>3 U i
Black Studies
cut again
Black children
scrooged again j
1983
ALL AMERICA
FOOTBALL TEAM
Page 10
Page 3
PORTWND OBSERMER
UCPS 95 9-6 M M 5Í
Volume XIV, Number 8
December 14, 1983
25C Per Copy
C £»» P o b ta tiiil C o . I " t 19»)
Educators oppose sales tax
The Oregon Education Associa
tion, Oregon’s largest teacher o r
ganization, has announced that it
will oppose the sales tax proposal
now headed for the Oregon ballot.
Sandy Ellis. O E A president, ex
plained that the proposal "would
not meet O E A ’s goal to provide
adequate and ongoing funding for
the education of Oregon's children,
and. at the same time, provide prop
erty tax relief for citizens who sup
port and pay for that education.”
Four major reasons were cited for
O E A 's opposition to the l egislative
Smiling Chinny Reney. 4 years old. tell« her wishes to Sente Cleus
(Senator Bill McCoy) at the St. Vincent De Paul Child Davelopment
Cent#r
(Photo: Richard J. Brownl
measure:
•T h e sales lax proposal does not
meet O E A 's school finance and
property tax relief goal.
•Com bined with existing lim ita
tions, the sales tax proposal would
make school funding even more d if
ficult. It would complicate— not
simplify— the school finance and
budgeting process;*and it would
mean more— not fewer—elections
for school budgets.
•T h e sales tax measure would not
stop or deter passage of a ivy per
cent property tax lim itation because
voters would be likely to want to as
sure retention o f low property tax
rates if they voted to approve an
$800 million revenue measure.
• Passage o f the sales tax measure
would foreclose the option of using
a sales tax to finance schools if a
property tax lim itation also passed.
Ellis warned that the combination
of existing limitations plus the sales
tax proposal and a property tax
limitation would "deal Oregon edu
cation a knock-out blow ”
The sales tax package to be re
ferred to the voters contains four
components: provision for a sales
tax; an expenditure limitation; a rat
ification process; a ban on taxing
Social Security benefits. The sales
tax would become part o f the Con
stitution and could not be changed
without a vote o f the people.
Nearly all sales of goods and ser
vices would be taxed except: food
for home consumption; prescription
drugs; hospitals and medical ser
vices; plants, feed, seed, fertilizer,
pesticides, livestock and teed for
animals; physical ingredients in
manufactured products; utilities;
sales or leases of real property.
This bill repeals the "3 0 percent”
property tax relief program The
sales (ax would be dedicated to
property tax relief. Families with
annual incomes o f under $17,500
would receive up to $40 per year per
dependent to offset the sales tax.
The estimated net revenue to be
gained is $629 million.
The expenditure lim itation sets
limits on state and local govern
ments, including school districts.
O E A Governmental Relations
Consultant John Danielson studied
the inpact o f the lim itation on
school districts and found that of
the 30 largest school districts, only
seven had proposed budgets that
would be inside the limitations. Had
the proposal been in effect Eugene
would have been forced to operati
on the same budget it had the pre
vious year; actually the voters ap
proved a $310,000 increase.
Salem would have lost $2.1 m il
lion; Portland Public Schools would
have had several million dollars less.
Districts that have experienced se
vere problems including closure,
like Bend, Prineville, Junction City
and Lincoln C ity, will have serious
problems if the measure passes.
Ellis said, " O u r education system
has already suffered budget cut
backs causing the level o f school
programs to drop significantly over
the past two years. I f the sales tax
measure passed, the best most dis
tricts could hope for would be to
maintain at current level, and that's
not an acceptable alternative for
many o f them Add to that t h e l 'i
percent lim itation measure, and well
. .. you get the picture "
Reagan advisor in Portland:
Recommends tax increase
by Chuck Goodmacher
President Reagan came under in
creasing pressure from his own eco
nomic advisors Monday as D r. H er
bert Stein joined the more contro
versial D r. Feldstein in calling for a
whopping $50 billion annual tax in
crease beginning next year.
Stein was in town as the keynote
speaker for the 21st annual “ Busi
ness and Economic O u tlo o k " con
ference co-sponsored by the Port
land Chamber o f Commerce and
Portland Stale University School of
Business Administration. In addi
tion to serving as advisor to Presi
dent Reagan (and former chair of
the Council o f Economic Advisors
to both Presidents Nixon and Ford)
Stein is a Senior Fellow at the con
servative American Enterprise Insti
tute, writes regularly for the Wall
Street Journal and Fortune maga
zine, and is a director o f Reynolds
Metals Company.
The $50 billion tax increase would
be raised by altering the income tax
on middle-class America, in Stein's
proposal. Stein wants to "h it the
consumption o f the average middle-
income American” rather than bus
iness or the wealthy since, "people
who are very rich are very few and
their tax contributions are not very
im p o rtan t," and there is "general
recognition that we do not want to
increase the taxes on business any
not, however, an obstacle to short
term economic recovery, according
to Stein. Rather, its major impact is
on the economy’s ability to increase
productivity and thereby sustain
long-term growth. And producti
vity, noted Stein, results from in
vestments in both research, develop
ment and new machinery. These in
vestments are restricted when the
government borrows much of the
available capital to finance the debt,
fu rth er."
Stein also made 4n attack on gov
ernment aid to the poor: “ W e’ re
spending a great deal o f money in
those programs for people who real
ly aren’t p o o r.. people who are by
and large middle-class." He told the
all-white crowd o f businesspeople
that we should tighten up these pro
grams (while still serving the few he
believes really are poor) as another
major step to reduce the federal
he added.
Exactly what is happening to pro
ductivity isn't clear now because the
employment figures used in calcu
lating it are subject to varying inter
pretations, said Stein. The two in
form ation bases used by the govern
ment show vastly different rates of
employment growth. He noted a
survey o f households on how many
people are working shows a much
larger rise in employment than a
survey o f employers taken at the
deficit.
The enormous federal deficit is
Guardian Angels Lou Valezquez. Kelly Gerlach
and Guardian Angel trainee H ow ard M iller talk
(Please turn to page 5, column I )
w ith residents of the Hum boldt and Piedm ont
neighborhoods The trio uses bicycles on patrol
(Photo Richard J. Brown)
Caribbean history, Grenada invasion reviewed by native
by Fobert Lothian
Trevor Purcell, assistant profaaaor of anthropology at Raed Col-
laga and a native of Jamaica, dlscuaaee the United State« Invasion
of Grenada Purcell eays that ha has an axa to grind - the axe of tha
liberation of hie people on tha grlndetona of truth and justice.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
As a cultural anthropologist, Tre
vor Purcell is concerned about the
cultural implications o f the U.S. in
vasion of Grenada. Purcell, 38, a
native o f Jamaica, is assistant pro
fessor of anthropology at Reed C o l
lege
specializing
in
Caribbean
studies.
“ The cultural tool is probably the
most powerful tool o f dom ination,”
said Purcell in a recent interview at
his house in Southeast Portland
"Developed countries know this,
and they use it to make people feel
culturally inferior."
Millions in economic develop
ment funds and Reagan-administra-
tion encouragement o f U.S. private
investment in Grenada foretells the
reforming of Grenadian culture and
institutions along U .S . lines, ac
cording to Purcell.
" I t ’s not simply a rescue, not sim
ply a restoration or o rd er," he said.
"There is no doubt in my mind that
Reagan is there to create an atmo
sphere sympathetic to free enter
prise."
Massive U .S. investment and the
establishment o f a top-heavy indus
_i
_ i economy «.in
>,,.n Grenada's
rcrM>f<a*<
trial
will turn
poor Black population into a cheap
labor force for U.S. companies, said
Purcell. Also, he said, the island will
be inundated by luxuries— "trans
port attraction” — that will disturb
the internal strength o f the people
and threaten their mental health.
Under U .S. occupation Grenada
appears headed for colonial oppres
sion once again, he said, with sus
pension o f civil rights, press censor
ship and U.S. Army psychological
warfare aimed at cowing the popu
lation. Already, members o f the in
terim government are quitting in
disgust. "A s more and more in fo r
mation comes to light, I think
people will start breaking aw ay,"
said Purcell. " I think a number of
prominent Grenadians will start
speaking u p ."
In the meantime, it is likely that,
if asked, island residents will tell
their new rulers what they want to
hear, he said. "D u a l conscious
ness,” where one face is shown to
the oppressor and a different one to
friends and comrades, is a survival
technique used by all oppressed
groups, including Blacks in the U.S..
according to Purcell. "Y o u don’t
o rk
and thi
that threatened the en
vnursclf." he said.
said
w w
o rk
." ." and
reveal yourself,"
tire rickety system o f neo-colonial
Purcell described Grenada before
ism in the Caribbean, said Purcell
the invasion as "a very small coun
Seen in relief against the simmer
try where people had been able to be
ing poverty o f the other former
satisfied " Maurice Bishop’s New
British colonies in the area, includ
Jewel government had pursued a de
ing Jamaica, Barbados and D o m in i
velopment scheme based on devel
ca, Grenada’s Caribbean socialism
oping and diversifying the island’ s
made the leaders o f those countries
resources, mainly cocoa, bananas
nervous, he said. Tom Adams of
and nutmeg A coffee processing
Barbados and Eugenia Charles of
plant, a juice plant, and a fish pro
Dominica offered verbal support
cessing plant had been set up under
and contributed troops to the invg
Bishop, said Purcell, and by 1982
sion.
the socialist government was invest
"T h ey're very, very scared," he
ing at the rate of $100 million per
said. "T h e fear is based on the rec
year in roads, schools and free
ognition o f poverty in those coun
medical clinics. That rate lar out
tries and that people are likely to re
stripped investment during British
volt because of th a t."
colonial times and under the post
What the U.S. is doing under the
colonial regime o f autocrat Eric
smokescreen of "restoring order"
Gairy from 1974 to M arch, 1979
and “ rescuing the mecical students"
(when the New Jewel revolution oc
is nothing new for the Caribbean
curred and Bishop came to power).
and Central America, said Purcell
"Bishop did make tremendous
“ The Caribbean, since the 15th
strides," said Purcell. As the first
century, has been used for the bene
English-speaking
Black
socialist
fit of outside forces, and the inva
country, Grenada under Bishop was
sion is just one more step in that
a shining example for poor Blacks in
the Caribbean
"People were
there is a way
lems outside
and the U .S ., he said.
beginning to see that
o f solving their prob
the capitalist frame
trend ."