PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 29, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Manage the future of Keizer
We’ve written many times in this
space that those who plan for the
future control the future. Though
time is a constant and doesn’t really
speed up or slow down, events and
opportunities can make it seem that
time is in the fast lane.
It is inevitable that a serious
discussion of an expansion of the
Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)
northward into Marion County
will take place. The main thrust of
those discussions should be an ex-
pansion of the UGB along Inter-
state 5, north of the Volcanoes Sta-
dium, zoned for the types of uses
that will bring jobs and tax revenue
to the city.
The types of offi ce park and light
industrial developments we all see,
especially in the Portland metro-
politan (think Tualatin and Tigard),
are the developments that should be
recruited and planned for once (and
if) the boundary does expand.
Some salivate at the idea of
hundreds, if not thousands, of new
homes stretching northward. Con-
structing that number of homes will
prove to be very expensive when it
comes to the infrastructure—ex-
tending sewer, communications and
power lines. It would be better to
add only a few small subdivisions to
meet the housing needs.
The growth city leaders should
be planning for is the growth of
jobs. Statistics show that only 1 of
7 employed Keizerites work within
the city’s limits. The trend is that
people want to live close to where
they work rather than commute;
in other words, denser residential
development. That means more
infi ll in Keizer as well as promot-
ing multi-fl oor mixed use develop-
ments that include condominiums
and apartments.
Expanding the Urban Growth
Boundary in a one-thousand-foot
wide swatch along the freeway north
to Perkins Lane or Quinaby Road
would be zoned for uses that bring
living wage jobs to Keizer. Expand-
ing that way would also preserve the
agricultural land that is so important
to Marion County’s economy.
Other governments will have a
say in whether and how Keizer ben-
efi t from a northward expansion of
the UGB. The city of Salem as well
as Marion and Polk counties will be
part of any expansion discussion. It
will take leadership from our city to
assure that a larger Keizer does not
harm those other entities. In fact, it
will be a benefi t. Hundreds, if not
thousands, of new jobs will be fi lled
by people who will have the need to
consume goods and services avail-
able in Keizer, Salem and the sur-
rounding area.
Housing needs can be met with
existing infi ll codes, new develop-
ment, redevelopment of existing
properties and denser mixed use de-
velopment.
Recruiting light industries (in-
cluding non-polluting business that
support the agricultural sector),
medical, education and business of-
fi ces will provide jobs and tax rev-
enue.
By narrowly expanding the UGB
precious farm land will be preserved
and maintaining our legacy as one
of Oregon’s food baskets.
With conscientious planning the
city controls the future that is of
benefi t to all impacted. —LAZ
Call for gun control
misguided
economy, youth,
families, com-
munities
and
natural resourc-
es.
Created in
1911, the Or-
egon State University Extension
Service provides the public with
practical, research-based information
through one-on-one advice, work-
shops, hotlines, 1,500 publications
and educational videos. Extension
faculty translates and adapts research
for local uses by farmers, foresters,
families, gardeners, kids and seniors.
With each county tax dollar the
Extension Service leverages an addi-
tional $6 in state and federal funds,
grants and volunteer service.
Thank you Marion County vot-
ers, campaign volunteers and local
government leaders for your vision
and support.
Cara Fischer
Salem
To the Editor:
A writer to this page recently said
“gun control is the solution,” along
with his opinion of second amend-
ment supporters. I would suggest he
spend some time in Detroit or Wash-
ington D.C. The two cities with the
most stringent gun laws in the U.S.,
and the highest violent crime rates.
Walk around at night, explore the
area. See how secure you feel. Or,
spend some time in Canada, where
they spent almost $10 millon on gun
control. It was an abject failure. The
gun control is gone, along with the
money and the politicians that passed
the law.
Gun control must not have been
the solution.
G.I. Wilson
Keizer
Marion Co.
Extension District
To the Editor:
On May 19 voters overwhelm-
ingly supported a permanent fund-
ing source for Marion County 4-H
and the Extension Service. This is
an ideal investment in the county’s
letters
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all points of view.
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Kicker is money you deserve back
Just recently we turned a corner
in the legislative session and the rev-
enue forecast was announced. This
estimate shows how much in taxes
the state government is planning to
receive, so they can really start fi gur-
ing out the budget for the next two
years. While I am not on the Ways
and Means committees that handle
the budget bills, we are all part of the
discussion. After all, there should be
approximately $2 billion in addition-
al revenue—what do we want to do
with it? That’s a big question.
Personally, the K-12 education
budget is very important to me.
Earlier this year you may remember
that along with my Republican col-
leagues, I voted to increase funding
for schools to a total of $7.5 billion
dollars. Unfortunately the major-
ity party passed a budget at $7.235
billion. The thing is, we really didn’t
need to vote on the education budget
before we knew how much revenue
we were going to have, but again, the
majority insisted. Rep. Mike McLane
stood on the House fl oor during that
debate and said that passing an early,
inadequate budget was a ploy to get
your income tax kicker.
Well, now there is HB3555—
along with the dreaded emergency
from the
capitol
By BILL POST
clause, keeping you from having the
chance to vote on it, the bill will take
away your kicker refund.
You already paid your taxes. You,
the voters, said if the government
overtaxes you, they should give you
the money back. This is the only ac-
countability program our state rev-
enue has and was enacted by us, the
voters. But the majority party seems
to have no regard for the will of the
people and wants to take away the
fi rst kicker refund we’ve had since
2007.
People argue that it’s only a cou-
ple hundred dollars per person. I
don’t care—it’s your money and you
deserve to get it back.
One member of the majority par-
ty said on the house fl oor recently,
“You can’t have fully funded schools
and a kicker.” We knew that was
the plan from the beginning to get
your money—holding kids hostage
to increase the amount of your hard
earned money they take. I complete-
ly disagree. Our state government
needs to be more responsible with
your tax dollars and live within their
means just like you and I have to do
on a personal level.
Another thing that’s been hap-
pening a lot this session is the passing
of redundant bills—or what we call
stacking. Currently there is already a
law that prohibits drivers from im-
peding traffi c. Well, we just passed
another bill this year to prohibit driv-
ers from camping out in the left lane,
impeding traffi c. Additionally, SB385
adds municipal courts into the list of
other buildings where fi rearms are
not allowed. Currently, judges can
prohibit anything from their court-
rooms—so the bill is entirely un-
necessary and simply another way of
stripping us from our second amend-
ment rights.
I want to thank each of you who
have taken the time to contact my
offi ce and share your thoughts and
opinions. I really appreciate your in-
put.
(Bill Post represents House District
25. He can be reached at 503-986-
1425 or via email at rep.billpost@
state.or.us.)
Use school money wiser; give back kicker
The impression from the last sev-
eral decades is that when school dis-
tricts are given a blank check with
taxpayer money they cannot be de-
pended upon to use it for the bet-
terment of learning opportunities
for the students in the schools un-
der their authority. Conversely, if a
bond is put to voters and it stipu-
lates that if passed it will, for exam-
ple, serve capital construction costs
to address overcrowding, earthquake
withstanding improvements, or ear-
marked for other specifi cally des-
ignated uses, then, if the facts are
provided in compelling detail and
verifi able, its passage is recommend-
ed.
However, if a lump sum without
any requirements is given to a school
district or every school district in the
state, it comes to mind from reading
about such monetary provisions over
the years that the superintendent
and his/her deputies and all those
persons in the district’s central of-
fi ce will too often receive big raises
in salary and the headquarters build-
ing will receive an upgraded location
or facelift with furnishings to match
the newly-obtained wealth. Un-
der open-ended circumstances, then,
the observer must look high and
low (usually without success in such
a search) to fi nd any benefi t com-
ing to school buildings, classrooms,
AV equipment, materials or teacher
salaries.
Then there are the salary, retire-
ment and fringe benefi ts, including
free housing and a free car, that add
up to something between a half and
three-quarters of a million dollars
for the presidents at Portland State
University, OSU and the Univer-
sity of Oregon. Their headquarters
staff are not denied big salaries ei-
ther when the money rolls in. Mean-
while, the professors, the most im-
portant employees at a university, are
paid meagerly. Regarding the presi-
dents, with hundreds of thousands of
dollars given them each month, and
freebies all over the place, why should
we further surrender our money to
them by way of the kicker?
Now we have one Tobias Read,
a current Oregon legislator from
Beaverton, introducing legislation
to suspend the
projected $473
million kicker
tax rebate that
would
then
be given in part
to the schools
and
colleges
while the other part would be placed
in a state rainy day fund. Rep. Read
says, “House Bill 3555 gives us an
opportunity to invest in the things
that refl ect our values as Oregonians
and to turn around years of cuts to
our schools, colleges and universi-
ties.”
We are already paying precious
amounts of our earned incomes to
support our schools and colleges
only to realize by way of our state
high schools, for example, the worst
graduation rates in the entire nation
and where, also, there’s the troubling
failure to successfully address the
hundreds-long list of drop-outs while
inordinate amounts of time, energy
and resources can go to buying ar-
tifi cial turf for football fi elds which
serve as a playing area for a few doz-
en students in a school with a couple
thousand student population.
Then, too, at two of our larg-
est universities, UO and OSU, the
sports programs have gotten to be
the most costly among all university
activities, Phil Knight not withstand-
ing. Meanwhile, we’re giving tax-
gene h.
mcintyre
payer funded athletic scholarships to
athletes who come mainly, with few
exceptions, from out-of-state and
who receive a free-ride to a college
degree along with many other perks
denied other students who must pay
full fare out-of-pocket and, if they’re
able to pay their way to graduate,
leave the school deeply in debt while
sports players trundle blithely off to
the NBA, NFL, etc. for million dol-
lar salaries.
Finally, the principle in this mat-
ter of giving taxpayer money that’s
ordered by law returned when the
economy’s positive numbers align
just so, brings to mind charitable con-
tributions. The best advice is that it’s
ill-advised to give to organizations
with a bad track record in spending
as much as it’s considered misplaced-
giving when the organization spends
most of the money on overhead.
These cautionary standards re-
late to our schools and colleges,
too, as they do as they please unless
controlled by specifi c mandates. It’s
hoped that a majority of Oregon’s
legislators believe as is outlined for
consideration here and will not
pass Representative Read’s proposal.
Governor Kate Brown, too, should
veto the Read proposal should
it ever get to her desk.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)