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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2017
OPINION
KARI BROGEN, publisher & revenue director
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
A sneaky tax plan
I
n the wee hours of Saturday morning,
Dec. 2, U.S. Senate Republicans
passed what could be one of the most
important bills in recent history.
If it becomes law, it will revamp the
national tax code, disrupt the national
health care system, add trillions of dol-
lars to the national debt and impact every
pocketbook in America. So why did it
pass just before 2 a.m., in the dark of night
and with nary a public hearing?
Everybody knows that most 2 a.m.
decisions are boneheaded, and something
we regret in the morning light. So why are
we passing important legislation at that
hour?
It didn’t have to happen like this.
There is plenty to like about the tax
bill. Reducing the corporate tax rate from
35 percent to 20 percent, a number in line
with other first-world countries, is long
overdue and will help American com-
panies compete in a global marketplace.
Most lawyer-heavy corporations were
finding ways around the paying the 35
percent rate anyway — many by parking
billions of dollars in offshore tax shelters
— so perhaps the lower rate will actually
increase tax receipts.
Yet there is plenty wrong with the bill,
too. The tax code was crying out for sim-
plification, modernization and real reform
— things the GOP bluffed at tackling.
They came up short.
The final Senate bill (and the House
bill, for that matter) is deeply unpopular
with voters. That is the most obvious rea-
son why it was squeezed through in the
dead of night.
The Trump tax cuts had a 48 per-
cent disapproval rate and just 32 per-
cent approval through much of
November, making it the least popu-
lar tax cut in recent history, according to
FiveThirtyEight. Yet those numbers are
remarkably similar to Trump’s approval
and disapproval ratings — and are proba-
bly more tied to the president himself than
his tax bill because, again, nobody knew
the details of the bill until the final hour.
Much of the disapproval rests on the
fact that rich Republican donors and lob-
byists seemed to get direct access to writ-
ing the bill, while middle-class voters (and
elected Democrats) were left out.
The tax bill includes a tax break for
people who own private airplanes. There
is also a tax break for parents whose chil-
dren attend private school.
While those clearly help upper-income
Americans, they also hurt poor and mid-
dle-class homes. Cuts to state and local
tax deductions will reduce funding to pub-
lic schools, where most middle-class and
poor Americans are educated, while pri-
vate school parents now save a few extra
dollars.
There is no economic rationale for this
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
The Poor People’s Campaign prayed in an act of civil disobedience in protest of the GOP
tax overhaul.
kind of thing. Rich Americans donated to
the Republican Party, and the Republican
Party is giving them what they want. It’s
that simple.
We promised to keep you informed
about the bill as it moved — at that we
failed. How could we not? Not even the
senators who voted on the 479-page bill,
which included hand-written notes in the
margins, knew what was in it more than a
few hours before it was approved.
That’s problematic for democracy. But
it’s also problematic for the law itself.
In the rush to pass the bill, the Senate
GOP accidentally nullified many corpo-
rate deductions, among those most import-
ant to their corporate donors.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a
research credit was forgotten, which could
cost corporations up to $10.3 billion in tax
write-offs.
That may get taken care of through rec-
onciliation by the House and Senate, or by
the hundreds of lobbyists who will sneak
their wishes into the bill before it arrives at
the president’s desk for a signature.
The American tax system is far from
being broken, and far from being fixed.
Tax policy swings back and forth with
the pendulum of partisan control, and
Republicans had their chance to create a
more fair, open taxation system that low-
ered rates for many Americans.
On that, the Grand Old Party fell short.
And once they no longer hold the power
in both houses of Congress and the White
House, expect much of this tax plan to be
rescinded.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Voices from the Great Coastal Gale of 2007
W
hat became known as the Great
Coastal Gale hit the region in
December 2007, knocking down
thousands of trees, stranding residents and
leaving thousands without power, many for
more than a week.
Among those who
weathered the storm, a
notable group stepped
forward to work to ensure
the safety and well-being
of Seaside’s residents.
Mary Blake, the
former
director of
R.J. MARX
Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District,
helped set up a shelter at the Bob Chisholm
Community Center. Lt. Chris Dugan
was among the firefighters who cleared
debris, battled blazes as they broke out
and helped those in need. Seaside School
District Superintendent Doug Dougherty
addressed concerns of students and their
families. Keith Chandler, general manager
of Seaside Aquarium, helped keep fish and
aquatic life alive.
Here are their stories:
Mary Blake
The storm came in, and as always, the
community center was the heart and soul
for a lot of people.
Not just for the safety elements, but
it was the support of people who were
rightfully fearful from the scary aspects of
a big event.
We turned the community center into
a 24-hour area where for three days we
served breakfast, lunch and dinner. We
had a little ukulele group do songs. We set
up our park and recreation programs for
kids to have a play area. Everybody was
welcome.
The city was able to get a portable
generator and we set it up outside. That
gave us life.
It was Christmastime, so we had
Christmas lights on the outside as well as
the inside of the facility. Between Dec. 3
and Dec. 8, it operated for 122 continuous
hours.
We also had a check-in so people would
sign in. So if somebody was worried about
somebody at home or a loved one or they
were out of the area, they could check in
with us. We had over 2,000 signatures of
people using the facility, and we served
over 6,000 meals.
All the restaurants and all the people
with their freezers knew they didn’t have
enough electricity, before food became
contaminated. We served up things like
steaks, crab — some of the finest food you
would ever find.
I slept in the shelter. We blew up a
couple beds, and we set up our sleeping
Tom Horning
Trees down in front of a Seaside home in the wake of the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.
arrangements behind the counter. We
sectioned off the card room, taped it off, so
people had an assigned area they could set
up their own little housekeeping.
If they needed to shower, they showered
at the swimming pool.
We had a bus coordinated with the
Providence Seaside Hospital if people
needed any kind of emergency services. We
coordinated people and volunteers and it
was a sight to behold.
It gave us an insight into any kind of
big event, whether it was a man-made
emergency or natural causes. You become
as resourceful as you possibly can. You are
really operating from the heart so you have
a lot of compassion for what is going on.
You fall back into what you practice for
safety and survival.
People depended on the leadership that
they had always counted on, whether or not
it was going to the pool and having a good
lifeguard to make sure they are safe in the
water or driving in the streets of Seaside.
Our mayor, Don Larson, would always
check in, which reassured people. Then we
started to get the higher-level elected offi-
cials come in just to check out the damage.
The people of the community really sprung
into action.
In the end, the storm had so many
positive things to really reinforce the people
how strong we are together.
It was an incident that probably was one
of my proudest moments.
Lt. Chris Dugan
The first day, it was really starting to
get a little nasty out, but no more than
that. I remember going down to dispatch
and it was probably within 10 minutes
all heck broke loose. It seemed the wind
blew, it rained, it just didn’t stop. It was just
ongoing.
One thing I remember is the phones
being off and the power being off. We
really expected one or both of them to
come back very soon — and they never
did.
We couldn’t get calls to dispatch. We
had trapped communities, trapped areas,
where trees were down with no access to
them. So we spent time getting trees out of
the way.
(Firefighter) Doug Barker and I made an
inventory of all the power lines down, all
the trees down. We made a map of the city
of where the issues were so we could hand
it out to power company and public works.
I actually lived at the station for that
week. There was a room available upstairs,
so I slept up there. I basically went on all
the calls possible.
The community center got a generator
from Camp Rilea. I remember helping them
get that set up at the back of their building
so we could get heat and lights in there.
As a whole I really think it brought us
altogether. We worked together and we
made it through that. The power’s on and
we’re talking on the phone.
That’s where our resilience is going to
be really tested.
Doug Dougherty
I can’t believe it has been 10 years since
the storm. I remember we had a few days
to prepare for strong winds. The storm was
to hit the coast on Sunday. Most school
districts canceled school for Monday and
prepared their buildings. I remember that
the sky was clear and calm for a very long
time that Sunday. When the storm finally
hit, the heavy winds sounded like a train
that went on for hours. Trees and cell
towers toppled and the power was out for
many days.
On Monday morning, the winds were
still raging but I went out to check in at the
emergency operations center at the Seaside
Police Department to determine the overall
damage. I then checked on the schools.
Downed trees blocked streets. Trees were
blown down at each school.
I was very impressed and thankful that
a number of community members checked
in on their neighbors, bringing chainsaws
and needed supplies. After several days,
food in freezers began to thaw. I know of
at least one good Samaritan who had a
portable generator and would provide an
hour or so of additional power to refreeze
refrigerators. Personally, natural gas
allowed us to use our fireplace, stove, and
hot water heater — so we were better off
than many.
After experiencing the lack of com-
munication during the aftermath, I had all
administrators and supervisors take ham
radio classes and bought them portable ham
radios for emergencies. One other thing we
have noticed is there are a large number of
fifth-grade students who will be turning 10
about the same time this year.
Keith Chandler
We have a gas-powered pump for the
fish at the aquarium. When the power went
out, we had to man that pump for five days,
for 24 hours a day. Every two hours and
15 minutes it had to be refueled. The more
challenging part was getting gas to run the
pumps, because there wasn’t power to any
of the gas stations either. Fortunately, a for-
mer employee who had a landscaping com-
pany, Tom Thies, had several gas cans at
his house and he brought them over for us
to use. He wasn’t mowing lawns that week.
He knew our situation with our power out,
and he brought us all his gas.
We used that, then we siphoned the gas
out of our trucks.
After the second day, Fred Meyer got
power, so we could go to Fred Meyer and
get gas.
As long as the pump was working, the
circulation worked for all the fish. The
seals, they were fine. We have a system
set up where we actually use city water to
fill the seal tank. But after five days of not
being able to pump water from the ocean,
we were getting low on the reserve. That
was a concern, too.
We were always watching the outside
of the building. Our biggest concern was
the big sign that hangs out on the Prom.
There was one point where the bolts started
to come loose. We had to hang out of the
windows upstairs and bolt those back in. I
had someone else hanging onto my feet so I
would not be blown away.
I camped out here for a day and a half
before my co-worker came in to relieve me.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.