OCTOBER 23, 2015, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Rep. Schrader: Congress isn’t as bad as portrayed
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
The way U.S. Rep. Kurt
Schrader sees it, Congress isn’t
quite as dysfunctional as you
may think.
Schrader, the Democrat
from Canby serving his fourth
term in Congress after first be-
ing elected in 2008, also praised
ousted House of Representa-
tives speaker John Boehner
during a Keizer Chamber of
Commerce luncheon Oct. 13
at the Keizer Quality Suites.
“It’s not been as bad as the
media portrays it to be,” Schrad-
er said. “We’re not getting ev-
erything done, but there’s a lot
more productive stuff going on
that the media doesn’t tell you
about. Boehner has gone out
of his way to bring bills to the
floor moderate Democrats like
me can vote for. He’s made a
real effort to make it more bi-
partisan. That’s been seen with
regulatory changes for busi-
nesses and supporting energy
projects. That’s a good thing.”
Schrader, part of the No La-
bels group in Washington D.C.,
feels the spirit of working to-
gether is present.
“There is pent-up demand
in the rank-and-file to work
together,” he said. “Take the
funding of the Homeland Se-
curity. We got caught up in
philosophical debate about im-
migration. The bill was in dan-
ger. It needs to be done. The
speaker reached out to Nancy
Pelosi and we were able to pass
a bipartisan Homeland Security
bill.”
Schrader, now serving on
the House Energy and Com-
merce Committee, has been
impressed with what he’s seen
there.
“That committee has been
a breath of fresh air,” he said.
“These guys have made a con-
scious effort to find stuff they
agree on.”
Another hot topic in D.C.
has been funding and a new
formula so new doctors for se-
nior citizens can be recruited.
“Pelosi and Boehner got
together,” Schrader said. “We
passed legislation out of the
House with more than 388
votes out of 435. That’s huge
for controversial legislation like
that. They want to work to-
gether.”
Along a similar note, Schrad-
er said a 400-page health care
bill was cut in half, allowing for
a shorter process to get neces-
sary new drugs to the market.
“Members want to work
together on issues of signifi-
cance,” he said. “I give credit to
the outgoing speaker. Compro-
mise is seen as a dirty word. But
in the real world, we should be
trying to make it work.”
Schrader finds it too bad
Boehner announced his retire-
ment from Congress.
“I’m sorry for the institu-
tion,” Schrader said. “(Boehner)
was trying to do the right thing
against Herculean odds. That
could be us (as Democrats).
Hopefully we all learn from
this tough exercise. It’s a thank-
less job. I don’t know what will
happen.”
When the question of
mental health was brought up,
Schrader touched on the Oct. 1
shooting at Umpqua Commu-
nity College in Roseburg.
“The tragedy in Southern
Oregon and other places has
focused the need on mental
health help,” he said. “A guy
from Pennsylvania is on the
same committee as me and is
really trying to light a fire. We’re
trying to do bipartisan legisla-
tion. We are trying to identify
folks who are having trouble
right now.”
In response to a question
from Bob Zielinski, Schrader
spoke to the Russia/Syria issue.
“It is a quagmire there,”
Schrader said. “We could spend
a lot of money that could go
to education and spend it over
there instead without a lot to
show for it. We should play a
strong supportive role. But it’s
time for other countries to step
forward and take care of their
own problems...We’ve got a lot
more important problems in
our own country.”
On a more local level, one of
those problems is the ongoing
fiasco with the Columbia River
Crossing between Oregon and
Washington.
“The CRC needs to hap-
pen,” Schrader said. “We are
losing economic competitive-
ness. We are losing the con-
tainer industry. We can’t even
design the damn Columbia
River Bridge. We need to get it
done. In Oregon the legislature
has done a great job. Hopefully
we can get Washington state to
buy in as well.”
A few weeks ago, Schrader
saw the Salem-Keizer School
District’s new Career and
Technical Education Center
(CTEC) facility on Portland
Road in Salem.
“Workforce development
was on the chopping block
when I first got to Congress,”
Schrader said. “There was
sometimes a disconnect be-
tween money being put in and
the results. Not everyone will
go on to get a four-year col-
lege degree. A lot of us baby
boomers are retiring. We need
guys and gals who are willing to
step up and work in these are-
nas. The Salem-Keizer School
District does a real good job
of recognizing that not all kids
will go the four-year college
route.”
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
So what happens if the
Salem-Keizer Transit District’s
payroll tax ballot measure
doesn’t pass?
That question was asked
at the Oct. 15 Greater Gub-
ser Neighborhood Association
meeting following a presenta-
tion by transit board president
Robert Krebs and board new-
comer Colleen Busch.
“It would be status quo,”
Krebs said. “That would mean
probably pushing it back a
minimum of two years.”
Measure 24-388 on the
Nov. 3 ballot would enact a
0.21 percent payroll tax on
businesses in the Salem-Keiz-
er area. For a business with an
$80,000 payroll, that would
mean a tax of $169. The tax
is expected to generate $5
million a year in revenue and
would fund Phase 2 of the
transit district’s Moving For-
ward plan, which would re-
store weekend service, extend
weeknight service hours and
bring back a free student bus
pass program.
Government organizations
would be exempt from the
tax, though state employees
already have a .6 percent tax
that also brings in approxi-
mately $5 million a year.
The Salem and Keizer
Chambers of Commerce have
been running organized ef-
forts to campaign against the
proposed tax, including TV
ads and sign-waving cam-
paigns.
Krebs said the services be-
ing sought to add back used
to be offered before a funding
shortfall.
“A few years ago we had a
property tax levy that failed,”
Krebs said. “We didn’t have
enough to keep weekend ser-
vice going. As a result, we went
down to five-day service.”
In 2009, the transit service
schedule was completely re-
designed with 15-, 30- and
60-minute service depend-
ing on the stop and the route.
Since then, a Portland-based
firm specializing in transit sys-
tem design was brought on
board.
“They rode all the lines,”
Krebs said. “From that, last
month we implemented Phase
1 in Moving Forward. Four
routes are now 15-minute ser-
vice, six are 30-minute routes
and four are hourly routes.
It means that if a bus comes
every 15 minutes, you just go
out and wait for it to come.
It runs like that all day. Rid-
ership is all day long, not just
morning and evening. It drops
off at about 6:30 p.m.”
Phase 1 also includes the
West Salem Connector, which
utilizes smaller buses that can
more easily serve the area with
a lot of hills. Riders can call for
a bus, which will take them to
the Glenn Creek station.
“It’s the poor man’s Uber,”
Krebs said, mimicking a com-
ment made last week by Keiz-
er mayor Cathy Clark. “At
first it was two people an hour,
now it’s five or six people an
hour.”
U.S. Rep. Kurt
Schrader talks
at the Keizer
Chamber of
Commerce
luncheon on
Oct. 13 at
Keizer Quality
Suites.
KEIZERTIMES/
Craig Murphy
Proposed transit payroll tax explained more
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