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A3 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 Divide: Oregon’s robust economic growth has been uneven Continued from Page A1 Absolutely,” Brown told the Oregon Capital Bureau. “But I would really push back and say it’s a lot of bunk to say myself as an executive and legislative leadership don’t care about rural Oregon.” Reactions to policies crafted in Salem among ruralites are mixed, and non- urban areas of the state are not a monolith — politically or socially. “If we ask something about public opinion, like, ‘Should schools have more funding?’ There’s always going to be a bigger differ- ence between Democrats and Republicans, than between urban and rural,” said John Horvick, director of cli- ent relations and political research at DHM Research in Portland. “Yes, one is red and one is blue, but there are a lot of Democrats in rural Oregon, and there are plenty of Republicans in urban areas. And partisanship is a much, much better predictor on almost every policy issue than geography.” Some say there’s a lack of understanding when it comes to policymaking for rural Oregon. “What they think they’re doing to help the rural parts of the state doesn’t help them,” said Jim Geisinger, vice president of Associ- ated Oregon Loggers and an Estacada resident. “We don’t need more government pro- grams. We don’t need more handouts.” “It’s just that we don’t like somebody from outside tell- ing us what we need to do, because they think they know better,” said Steve Uffelman, the mayor of Prineville. “And that’s just a slap in the face. And it’s an insult.” Brown said she tours the state talking to local politi- cians and business leaders and works to respond to their needs. When she was in Ontario, she was told affordable hous- ing was the city’s biggest issue. In this year’s legislative session, the Legislature fun- neled more money toward affordable housing. “A disproportionate share, on a per capita basis, of our housing dollars goes into rural Oregon,” Brown said. She also unsuccessfully pushed an idea that would take hundreds of millions of dollars from the popular tax rebate known as the “kicker” and spend it on affordable housing in rural areas and for wildfi re prevention work, bringing forestry jobs to rural communities. Brown says she’s baffl ed by the lack of Republican support for either proposal. But some representing rural communities say Dem- ocratic leaders are picking and choosing which rural issues to focus on, and they aren’t stopping the bleeding. State Sen. Cliff Bentz, an Ontario Republican, agreed that affordable housing is an issue. But he said liberals force their progressive agenda on the entire state, rather than lis- tening to what ruralites want. He opposed House Bill 2001, which undid long-stand- ing laws barring multifamily housing throughout the bulk of Oregon’s cities. Uffelman, the Prineville mayor, echoed Bentz, saying the bill was an urban solution forced on his town of 10,000. “We’re a classic example of one size does not fi t all,” Uffelman said. “When they try to ram down our throats Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian Distance, perception can infl uence the urban-rural divide. their policy on urban plan- ning, for example, it might be fi ne for Portland, but it isn’t fi ne for us.” Bentz preferred a bill he pushed that failed, which would have rezoned 200 acres on Ontario’s hilltops to 2 -acre lots where nice houses could be built. “So-called affordable housing. We need it. That’s true,” he said. “But what we also need is people coming in and spending $400,000 or $500,000 on 2 -acre lots.” Mary Anne Cooper, vice president of public policy for the Oregon Farm Bureau, said affordable housing is needed, but it means less after the pas- sage of a transportation pack- age, a clean fuel standard and a gross receipts tax. felt the state hadn’t fi rmly fi gured out how much money rural communities would need to stand up broadband infrastructure. “My biggest fear, or con- cern, was, it wasn’t supported with facts,” Findley said. He encouraged the bill’s chief sponsor to open the offi ce, then “establish a need.” “Go to all the cities, and the counties, and say, ‘What do you need, what is a via- ble number?’” Findley said . “And then go secure the funding for that offi ce, for the grant portion of the offi ce at that point in time, not just to come up with a number that looks good, but is not defi n- able or justifi able. That’s why I voted ‘no.’” ‘... WE DON’T LIKE SOMEBODY FROM OUTSIDE TELLING US WHAT WE NEED TO DO, BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY KNOW BETTER. AND THAT’S JUST A SLAP IN THE FACE. AND IT’S AN INSULT.’ Steve Uffelman | mayor of Prineville “Those things don’t mean a lot when you’re income has gone down to a third and you can hardly afford to feed your family anymore,” she said. Broadband Brown also pointed to a rural broadband bill that failed and didn’t get Repub- lican support. “I am totally and com- pletely at a loss,” Brown said. “Why they would spe- cifi cally kill a proposal that invested in rural Oregon, and rural Oregon broadband?” Brown said only Republi- cans could explain the move, but it could be politically calculated. “Certainly it adds fuel to the fi re for them to say we’re not investing in rural Ore- gon,” she said. Bentz and Cooper liked the policy, though Bentz said he wouldn’t have supported it, had it gotten consideration in the Senate. Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, sponsored a some- what similar bill increasing a tax on telephone use to pay for 911 systems upgrades. Bentz said there wasn’t appetite to pass both. He liked the broadband bill bet- ter, but went with his party in supporting Findley’s bill. Findley, for his part, said in an interview that he dis- liked the broadband bill because the state still hasn’t established how much broad- band infrastructure the state needs. Findley said he voted against the bill because he Brown said the way to improve rural economies is to invest in elements like broad- band to ensure those commu- nities thrive, rather than go back to peak logging days. “Are we going to har- vest at the levels that we did in the ‘70s? No, I just don’t think that’s going to happen,” Brown said. If the state’s timber har- vests increase, employment in timber could increase as well, Josh Lehner, the state economist, said. However, employment in timber likely will not reach 1970s levels, because of federal restrictions and mechanization. Rural Oregon has never fully recovered from two national recessions in the early 1980s, which hit the state’s timber industry partic- ularly hard, Lehner said. The recessions, which reduced demand for Ore- gon’s timber and wood prod- ucts, were then exacerbated by new federal regulations in the 1990s that signifi cantly reduced the timber that could be logged on federal land. The fallout from those major shifts and regulatory changes could explain the bitter reaction to the cap-and- trade effort. While the decline of timber certainly impacted Portland and the state’s metro areas, rural economies suf- fered especially. Robust economy Today, Oregon’s overall economy is robust, having grown into the 21st century with a booming high-tech industry. But that growth has been uneven. About 80% of the state’s high-tech jobs are in Portland metro area. Rural Orego- nians’ jobs tend to differ from the reliable, family-wage mill jobs of yesteryear. Median per capita income in Ore- gon’s rural areas lags behind urban areas. That fact may widen the rural and urban experiences in the state — no longer do urban areas rely on rural ones for natural resources, and the public revenue that employ- ment in the natural resource industry generates. “That time frame where urban Oregon was dependent on rural Oregon was a while ago,” Brown said. “I would say probably more than four decades ago. So I don’t think we can go back to those times.” It’s that legacy that forms the backdrop to how environ- mental issues continue to be divisive. A key permit for the Jor- dan Cove liquefi ed natu- ral gas pipeline was denied by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in May, stopping the project. The project could be seen as emblematic of an urban-ru- ral divide, but isn’t necessar- ily partisan. Brown hasn’t taken a public position on it. Coastal Democrat lawmakers Rep. Caddy McKeown and Sen. Arnie Roblan have sup- ported the project. How the policies that aim to preserve the envi- ronment are crafted matters, says Bruce Sorte, an emeritus community economist and instructor at Oregon State University’s College of Agri- cultural Sciences. “There was a lack of con- cern in many of the policies for letting people to keep doing the type of work they wanted to keep doing,” Sorte said. “And I really think that’s what sits at the crux of the urban-rural divide. It’s not what you’re producing that we should be concerned about, it’s how you’re pro- ducing it.” Policies that address how goods are produced in a “slow, sort of evolution- ary way,” such as requiring replanting after cutting down trees have been more suc- cessful, Sorte said. It’s when you tell people what to produce — or expect them to implement dramatic changes quickly — that can be a shock. Sorte said one way to pass a carbon bill in the future could involve simplifying the policy, and doing more research on the potential impact to share with legisla- tors and constituents. “We could have gone county by county and done more work on the impacts,” Sorte said. “And that would have helped for the people who were exaggerating the impacts, and the people who were dismissing the impacts. That would have helped address both of those folks, who were both wrong.” Oregon became known as a leader in environmental policy in the 1960s under a Republican governor. “Look at our preeminent governor, Tom McCall, who, somewhat like this carbon Consult a PROFESSIONAL Q: What does it mean that Windows 7 support ends in 2020? LEO FINZI You are familiar with receiving A: updates (to Windows or Mac or Clatsop Post 12 STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS with Rice, Veggies, Salad & Bread Friday Aug 9 th 4 pm until gone $ 8.00 legislation, went out and did things the rest of the country wasn’t doing,” Sorte said. McCall — who still looms over Oregon’s political his- tory, his offi cial portrait hang- ing in the lobby of the House chamber — led the charge on Oregon’s bottle deposit bill, which aimed to cut down on litter, and a law making all of Oregon’s beaches public. Legislators from differ- ent areas of the state have achieved compromise in recent years as well. Two years ago, rural and urban legislators came together to raise about $5 billion for transportation projects. When asked if taking on industrial emission lev- els through executive order would further alienate her from rural Oregonians who feel she is already abus- ing authority, Brown did not directly answer the question. Rather, she pointed to rural projects she champi- oned, like the Wallowa Lake dam, and said she remains committed to listening to rural communities. More decision-makers — particularly in the wake of the 2016 election, which brought the notion of a national urban-rural divide to dinner tables across the country — recognize the gap. Findley said he thinks urban legislators understand that. “I’ve found most of the colleagues that I deal with realize that, and recognize that, and you can talk to ’em about that. Now, does that mean they’re going to change their policies appropriately? No. Does that mean they will help you carve out rural stuff? No.” Findley said. “But I don’t think the urban-ru- ral divide is as bad as it’s portrayed.” The Oregon Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter. Android.) 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