-
ets and barked at belligerently, by security,
for forgetting that I had in my jacket such
items as two pencils, an old ticket stub, a
breath freshener and some assorted change.
By the time we got through the entrance
process we felt as if we might as well have
entered San Quentin prison.
A week later we went to see Roger Wa-
ters, a far more controversial figure and
larger target, in both Tacoma and Port-
land. There, we weren’t even asked to
empty our pockets. Just walk through a
metal detector.
I don’t know what the Kesey brothers
think is so risky, or so valuable, that they
must employ Gestapo security guards, but
we won’t endure this again.
William Kurth
Eugene
HOT AIR SOCIETY
STOP MAKING NONSENSE
Jeff Freeman’s letter (“More Monster
Trucks, Please,” July 20) does nothing to
improve the tone of public debate, espe-
cially his peculiar reference to “left-lean-
ing, latte-drinking, NPR-listening elites.”
Personally, I don’t drink lattes, but I cer-
tainly listen to NPR because NPR is the
calmest, most rational newscast on air,
with its only competition coming from the
BBC.
If Mr. Freeman has any interest in ele-
vating our fraught political discourse, he’d
be well advised to stop spouting nonsense.
Rick Marcus
Eugene
HERE WE GO AGAIN
In 2005, the question on the Eugene bal-
lot was: Should the City Council hire an
appointed external police auditor? Certain
people raged against the idea, assuring ev-
eryone that doing this would forever change
our council/city manager form of govern-
ment, and should be avoided at all costs.
It passed, and the government wasn’t
ruined — it’s better!
So now why all the same hue and cry
about how electing an independent city au-
ditor will destroy our form of government?
Would it hurt the public to actually know
what happens to our tax dollars after they
land at City Council, besides all the down-
town projects?
And if you think that an appointed audi-
tor would be able to really look at where
everything goes, don’t kid yourself. The
minute that appointed auditor got close
to anything remotely interesting, sudden-
ly their budget disappears and there’s no
more money. Surprise!
Interestingly, the main proponents of hir-
ing an external police auditor appear to have
been City Councilor Chris Pryor, former
Mayor Kitty Piercy and former City Council-
or Andrea Ortiz. It would be helpful to hear
the two living proponents give us feedback
on what they think about this new elected in-
dependent city auditor ballot measure.
Mayor Piercy’s special commission
looking at a city auditor way back in 2002
concluded that the city should have an au-
ditor! Nothing but the sound of crickets
since then.
BY TONY CORCOR AN
Kate’s Score
IS THE REGISTER-GUARD ALWAYS RIGHT AND NEVER LEFT?
he Register-Guard recently won 30 awards from the Oregon Newspaper
Publishers Association. Thank god it didn’t finish first for editorial board
content.
The R-G editorial board has become an apologist for the Oregon Re-
publican Party. Its viewpoints simply mirror recent press releases from the
Republican House and Senate caucuses. So much for its stated policy of “impartial
publication … candid but fair and helpful … a citizen of its community.”
Today, this editorial board reads more like “fair and balanced” FOX News.
On June 24, two weeks before the session ended, The R-G blamed Democrats for
Speaker Tina Kotek’s announcement that no vote would be taken on a gross receipts
tax dedicated to education funding. R-G editors blamed Gov. Kate Brown, Kotek and
Senate President Peter Courtney for an “absence of leadership.”
There was not a mention of the Party of No. Not a mention that Democrats lack a
supermajority in the House and that Republicans refused to budge.
Most important, the editors failed to explain PERS and its unfunded actuarial li-
ability in a “candid but fair and helpful” manner.
There was not a word in the board’s editorial about the abysmal voting records
this session and the endless procedural delays promoted by those other so-called lead-
ers: Republican caucus heads Ted Ferrioli and Mike McLane.
The 2017 session did not lack leadership, it lacked Republican votes to do the
responsible thing: Stop the erratic boom-and-bust cycle of dependence on personal
income tax to fund schools, which has existed since Measure 5 passed in 1990. That
was followed in 1996 by Ballot Measure 25, which requires a three-fifths superma-
jority in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly for any revenue-raising
legislation.
Seems like a thousand years ago, and the Party of No still can’t get its story straight.
From my perspective, I was amazed that the Democrats were able to get the health
care provider tax through and save Oregon’s Medicaid population. And I was even
more amazed that the transportation plan was successful for the first time since 2009.
I admire Springfield State Sen. Lee Beyer for many of the same reasons I think so
highly of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio. Transportation and infrastructure policies seldom
make the headlines, but they are the skeletal component that moves Oregon’s people
and our economy.
T
4
July 27, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
Lee had been working on this transportation package for the past 18 months. But
he said that six hours before it came on the Senate floor for a vote, he wasn’t sure
whether he had the votes. He praised two Republicans, Sen. Brian Boquist and Rep.
Cliff Bentz, for their hard work on the compromise package.
By their nature, political compromises are never pretty. But when you throw in all
the interest groups in a transportation funding debate — industry and labor, environ-
mentalists, rural governments, counties, cities, transit districts, futurists and Neander-
thals — you need a big room, lots of chairs in the room and a buttload of patience.
I asked Lee why the Legislature finally succeeded for the first time in eight
years in getting a transportation deal. He was quick to praise the work of Gov. Brown
and her chief of staff, Nik Blosser. And Lee is not the first legislator to praise Nik and
the governor for wading back into the clean fuel controversy with environmentalists
and holding their ground with all the parties involved.
It’s clear from many observers of this past session, legislators and lobbyists alike,
that both Kate and Tina sacrificed their personal agendas on revenue (gross receipts
tax), cap-and-trade climate legislation and housing in order to get the transportation
package through.
One observer pointed out that both Nik and Kate have a quiet style that patiently
works in the background, not caring who gets the credit, trying to find Republicans
willing to take on their own caucus and do the right thing. That’s leadership.
The most pathetic comment by the R-G editorial board was regarding PERS. The
editorial concluded that “more robust proposals” regarding the unfunded actuarial li-
ability “might have become the basis for a comprehensive tax spending and education
improvement plan.” Utter balderdash!
We discussed what those Republican proposals were in their last-ditch amend-
ments to SB 1067 — putting teachers and state workers on the Oregon Health Plan
and stealing death benefits from PERS beneficiaries to pay down the actuarial li-
ability. The Republicans never intended to budge on the gross receipts tax. Nike and
Intel were OK with it, but the Republicans were too scared of their own constituents
to vote.
R-G: Citizen of its community? Really?
Former state Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove is a retired state employee.