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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, September 4, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Tip of the hat A tip of the hat to Umatilla County Ior embracing technology as a means oI transparency. The commissioners meet every other Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the county courthouse in 3endleton, oIten Zith only county staII and East Oregonian reporter Phil Wright in attendance. It’s as convenient a time as any to handle public business, but diI¿cult to attend Ior anyone Zith a day job. So the county has committed to ¿lming and posting the video oI the meetings on the county Zebsite and <ouTube. This Zeek’s meeting, at a brisk 0 minutes, covers a report Irom the public health department, the denial oI request Ior support Irom antimarijuana advocacy group &lear $lliance, payment oI 0,000 to the Northeast Oregon Water $ssociation and a brieI rebuttal to an East Oregonian editorial about EOTEC, among other things. This video has been vieZed 5 times in about 24 hours, certainly not a viral sensation. %ut anyone interested in seeing the commissioners’ decision making process ¿rsthand noZ has a portal that doesn’t involve skipping Zork. Oh, and as a side note, a tip of the hat to the commissioners Ior deciding not to endorse advocacy groups. Even iI the three men are in agreement on a position, giving the county’s stamp oI approval to one Zould open a Zhole can oI Zorms. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS $ kick in the pants Ior the kicker tax? Certainly not out oI design. Since 1987, the state has had 5 percent, 7 Is Oregon so Àush that it can percent and 9 percent brackets. Even aIIord to reIund some 400 million to aIter nearly 0 years under this bracket taxpayers? system, the threshold Ior hitting the The ansZer, as any teacher Iacing an overcroZded classroom can tell you, is a 9 percent bracket has increased Irom 5,000 in taxable income to 2014’s resounding no. But the state announced 8,250 Ior a single ¿ler. this Zeek that it Zill apply an average TZo tax brackets Zere added credit oI 244 to Oregonians’ 2015 tax temporarily Ior Oregon’s top earners, as bills because actual incometax receipts a result oI Measure , Zhich imposed a Ior the biennium came in percent 10.8 percent rate and 11 percent rate Ior higher than Zhat state economists Iorecasted back in 201. That, according a threeyear period. $s oI tax year 2012, those above the 125,000250,000 to state laZ, is unacceptably high, level are noZ subject to a 9.9 percent triggering the socalled kicker to be rate. reIunded to taxpayers. While some may hail the progres The kicker is, oI course, based on sivity oI Measure , let’s be clear It the unrealistic assumption that the state Zas a temporary vehicle to capture more can project incometax revenue tZo money Irom the Zealthiest Oregonians years into the Iuture Zith nearscienti¿c rather than a genuine eIIort to reIorm precision. But the really surprising Oregon’s badly structured tax system. part oI all this? The kicker isn’t even There’s no easy the most ridiculous ¿x. Widening the tax aspect oI Oregon’s Families in poverty brackets at the loZer tax system. Take, Ior who just clear the rates to include more instance, Oregon’s ¿lers personal incometax income threshold are loZincome Zould result in a loss brackets. The personal paying the same tax oI several hundred in revenue, income tax is Oregon’s rate as high-income million depending on hoZ largest source oI revenue, providing families at the upper it’s structured, said Chris $llanach, senior about percent oI end of the range economist Zith the the 2012015 general /egislative 5evenue Iund, according to OI¿ce. That’s because, as noted above, the state revenue department’s tax year more oI the income paid by Zealthier 201 report, the most recent summary taxpayers Zould be taxed at the loZer available. Oregonians oZed a total oI rates as Zell. The state Zould need to 5.9 billion to the state that year. make up that lost revenue in some other Not surprisingly, a person’s top tax rate Zill depend on the amount oI his or Zay. HoZ? $ sales tax? $ higher tax her taxable income — a person’s Iederal rate on top earners? “It’s an easy thing Ior people to agree adjusted gross income modi¿ed Ior that there needs to be reIorm,” $llanach Oregonspeci¿c additions, subtractions said. The problem, he said, is “Zhat and deductions. For the 201 tax year, does that mean?” a single ¿ler’s ¿rst ,250 oI income While the kicker and the sZeeping 9 is taxed at a 5 percent rate income percent tax bracket are clear examples betZeen ,251 and ,150 is taxed at oI ÀaZs in Oregon’s tax system, they’re a percent rate and anything betZeen not the only ones. Most other states ,150 and 125,000 is taxed at a 9 percent rate. The ranges are doubled Ior have a sales tax, Zhich helps smooth out the volatility oI a personal income joint ¿lers. tax. The topic, verboten in Oregon, Nearly 0 percent oI Oregon tax must be part oI the conversation. $nd returns Iall into that 9 percent bracket. The absurdity oI such a Zide range in the property tax system carries its oZn host oI problems and inequities. Fixing the 9 percent bracket is pretty obvious the 9 percent bracket Zithout tackling Families in poverty Zho just clear the the bigger issues is like “replacing the income threshold are paying the same radiator on a heap oI junk,” said Sen. tax rate as highincome Iamilies at the Mark Hass, 'Beaverton, Zho has upper end oI the range. While various pushed Ior comprehensive tax reIorm. tax credits Zill help bring doZn the He helped secure legislative approval actual tax bill, loZincome Oregonians oI a study to examine property tax still Iace a rate that is one oI the highest restructuring, among other things, Zhich in the country. he hopes Zill help move the debate. So hoZ did Oregon, a state that These Zill not be comIortable prides itselI on its progressiveness, conversations, but it’s long past time Ior enact a tax bracket that, Ior much oI the others to jump in. population, operates almost like a Àat The Oregonian, Aug. 29 LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS Payday Ior ice bucket challenge’s mocked slacktivists W The ice bucket challenge Zent viral hen $mericans Zere giddily in 2014, partly because it Zas so much drenching themselves Zith ice Iun to Zatch videos oI celebrities or Zater during the “ice bucket Iriends dumping ice Zater on their challenge” a year ago, the cognoscenti heads. 9ideos oI people in the challenge rolled their eyes. have been Zatched more than 10 billion The aim oI the ice bucket challenge times on Facebook — more than once Zas to raise money to combat $/S, per person on the planet. I Zas one oI also knoZn as /ou Gehrig’s disease, a neurodegenerative ailment that aIIects Nicholas the 1 million Zho uploaded a video oI some 15,000 $mericans and usually Kristof my drenching to Facebook. The $/S $ssociation says the ice leads to death Zithin ¿ve years. %ut Comment bucket challenge raised 115 million in commentators scoIIed One on Time. six Zeeks, and many participants have com declared it “problematic in almost become repeat donors. Google also reports every Zay.” Critics sniped that the challenge Zasted Zater and cannibali]ed contributions to there Zere more searches Ior “$/S” in 2014 better causes that aIIect more people. than in the entire previous decade. The ice bucket challenge Zas taken as The research at -ohns Hopkins on T'P4 emblematic oI “slacktivism,” the derisive term Zas already underZay, but Wong says ice Ior cheap Zays to Ieel good Zithout doing bucket money helped accelerate the Zork and anything meaningIul. Critics point to Internet alloZed the team to conduct some highrisk, campaigns, the Stop highreZard experiments Kony movement and the Scientists studying ALS that Zere critical to the ice bucket challenge as outcome. have reported a break- merely symbolic Zays “The Iunding Ior young narcissists to certainly the through that could lead to results Ze Iacilitated preen Zithout actually obtained,” he achieving any change. therapy, not just for ALS told me. %ut noZ Ze have It’s true that but for other ailments, too. slacktivism doesn’t evidence that the ice bucket challenge may Zork. The online And they say the money alZays have Zorked. campaign to “bring back raised in the ice bucket our girls” — the Nigerian Scientists studying $/S have reported a kidnapped by challenge was crucial. schoolgirls breakthrough that could Boko Haram last year — lead to therapy, not raised attention, but the just Ior $/S but Ior other ailments, too. $nd girls are still missing. they say the money raised in the ice bucket /ikeZise, -oseph Kony, the Zarlord, is still challenge Zas crucial. on the run despite the Stop Kony movement. The breakthrough, published in Science, But the 8nited States and $Irican countries Zas summari]ed thus “T'P4 repression oI directed more resources against Kony, and this nonconserved cryptic exons is compromised in has had a very signi¿cant eIIect Killings by his $/SFT'.” group are doZn 90 percent since 2011. Got it? So think oI armchair activism as a Here’s a translation The research Iocused gateZay drug. It exposes people to causes on a protein called T'P4 that in some and sometimes gets them hooked. $nd Zhile circumstances is linked to cell death in the it doesn’t alZays solve problems, it tends to brain or spinal cord oI patients. The scientists build aZareness oI crises — a necessary but not Iound that inserting a customdesigned protein suI¿cient step to getting them resolved. alloZed cells to return to normal. In any case, armchair activism is preIerable “That becomes our therapeutic strategy,” to armchair passivity. said Philip Wong, a proIessor at -ohns Hopkins With the ice bucket challenge, there’s little 8niversity Zhose lab conducted the research. evidence oI cannibali]ation that hurt other He said the research team Zas noZ testing gene causes, and it seems to have been revolutionary therapy strategies in mice to see iI these can Ior this one. halt $/S symptoms. “$cross the $/S community, Ze are II it Zorks in mice, the IolloZing step Zould probably in our highest time oI hope,” said be to seek to conduct a clinical trial in humans, Barbara NeZhouse, president oI the $/S he said. $ssociation. The researchers are also hoping the therapy So iI you endured an ice dunking a year Zill Zork Ior a common cause oI mental ago — or iI you’re participating in the 2015 deterioration, Irontotemporal dementia, and Ior ice bucket challenge, noZ underZay — there’s inclusion body myositis, a progressive disease no need to apologi]e Ior having Iun. 5ather that leads to muscle Zeakness. Thank you! -onathan /ing, a -ohns Hopkins scientist Enough Zith the eyerolling. /ong live Zho Zas the lead author oI the Science slacktivism! article, said the neZ Zork might also lead Ŷ to a diagnostic test though probably not a Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and treatment Ior $l]heimer’s. /ing said the cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon. Kristof, a research team Zas also Zorking Zith experts on columnist for The New York Times since 2001, cancer and immunology to see iI other proteins writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week. might perIorm similar roles as T'P4, He won the Pulitzer Prize two times, in 1990 possibly leading to Iar broader implications. and 2006. YOUR VIEWS Don’t abandon the elderly “Were they really here?” The thought echoes around and back in Grandma’s mind. These thoughts come, as she tries to process that she actually did have a visitor. +er ¿rst in 10 days. $nd she is one oI the lucky IeZ. Hers are days spent alone, in the 12 x 12 room that has been her Zorld since her Iamily “parked” her here. She is lonely, desperately lonely. With her “history” here, hoZ can this be? Here, in Zhat she knoZs is her hometoZn Zhere she has groZn kids and halIgroZn grandkids. Her toZn, Zhere her civic volunteering stints numbered not in days or years, but decades. Her home, Zhere she joyously belonged to so many clubs. Where her church membership at the same house oI Zorship Zas unbroken Ior decades. <es, here, despite local Iamily, Iriendships oI years and a church “Iamily,” she is leIt to be lonely. 9isitors are so IeZ that this visit has leIt her questioning her memory, her mind, her sanity. $nd yet she is one oI the lucky ones she had a visitor. $s our parents and grandparents age, Ze have all too available µassisted living,” “nursing” and “residential care” Iacilities Zhere Grandma can be Zarehoused Iemale pronouns are used because elderly populations are overZhelming Iemale. Families, all too oIten, seem to think She has three meals a day, a rooI over her head, someone to dispense medications. What more can she need? Thus the Iamily can go about their business Zith IeZ Zorries. ,t is true that the vast majority oI our elderly are unable to travel even short distances. Mobility and vision hurdles create Iurther diI¿culties. Most are even denied the ability to use a phone by hearing issues. So visitors have to come to them, rather than visits being tZoZay streets. Still, overZhelmingly, they don’t come. In personal observations and querying staII at local elderly care homes, the number oI residents Zho never receive a visit Irom anyone is appalling. Fully halI oI the residents have no visitations at all. Not on holidays, Zeekends or birthdays. $nother 0 percent receive short visits on holidays, but only then. This means that nearly 0 percent oI people consigned to elder care have at most one or tZo visits a year. /eaving days oI isolation and loneliness. Golden $ge? One Zonders. <et still one hears the echoes oI Grandma’s thoughts “Was someone here? Or did I imagine it?” Tom Marks Hermiston
