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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, October 30, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to the city of Pendleton for their “Coffee with the
City” program.
It kicked off earlier this month at Buckin’ Bean and will migrate south to
McDonald’s on Nov. 5.
Certainly, the feedback might not be all blue skies and rainbows. But we
think it is important for the city to listen to
concerns. In addition, we also think staff and
councilors should relish the opportunity to
explain face-to-face how the city works, why
it decides to take certain action, and its vision
for Pendleton’s future.
Not everyone can be a regular attendee of
city council meetings. And unfortunately, not
everyone is a subscriber to this newspaper.
There are a lot of people out there whose
knowledge of local issues comes only via
social media and powered by the rumor mill.
And the rest of us know how light on facts those tidbits can be.
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with constituents. We’re a small community and simple steps like a cup
of coffee in a casual environment can go a long way to building trust and
common ground.
In addition, we extend our hat tip even lower to councilor Al Plute, who
has gone above and beyond his fellow members in helping explain the
budget and the gas tax in a series of op-eds in this newspaper. Clearly, it
takes a lot of hard work to try to make people comfortable with a new tax,
and Plute has shouldered most of that burden himself.
A tip of the hat to the Hermiston city council for being forthright and
honest about the struggles of the EOTEC project at a council meeting
earlier this week.
For too long, the EOTEC board has
pretended everything was hunky-dory. But
fundraising quickly fell behind schedule —
then construction fell behind schedule — and
the community clearly began to lose faith in
the project.
The best way to get people back pulling
in the same direction was to be honest about
mistakes and missed opportunities. Then
come out with a clear plan and a promise to
do better going forward.
It’s entirely possible that spending $600,000 to get EOTEC built is a good
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won’t be so eager to give. Either way, we hope EOTEC and the city — now
that the have a seat at the board — keep in better communication with the
public about this vitally important civic endeavor.
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
The rural/urban divide
The Oregonian
W
hat does Multnomah County
have in common with
Josephine County, aside
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can be found in a report presented to
Multnomah County’s commissioners
last week. It’s a review of so-called
tax expenditures, and it also reinforces
how little Oregon’s most urban county
has in common with many of its most
rural. For these reasons, and because the
state’s urban-rural divide will be a topic
of conversation at a county commission
meeting next month, the report deserves
a few words.
Produced by the county auditor’s
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dollars in taxes the county does not
collect every year as a result of various
exemptions. These uncollected sums
could pay for a lot of things if the county
could grab them. But, as county Chair
Deborah Kafoury notes in a letter of
acknowledgement, many expenditures
are outside of the county’s control.
That’s the case for the bulk of
property tax exemptions, which in tax
year 2014 deprived the county and
library district of about $80 million.
While some county residents might
envision hordes of crafty property
owners, or a few big businesses,
taking aggressive advantage of various
loopholes, reality is much more
mundane. Government entities generally
don’t pay taxes on their property for
reasons outside of the county’s control,
and they dominate the non-payer list.
At the very top, accounting for about
$11 million in foregone revenue, is the
federal government.
Uncle Sam’s property tax exemption
is well known in counties like Josephine,
where the federal government owns
about half the land area. To mitigate
the sting, the federal government does
send payments in lieu of taxes, which
amounted to about $16 million for the
entire state in 2015, according to the
Association of Oregon Counties.
But here’s where urban and rural
counties begin to diverge. The federal
government’s properties in Multnomah
County differ in important ways from its
holdings in the state’s heavily timbered,
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federal properties in Multnomah, in
descending order of foregone revenue:
the Bonneville Dam and associated
facilities; the Veterans Administration
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Salmon in downtown Portland; the
federal buildings by the Lloyd Center;
and the federal courthouse downtown.
Rural counties aren’t completely
devoid of federal facilities, of course.
But a crucial difference between the
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the vast expanses of federal forests that
dominate many rural counties is that
the former function as employment and
service centers. They’re populated by
people who make good money (and pay
taxes on it) and they contribute to the
region’s economic vitality despite their
property tax exemption. Federal forests
in rural counties were once engines of
economic vitality, too, but logging has
been virtually idled by environmental
legislation and litigation. Congress has
provided money to soften the blow, but
funding levels are steadily decreasing
and not intended to be permanent.
For Multnomah County to
approximate the economic shock from
which the state’s timber counties have
yet to recover, Portland would need
a whole lot more federal buildings;
they would sit idle, unstaffed and
unproductive; and every once in a while
they’d burn, threatening buildings
around them and bathing tourists with
smoke and ash.
That isn’t to suggest that all
environmental regulation and litigation
should be looked upon with suspicion
or, for that matter, that residents of rural
counties are themselves blameless for
local dysfunction. Property tax rates in
some of the counties hit most heavily
by the collapse of the timber industry
are, for historic reasons, shockingly low,
and voters in some areas consistently
refuse to raise them even to pay for
basic government services. Still, you can
understand their reluctance to raise taxes
given their inability to produce jobs
and revenue on their slice of the federal
government’s Oregon property pie.
One meeting among county
commissioners isn’t going to close the
state’s urban-rural divide and it isn’t
suddenly going to boost timber harvests
on federal land. But listening matters.
We are part of the same state and we
have a lot at stake here.
OTHER VIEWS
Benghazi came up short in
showdown with Hillary Clinton
T
here’s a reason Benghazi
Instead, after Gowdy made a similar
Committee chairman Rep. Trey
point about Blumenthal’s access, the
Gowdy offered Hillary Clinton
ranking Democrat on the committee,
the chance to testify in a private, closed
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland,
hearing. And there’s a reason Clinton
jumped in.
chose to appear in an open setting, with
“I move that we put into the
the whole world watching.
record the entire transcript of Sidney
The Benghazi Committee has made
Blumenthal,” Cummings said. “We’re
incremental advances in the public’s
going to release the emails; let’s do
Byron
knowledge of the circumstances of
the transcript. That way the world can
York
the death of four Americans in Libya
see it.”
Comment
on Sept. 11, 2012. But incremental
Another Democrat chimed in: “I
advances — nuggets of information —
second that motion.”
don’t make for dramatic hearings.
“Well, we didn’t — we didn’t...” Gowdy
In addition, public hearings can become
stammered.
sidetracked, for everyone to see. If one side
“The motion has been seconded,” said
GHFLGHVWRSLWFKD¿WDQGELFNHULQJHQVXHVWKDW Cummings.
is what millions of viewers experience. If the
“Well, we’re not going to take that up at a
questions go off on a tangent, viewers see that, hearing,” said Gowdy.
too. In any event, the purpose of the hearing
Of course the transcript wasn’t the point. It
goes by the wayside.
was all a distraction. The point was to throw
And that is what took place more than
the proceedings off track, which Cummings
once last week in Clinton’s much-watched
accomplished quite nicely.
Benghazi testimony.
Republicans were
Republicans presented
capable of throwing
some new information. One
themselves off track, too,
leading Democrat had a
which is what they did
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with a near-obsession with
with Gowdy. And some
Blumenthal. His name was
Republicans got tangled
mentioned 60 times —
up in side issues that didn’t
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tell the public much about
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the core issues at stake in
Blumenthal, notorious for
Benghazi. The result was a
his role as a Clinton acolyte
marathon hearing that didn’t
during the scandals of Bill
accomplish much.
Clinton’s administration, is
At this point, there is
a provocateur and master of
really only one angle on
misdirection. He’s probably
Benghazi: Americans were
happy to be the villain of
in danger in a very dangerous country, security the day, to the extent that it ensures Hillary
was deteriorating, and the State Department
Clinton will not be the villain of the day. But
and secretary of state did little, and in some
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cases nothing, to protect them.
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As 2012 unfolded, Ambassador Chris
about the talking points that the administration
Stevens and others in Libya repeatedly told the used after the attack. Clinton, President
State Department that threats were increasing. 2EDPDDQGRWKHUDGPLQLVWUDWLRQRI¿FLDOV
Clinton has said many times that she did not
called the attack a spontaneous reaction to
receive those messages from Stevens, that the
an anti-Muslim Internet video, when in fact
ambassador followed protocol and sent them
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to another part of the State Department. But
planned terrorist assault.
Republicans made the valid point that Clinton
The committee uncovered evidence that
friend Sidney Blumenthal had quick, direct
on the evening of the attack, Clinton sent an
access to her — he knew her secret email
email to daughter Chelsea explaining that the
address — while Stevens had to jump up
Americans had been killed by “an al-Qaida-
and down waving his hands trying to get his
like group.” And the day after the attack,
security needs met.
Clinton told the Egyptian prime minister, “We
“Can you tell us why security requests
know that the attack in Libya had nothing to
from your professionals ... none of those
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made it to you,” Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan.,
The documents were still more evidence
asked Clinton. “But a man who was a friend
that the blame-it-on-the-video story was lies
of yours, who had never been to Libya, didn’t
and spin. But the public has known for a while
know much about it ... every one of those
that it was lies and spin. It seems unlikely to
reports that he sent on to you that had to do
strike many Americans as very big news.
with situations on the ground in Libya —
So a hearing billed as an epic, High Noon-
WKRVHPDGHLWWR\RXUGHVN"´
style confrontation — granted, the hype came
Pompeo and other Republicans cited
from the media, not Republican committee
multiple requests for security, many of them
members themselves — instead turned out
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to be a somewhat interesting look at a few
have been instructive to go through a list of
limited aspects of the Benghazi affair. In other
those requests, one by one. Did Clinton see
words, no big deal. And that is very, very good
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news for Hillary Clinton.
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It might have been damaging; Clinton had
Byron York is chief political correspondent
a responsibility to protect those Americans.
for The Washington Examiner.
There is really
only one angle
on Benghazi:
Americans were
in danger in a
very dangerous
country.
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. Send letters to 211
S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.