PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, OCTOBER 30, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Opposition to
payroll tax
To the Editor:
I was listening to a fellow busi-
ness owner this past weekend. This is
how he explained the impact of the
proposed employer payroll tax on his
business: “It will cost me, personally,
one month’s pay. This means that I
will get paid for 11 of the 12 months
I work.” As a small business owner in
Salem myself, I adhere to the old ad-
age for business owners, you have to
do right by your partners (if any), em-
ployees, suppliers, creditors and cus-
tomers. Then if there is any left you
take care of your family and yourself.
In this instance, my fellow busi-
ness owner will take a pay cut if this
tax passes. Please vote no on the em-
ployer payroll tax. No one should go
without their paycheck.
Eric T. McMullen
Salem
To the Editor:
These are reasons why I am en-
couraging you to vote no on Measure
24-388.
First, we need a broader conversa-
tion on the wants and needs of mass
transit in the Keizer-Salem area. Mass
transit is a need, weekend and later
hours during the weekdays, in my
opinion, is a want.
Secondly, the percentage of peo-
ple using mass transit is too small. I
applaud Cherriots for making the
changes in the fi rst phase of their
Moving Forward. With the cor-
rect focus and encouragement, more
people will fi nd that taking the bus to
work is easy. With time and effort the
ridership numbers may increase to
warrant a need of additional services.
Thirdly, this proposed tax for in-
creased services is unfair. The people
(businesses) in our community who
will have to pay extra taxes are already
paying a fair share of the costs that
provide the current services. Others
pay too (government and the people
who ride the bus). Cost of additional
services should be spread among all, if
that is what we determine we need.
Finally, we can work together to
fi nd other solutions. I want to think
we can without having to hurt a
singled out segment of the working
class. I want to explore sustainable
options. We need small businesses in
our town to survive and prosper.
Christine Dieker
Keizer
To the Editor:
I am a third generation family
business owner. For three generations
our family has managed to run a busi-
ness that provides a needed service to
our customers, gives back to the com-
munity, and provides our employ-
ees and ourselves a living wage. My
dream has always been that the fourth
generation, my son, will continue this
legacy.
But this dream gets a little dimmer
every time the federal, state or local
government decides they need more
money for their operation. Every
time taxes and/or fees are imposed
on a private business that business has
to work twice as hard to make up for
what is taken from their bottom line.
The Salem Keizer Transit Dis-
trict is currently asking you to vote
to impose a tax on my employee
payroll. Expanded public transit in
Salem-Keizer is desirable; it benefi ts
the entire community. Phase 1 of the
Moving Forward Plan has yet to yield
any indications of increased ridership.
Those results need to be analyzed
before implementing Phase 2. More
importantly expanded public transit
should not be the responsibility of
only one segment of our community.
Transit is a community service and
it deserves a community solution.
Please vote no on M24-388.
Larry Jackson
Salem
To the Editor:
The Employer Tax that our tran-
sit district is trying to impose on
private sector employers and the
self-employed is unacceptable and
unfair. While I agree that transit
does play a critical role, I adamantly
disagree with the proposed funding
mechanism. Citizens cannot expect
the business community to shoulder
this burden alone. Inexcusably, two
of Salem’s largest employers, the State
letters
of Oregon and
S a l e m - Ke i z e r
School
Dis-
trict are exempt
from this new
tax. How does
that make sense
and how can any
reasonable voter
see this as being fair?
If our community believes that it is
necessary for transit to expand servic-
es then the entire community should
pay, not just 1 percent of the popula-
tion. Current fares are $1.60 for an
adult and 80 cents for a student. Rid-
ers should certainly bear some re-
sponsibility for expanded service.
Portland and Eugene impose an
employer payroll tax for transit. Over
the last 10 years, they have raised taxes
10 out of 10 years in Portland and
seven out of the last 10 years in Eu-
gene. Businesses could see their taxes
double within 10 years. This is unac-
ceptable and needs to be stopped. I
am voting no. Join me in putting a
stop to the employer tax.
Ryan Allbritton
Salem
Support for
payroll tax
To the Editor:
Salem-Keizer once had one of the
state’s leading community transport
systems. Less than a decade ago, the
district enjoyed a ridership exceeding
5 million. Unfortunately, revenue cut-
backs, inevitably followed by service
cutbacks, have resulted in declining
ridership. Last year, Cherriot carried
3.6 million. Salem is currently the
only city in the Northwest with more
than 100,000 people that does not
have Saturday bus service.
Our community now has an op-
portunity to restore services that were
cut and to create a pathway for in-
creasing ridership in the future.
That’s why I am voting “yes” for
the Salem-Keizer Transit (Cherriots)
measure (No. 24-388). And I hope
you will too. The measure would al-
low Cherriots to provide weekend
and holiday bus service, extend bus
runs later into the evening hours dur-
ing the week and offer free bus passes
to middle- and high-school students.
It would also allow the CherryLift to
operate on weekends and holidays
and, more generally, enable to Cher-
riots to fully implement its “Moving
Forward” agenda, helping to meet the
growing transit needs of Salem and
Keizer.
All of this would make our com-
munity a better and healthier place to
live and likely give a bit of a boost
to the economy by way of increased
business activities and more vibrant,
community-connected
neighbor-
hoods. It would certainly help those
without cars – seniors, students and
the disabled – participate more fully
in the life of our community.
This would all be achieved through
a modest 0.21 percent tax on business
payrolls. For half of the private fi rms
in the Salam-Keizer transit district,
the “expense” would amount to no
more than $168 a year, or less than
50 cents a day. By any fair measure, in
fact, this should be viewed not as an
expense but an investment that will
provide valuable returns to the com-
munity and local economy.
The wage tax has proven a viable
way to provide community transit
services in Portland and Eugene, both
of which have implemented broad
strategies to improve their transit sys-
tems. Portland’s community transport
system is considered among the na-
tion’s best and Eugene’s community
transport system now carries more
than 11.5 million riders each year.
Opponents of the measure have had
six years to come up with an alterna-
tive proposal to restore the weekend
and evening service. They have failed
to do so, and they shouldn’t now be
standing in the way of a measure that
is long overdue.
Community transit systems have
gained an increasing presence across
Oregon from Portland to Corvallis to
Eugene. Public transit is now widely
recognized as a critical agent for so-
cial and economic progress, as well as
a vital sign of a community’s forward-
looking thinking. Support for the
Salem-Keizer Transit measure (No.
24-388) is not just the right thing to
do; it’s the smart thing to do – for the
Keizertimes
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Salem, Oregon
Many issues keep my mind busy
Once again I am honored and priv-
ileged to serve you the good people of
Keizer (along with St. Paul, Newberg
and parts in between) in the Oregon
Legislature. This month is sort of a
“grab bag” of thoughts.
First off, I am always surprised at
how many people I talk to who aren’t
even aware there is an Oregon Legis-
lature. I talk to a lot of people around
town, by e-mail and social media, and
many are not aware that the session of
2015 even happened, especially those
it affected the most: businesses. In the
2015 Session, there were several laws
passed that will further burden busi-
nesses in our district and that greatly
concerns me. I get excited to read
the Keizertimes and see new businesses
start up or old ones grow larger – this
is success for all of us, not just the busi-
ness owner. This is the main reason I
am opposed (not as your state repre-
sentative, but as Bill Post, the guy who
lives in a home in Keizer) to the Sa-
lem-Keizer transit payroll tax. I have
seen the very diffi cult choices business
will have to make beginning in 2016
thanks to the Oregon Legislature –
they don’ t need another burden.
Second, I love the weekly poll in
from the
capitol
By BILL POST
the Keizertimes, as it tells us a little bit
about our community. Last week it
featured a question concerning the
amount of guns in our households.
Thirty-four percent said they had no
guns while 66 percent said they did,
with 30 percent saying they had 10
or more guns. I am encouraged by
that as we have a right, thanks to the
US and Oregon Constitutions, to own
those guns and it seems Keizerites rev-
el in that right.
Lastly, I am concerned for the youth
of our community. The “millennials”
in particular (since my own son would
be considered in that group). I watch
as government has tried to make their
lives easier, yet instead, their future
success is appearing more elusive. By
expanding entitlements to so many,
those of my generation are saddling
young people with debt that they’ll
never be able to pay. We encourage
them to go to college and get a degree
but then prevent them from entering
the job market through licensing, red
tape and protection of already estab-
lished workers. The idea of increasing
minimum wage, while very appealing
to hear and may be very well inten-
tioned, makes it even more diffi cult
for young, inexperienced and low
skilled people to enter the job market.
The thought that, “if only government
were larger and gave more handouts,
and taxes were raised to pay for these
programs, then young people would
do better” just isn’t true. Government
tends to pick winners and losers, and
the politically unorganized young are
ineffective at lobbying for their inter-
ests. The key for these young folks to
succeed is for government to get out
of their way.
Though we are not in session again
until February, I continue to do what
I can to serve you in any way here in
House District 25.
(Bill Post represents House District
25. He can be reached at 503-986-
1425 or via email at rep.billpost@
state.or.us.)
Is the world of the middle class coming to an end?
Many a Christmas Eve ago, at the
height of the Cold War, after the kids
were put to bed, I laid there listening
to the adults talk. One topic of con-
versation scared me so bad I never for-
got it: They discussed whether a war
they believed was imminent would
make that Christmas Eve the last one
we’d ever celebrate.
The end of the world was most
likely discussed during the Ghen-
gis Khan invasions, the Black Plague
in Europe, the Great Depression and
the World War II. To a certain degree,
end-of-world comments land on the
demise of the American middle class
and the extreme, irreversible, concen-
tration of wealth, delivering our na-
tion to plutocracy where the unelect-
ed one percent rule.
What will happen to tens of thou-
sands of American youth who seek a
future like the one their parents be-
lieved they would realize? There’s in-
creasing doubt that our economy will
recover enough to benefi t most of us
and that the middle class is close to
extinction. Addressing these matters
and others, the Oregon Economic
Forum was held at the Portland Art
Museum where two relevant ques-
tions were explored in reference to
recovery from the so-called Great Re-
cession and the middle class crisis.
Along the same line of possibili-
ties, Oregon’s Employment Depart-
ment reports that, after a three-year
growth spurt, this state has increased
unemployment from 6.1 to 6.2 per-
cent. This fact, apparently, has not
caused economists here to believe
there will be a sharp decline in jobs,
just that economic recovery will oc-
cur at a slower rate of growth. Overall
new jobs have made gains in top earn-
ers and those at the low end income
earners but have been denied many
others in the usually broad middle
range.
Those
at-
tending
the
forum learned
from keynote
speaker
Jim
Tankersley of
The Washington
Post that the rea-
sons for the slowdown include the loss
of manufacturing jobs due to automa-
tion gains in the American workplace
and foreign competition. Then there
are the declining earnings for those
without college degrees while those
in the technology and fi nance sectors
see gains.
While there was an effort to bring
Wall Street to heel eight years ago,
there’s little that has changed. Ad-
ditionally, mortgages and small-busi-
ness loans are more diffi cult to get,
while the paperwork required to ob-
tain them has been signifi cantly in-
creased. Meanwhile, the student loan
payback burden diminishes these folks
from the purchase of quality-of-life
consumer items—mainly homes—but
other big consumer-purchase items,
too, even by those able to secure rela-
tively high-paying jobs.
It would seem that the U.S. could
do much better at making inroads to
the re-building of the middle class if
we stopped warring overseas where
American taxpayers now spend $10
million every day fi ghting ISIS in Iraq
and Syria. We’ve obviously gained
little or nothing from our warring
in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now
Syria except to deplete the U.S. Trea-
sury, greatly increase the national debt
and lose American lives. There is so
much that could be done inside our
own nation if we’d husband our tax
dollars and stop borrowing from over-
seas to spend on projects here, putting
millions of underemployed Americans
back to work on re-building the na-
tion’s infrastructure and reinstate our
community, for business, and for our
future well-being. It deserves a “yes”
vote on November 3.
Daniel Schaffer
Keizer
so that we are
able to respond
quickly and ef-
fectively when
there is an emer-
gency. We can’t
do that, however,
without reliable equipment.
The Keizer Fire District was start-
ed by volunteers and continues to use
them today as one way to save tax
payers’ money. We would like to urge
the citizens of Keizer to help us help
you by voting yes for the bond mea-
sure for emergency equipment.
Keizer Volunteer Firefi ghters
Association
President – Bill Herring
To the Editor:
To our new city councilor Amy
Ryan: Please remember you are a
councilor for all the residents of Keiz-
er, not just the business people.
I challenge you to put your car
keys up for two weeks and use pub-
lic transportation (this means going
to work, buying groceries, keeping
appointments, shopping, church, rec-
reation, etc.). Accept no rides and no
fair having others do tasks for you.
Businesses will raise
prices if necessary to
keep their profi t margin
intact. Those who buy
the goods and services
will actually be paying for
a better bus system.
Julia Ann Goin
Keizer
KFD levy
is needed
To the Editor:
On behalf of the Keiz-
er Volunteer Firefi ghters
Association members, we
the KVFA board are writ-
ing to support the Keizer
Fire 2015 Equipment
Bond measure. In addi-
tion to our regular jobs,
we volunteer as fi refi ght-
ers. We are well-trained
and volunteer regularly
gene h.
mcintyre
letters
leadership in research and develop-
ment in technology and communi-
cations. Of course, there is need of
many reforms at home here that keep
getting put off while our national
leaders fi ght with each other.
All jobs in the U.S. related to ev-
ery level of earning should be the
dedicated focus of Congress and the
administration. If those folks in Wash-
ington, D.C. would turn away from
their fi xation on warring overseas to
working together, bringing to a halt
special congressional committees to
investigate other politicians for parti-
san gain, we could soon realize prog-
ress. However, until the leadership
positions in our nation’s capitol are
held by responsible Americans deter-
mined to improve the common good
and not just out to keep themselves
in offi ce, we’ll continue to limp along,
losing ground on every facet of life
here that once were the hallmarks of a
great nation.
We must again learn to work to-
gether as when we succeeded in our
independence and winning wars
against the Empire of Japan and Nazi
Germany. As President Franklin D.
Roosevelt said in his fi rst inaugural
address mainly regarding the demise
of almost everything in the U.S. by
the Great Depression: “Let me assert
my fi rm belief that the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself—nameless,
unreasoning, unjustifi ed terror which
paralyzes needed efforts to convert re-
treat into advance.”
Let us remember that imminent
doomsdays have plagued humankind
since our arrival on Earth: Giving
up in the face of what appears insur-
mountable should be unacceptable to
us.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
Vice President – Dale Slater
Treasurer - Samantha Howell
Secretary – Tony Ling
At Large Member – Jason Perkins
One grocery store?
To the Editor:
How can a town of over 35,000
have only one major supermar-
ket? Talk about a monopoly. I hope
the Chamber of Commerce can
come up with something so that we
don’t have to go over to Commer-
cial to do our grocery shopping if we
want a choice.
Marge Willson
Keizer