OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
OUR VIEW
Diffi cult decisions
await legislators
on education issues
regon legislators are in quandary — their table is fi lled
with a projected $1.6 billion defi cit despite record
revenues, and they face the stiff challenge of crafting a
balanced budget that also meets demands from voter-approved
measures from last November’s general election.
Three statewide measures approved by voters with over-
whelming margins carry a collectively hefty sticker price of
about $363 million through the two-year budget cycle. Two of
those have a direct impact on education funding.
Measure 96 is a constitutional amendment which passed with
a whopping 83 percent voter approval and mandates 1.5 percent
of net lottery proceeds, or about $9.5 million a year, be dedi-
cated for veterans services. The Legislature cannot change that
mandate and is required to fully fund it.
Measures 98 and 99, though, were statutory education initia-
tives rather than constitutional amendments. Even though each
passed by a 2 -to-1 margin, the laws enacted through the two
measures are subject to legislative change, and mostly likely
will be because without new tax revenue they would siphon
already limited funds available for pre-existing educational
needs.
Measure 98 was aimed at dropout prevention and increas-
ing graduation rates with more vocational and technical educa-
tion and college prep for students. It has a $150 million annual
cost, or roughly $800 per high school student, if fully funded.
Measure 99 directed the Legislature to use up to $22 mil-
lion a year from lottery proceeds to provide stable funding for
Outdoor School.
Lottery proceeds already partially fund education and also
earmarks money for statewide economic development. It’s
probable the veterans services mandate and any Outdoor School
funding will tap into the money set aside for economic devel-
opment rather than cut into the limited lottery pie used for
education.
Legislators say funding for Measure 98’s implementation is
far more troublesome. As state Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton,
told The Associated Press, “The voters indeed have spoken on
this issue. But they spoke without writing a check.”
In Gov. Kate Brown’s suggested budget, she proposed cut-
ting the $300 million for Measure 98 in half, while the legis-
lative budget co-chairs have proposed trimming it by a third.
While the money for veterans services is mandatory, the other
two measures remain alive and whole, too. Last week, amid
legislative maneuvers as a deadline for action passed, an effort
in the House kept Measure 98 funding intact while a move
in the Senate backed by the teachers’ union to turn it into an
optional grant failed — a least for
now.
The fi nal decision on fund-
We’d like
ing
won’t be determined for
to see that
some time, and no doubt there
funding be
will be plenty of maneuvering
still to come. We’d like to see
directed
that funding be directed as vot-
as voters
ers demanded, but we also realize
the harsh budget reality legislators
demanded,
are facing. We’ve also advocated
but we
strongly for controls on spending.
also realize
While legislators begin the pro-
cess of cutting costs they should
the harsh
be looking hard at the larg-
budget
est expenses of health care and
the bloated Public Employees
reality
Retirement System. As we advo-
legislators
cated Tuesday, those costs must be
controlled for Oregon’s long-term
are facing.
fi nancial health.
Importantly, though, state lead-
ers — and most certainly Gov. Brown — need to show lead-
ership by reaching out to Oregon businesses, corporations and
organizations which pledged to be supportive of more equita-
ble business taxes when the corporate tax proposed in Measure
97 was defeated and when state expenses are brought under
control. Legislators, together with the public employee unions,
need to rein in the PERS costs.
It’s time to initiate those talks now rather than later.
Oregonians have too much at stake to lose — now and in the
future — for the status quo to remain intact.
Getting business and the unions involved in revenue gener-
ation and cost cutting is a solution sitting on the table with the
potential of solving the perplexing problems all Oregonians will
face when legislators start making the tough decisions of whit-
tling state services and programs, including the educational ini-
tiatives the voters overwhelmingly said are needed.
It’s time for our political leaders to invite everyone to take
their seats.
O
Unspoken collateral
damage of Trump cuts
By JOANNE RIDEOUT
Special to The Daily Astorian
I
f you’re someone who likes pub-
lic radio, you may be concerned
about plans to cut federal fund-
ing for public media, and wondered
what it might mean
for you.
Proposed cuts
to the federal bud-
get under Presi-
dent Donald Trump
would take away
funding for a federal agency called
the Corporation for Public Broad-
casting. CPB distributes tax dollars
to services like PBS, NPR and the
National Endowment for the Arts,
among others. It’s the “among oth-
ers” I want to talk with you about.
What most national news reports
don’t tell you, and what Congress
may not even realize, is that among
the big Beltway players in this polit-
ical game are hundreds of small,
nonprofi t community radio stations
around the nation, mostly in rural
areas. They also receive some fed-
eral money to keep the lights on and
programs fl owing on the airwaves.
They would see drastic cuts if CPB
goes.
Stations like Astoria-based Coast
Community Radio, where I’m the
station manager, will be among the
unspoken collateral damage.
Coast Community Radio is
known locally, and fondly, as
KMUN. You’ll fi nd our diverse pro-
gramming at 91.9 FM in Clatsop
County, the Long Beach Peninsula,
and surrounding areas. In Tillamook
County, we’re called KTCB at 89.5,
and you can hear lots of classical
music with us at 90.9 in the Warren-
ton and Astoria area.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Pam Trenary hosts her Wednesday evening jazz show at Coast
Community Radio in Astoria. The station is member supported .
us a welcome companion in many
households.
All of that might be written off
as inessential fl uff in some people’s
eyes, were it not for the Big Kahuna
of public services that only commu-
nity radio can provide: real-time,
live information in emergencies of
all kinds: things like school closures,
power outages, car accidents that
block roads, weather emergencies
and natural disasters.
This is perhaps the most import-
ant and wide-ranging community
service we provide, and the most
overlooked at the federal level.
While law enforcement and other
fi rst responders can talk to one
another via radio, they cannot talk
directly to you. When it comes to
radio, they can only do that through
licensed radio stations, because the
Federal Communications Commis-
sion has granted organizations like
ours the right to broadcast over the
airwaves to the general public.
Member supported
Emergency response
Member supported, volunteer
operated: that’s the community radio
model. We’ve been around for 34
years. The voices you hear on the air
are your friends and neighbors. Peo-
ple you know, maybe run into in the
supermarket. Maybe even you.
A joke I heard around Astoria
years ago is that if you put any 20
people here on the coast in a room
together, 10 of them are, or have
been in the past, volunteer program-
mers at KMUN. That’s the kind of
place we are.
What do stations like KMUN
give back to communities in
exchange for tax dollars? Plenty.
International, national and local
news; local public affairs; creative
music programming; spoken word;
community calendar info; live broad-
casts of major events like the Fish-
erPoets Gathering and the Astoria
Music Festival, and more. The per-
sonal nature of our broadcasts makes
Broadcast radio is free, and all
you need is a simple, inexpensive
radio to hear local, up-to-date infor-
mation in an emergency. No cell-
phone needed, no computer, no i nter-
net, no electrical power. If you’ve
lived here very long, you know we
can lose all these services in a bad
storm. If the lights go out, just put
in some batteries, turn on your radio
and we’re there. What matters then is
that you get the help you need.
Because of the unique niche com-
munity stations like ours occupy in
the broadcast world, we can remain
live on the air with real people 24/7
if circumstances require it. We can
help you out with everything from
the personal emergency of a lost pet,
to larger community threats like a
severe storm or tsunami event. While
we occasionally have our own issues
with aging equipment that knock
even us off the air for short periods
— we’re quickly back at it again.
Our commitment is long term, real
and proven: we have done all these
things — and want to do them again
for you — when emergencies hap-
pen one more time in this dynamic
area on the edge of the world.
We do our work on a shoestring:
we joke about duct tape and gum,
but it’s pretty much true. CPB mon-
ies make up about a third of our rev-
enue. Last year we received about
$116,000 in federal support.
If that federal money goes, we’ll
have to look to you, our listeners,
to replace that support, and help us
keep going. That means we’d be
asking even more of you than we
already have. In a rural, low-income
community like ours, we know that’s
asking a lot. Especially when Amer-
icans already overwhelmingly sup-
port the modest use of their tax dol-
lars to partially fund services like
ours. To the tune of a whopping
$1.35 per taxpayer, per year.
What it really means is that Con-
gress is asking you to pay twice for
something most of you already said
“yes” to. They just decided to use the
money for something else you didn’t
ask for. Like maybe a wall.
That wall won’t come in too
handy here on the coast when the
Big One hits, and the public service
you relied on to be available for you
just isn’t there, thanks to partisan
squabbling.
Soon, Congress and the p resi-
dent will make big decisions about
the federal budget. If what I’ve writ-
ten here strikes a chord with you,
please make your voice heard to
your elected offi cials, and let them
know you want your tax dollars to
go toward something that will actu-
ally help you when you need it.
In the meantime, we at KMUN
will be doing our best to plan for a
future that still has community radio
in it. With your help we’ll make it.
Joanne Rideout is the gen-
eral manager of Coast Community
Radio.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY?
100 words for 100 days of Trump
The Daily Astorian
Saturday marks 100 days of
Donald Trump’s presidency.
To mark the occasion,
we’re asking readers to sub-
mit 100 words on the presi-
dent’s fi rst 100 days. Whether
it’s about the man, his policies,
his approach to the offi ce or his
accomplishments, we’d like to
share your take.
Email your thoughts to
news @dailyastorian.com
or
drop them off at the Astoria
offi ce at 949 Exchange St. or
the offi ce in Seaside at 1555
N. Roosevelt. Please include a
phone number and city of res-
idence so we can verify your
identity.
The deadline is Friday at
noon. And be concise — 100
words goes fast.
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