Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
EO MEDIA GROUP
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MIKE FORRESTER
STEVE FORRESTER
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
Astoria
President
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
CORY BOLLINGER
JEFF ROGERS
Aberdeen, S.D.
Director
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
State shouldn’t spend millions
to expand Madras prison
The state of Oregon has plenty of
uses for $9.5 million. But expanding
the Deer Ridge prison in Madras
should not be one of them.
The Department of Corrections
plan, revealed recently by the EO
Media Group, runs counter to the
strides being made locally and
nationally to reduce the prison
population. Such strides have
reduced taxpayer costs, while not
restricting freedom to a segment of
the population that could safely be
part of society.
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the money to expand and staff the
Madras prison, they may have to
take $9.5 million from funding that
was designed to keep offenders from
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that causes a long term problem.
Less spending on keeping people out
of prison means we have to spend
more once they get there. Before you
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we will be building bricks and bars
somewhere else.
This DOC decision was
necessitated because of a 2013
law pushed by then-governor John
Kitzhaber to reduce the number of
people imprisoned in Oregon. One
solution that doesn’t include a $9.5
million outlay and another growing
prison: Let’s be more successful at
reducing those numbers. DOC and
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comb. Nationally, Barack Obama
has worked to release prisoners
locked up for certain drug crimes.
Although that is fewer than 1 percent
of prisoners, it’s a start.
Safety of law-abiding citizens
is paramount. But this country and
this state can do more to reduce
taxpayers costs, treat troubled
citizens and still keep us as safe as
possible.
Dale Primmer, Umatilla County
community corrections director,
is trying to do that. He said he is
concerned the funding cut will gut
a county program before it has a
chance to show results.
Umatilla County applied for
a $914,251 justice reinvestment
grant, which it plans to use in part
to establish a program that connects
offenders with treatment centers
before they are released from jail.
The shorter the time between jail and
treatment the more likely it is that
offenders will complete diversion
programs and avoid recidivism,
Primmer said.
The fear is that the counties
will start new programs this year,
then lose funding in 2016 because
the state needs to expand Deer
Ridge, Primmer said. That kind of
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counties to plan, because they craft
their budgets far in advance, he said.
“Let’s not lock up the people
we are mad at, let’s lock up the
people who are a danger to us going
forward,” Fordham law professor
John Pfaff said this week on The
Gist podcast, arguing for new
thought on what prison is for. Pfaff
believes district attorneys have more
power over the prison population
than police chiefs or legislators.
In northeast Oregon, we know
prisons are an important part of
the economy and culture. Eastern
Oregon and Two Rivers correctional
institutions in Pendleton and
Umatilla, respectively, are indelible
parts of those communities.
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the status quo, nor should we be
interested in expanding it. The
Deer Ridge prison is currently a
minimum-security operation. On the
other side are 200 unused beds in a
medium-security setting.
Considering what it would cost
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empty. Instead, we should fund
programs that make prison less
necessary.
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
What would wage hike mean
for Oregon income inequality?
The Oregonian
Who knows who will be on the
ballot for 2016 elections? Will Gov.
Kate Brown have a serious opponent?
Will anyone step up to run against
Ted Wheeler for Portland mayor now
that incumbent Charlie Hales has said
he won’t seek re-election? And will
Republicans choose an outsider or
establishment candidate for president?
It’s much easier to predict the issues
that will dominate the campaigns, and
income inequality sits near the top.
In Oregon, the gap between haves
and have-nots also is likely to drive
initiative campaigns, including a ballot
measure seeking to increase business
taxes and a possible vote on increasing
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doesn’t tackle the issue next year. So,
just how much do the top 1 percent
earn in Oregon, and how much do they
pay in taxes? How unequal is Oregon
compared with other states? The answers
to those questions aren’t easy, in part
because there’s more than one way to
measure inequality. But this much is
clear: The conversation is different here
than in many states.
The simplest way to look at
inequality is to compare the money
earned by the highest-income
households with the earnings of the
lowest-income households. According to
2013 data from the Oregon Department
of Revenue, the top 1 percent of tax
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earned $350,000 or more. The cutoff for
the top 5 percent was 160,000, and it
took $84,000 to make the top 20 percent.
In contrast, the bottom 20 percent of tax
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percent paid 67.6 percent of the personal
income taxes collected, with top 1
percent paying 19.2 percent.
Another way to measure inequality is
to compare the top 1 percent to everyone
else. Using this gap, Oregon has one of
the smallest gaps in the nation, according
to the Economic Policy Institute. The top
1 percent in Oregon averaged $810,196
in income, or 20 times more than the
average of $40,314 for everyone else.
The two methods for reducing
inequality that currently are at the
forefront of political discourse are
raising taxes on high earners and raising
the minimum wage for low-income
workers. Oregon has less to gain from
those approaches than many states
because we already tax high income
more aggressively and pay entry-level
workers more than most states. Most
economists agree that at some point
raising taxes and the minimum wage
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there is little agreement on exactly
where that level is. Since Oregon starts
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work with before reaching the ceiling.
At one end of the spectrum, the
bottom 20 percent of Portland workers
earn 10 to 30 percent more than low
earners nationwide. That’s at least in part
because of the state’s $9.25 minimum
hourly wage, which is second-highest in
the nation. Those numbers could begin
to shift as cities such as Seattle and Los
Angeles raise their minimums to $15.
None of this changes the reality that
low-income households are struggling
in Oregon, but it does suggest that
changing tax rates and the minimum
wage likely won’t be enough to reduce
the suffering.
OTHER VIEWS
Great news! We’re not doomed
I
t really matters who the next
hit. Second, the reduction in health
president is. But there are other
care cost growth seems to be global.
things that matter just as much to
Health cost growth has slowed in just
the nation’s future prosperity. One of
about every high-income country
them is: What is happening to health
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care costs?
passed from place to place.
If health care costs start to rise
Members of the Obama
again the way they did before, then
administration like to argue that
health care spending will swallow the
Obamacare has pushed things along.
David
economy and bankrupt the federal
Brooks For example, the Affordable Care Act
government. If they are contained,
pushed providers into Accountable
Comment
then suddenly there’s a lot more
Care Organizations. Instead of
money for everything else, like
getting paid for doing more tests and
schools, antipoverty efforts and wages.
procedures, providers have a greater incentive
The good news is that recently health care
to just keep people healthy.
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The law also encouraged bundling. If
Furman, the chairman of President Obama’s
you go in to get a hip replacement, the
Council of Economic Advisers, put it in a
government makes a single payment for all
speech to the Hamilton
services associated with
Project last month, “Health
that episode of care. The
care prices have grown at
law also penalizes hospitals
an annual rate of 1.6 percent
when patients have to
since the Affordable Care
be readmitted. There’s
Act was enacted in March
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2010, the slowest rate
readmissions.
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There’s still a lot of
decades, and those prices
uncertainty about which
have grown at an even
side of the debate is right.
slower 1.1 percent rate over
The most recent numbers
the 12 months ending in
have indicated a scary surge
August 2015.”
in health care prices, and
As a result of the
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slowdown in health care
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2016. While parts of the
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law reduce spending, other
reducing its projections of
parts may lead to more
the future cost of federal health programs
spending, especially as the industry gets more
like Medicare. As of October, projections for
concentrated.
federal health care spending in the year 2020
And yet the weight of the evidence
were $175 billion lower than the projections
suggests that part of the change is permanent.
made in August 2010. That would be a huge
Moving away from the bad old fee-for-
budget improvement.
service system has got to be a good thing.
The big question is whether these trends
The greater pressures providers feel to reduce
will continue. Many people believe that
costs have got to be a good thing, at least
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temporary reasons and that over the long run
Last March, Jonathan Rauch wrote a report
we’re still doomed.
for the Brookings Institution, arguing that the
One group in this camp emphasizes that
health care market is more open to normal
the economy went into the tank, so of course
business model innovation than ever before.
people went to the doctor less often. As
The quality of health care data and analytics is
history demonstrates, it can take up to six
improving exponentially. Pressures to reduce
years for a recession’s impact to work its way FRVWVDUHUDWFKHWLQJXS3UR¿WDEOHQLFKHVDUH
through the system; then health care costs
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shoot up just as before.
In the past, most innovation involved
Another group emphasizes that health care improving quality of care at high cost. Rauch
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described many entrepreneurs who are
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providing innovations that maintain current
normal, health care costs will shoot upward.
quality of care but at lower cost.
A third group argues that we’ve recently
We seem to be making at least some
had a decline in technological innovation.
incremental progress toward a structural
Not many useful but costly new drugs or
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machines have come on the market over the
Americans are feeling gloomy about
past few years, but if innovation resumes then accomplishing anything these days, but
so will rising costs.
progress is possible. We haven’t whipped
But other experts say the reduction in
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intractable budget issues. But the evidence
therefore more longstanding. Some point out
suggests we’re landing a few serious blows.
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downward in 2003 or 2004, during George W.
David Brooks became a New York Times
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Some experts
say the
reduction in
health care
inflation is partly
structural and
therefore more
longstanding.
YOUR VIEWS
City council against marijuana
to get back at gas tax voters
Stop the presses! Council distraught
over gas tax failure. Prices surge anyway.
Southwest Perkins residents contemplate
moving homes to 300 block Southwest
Second Street in a move to get relief from
potholes. Council retaliates with nay vote on
pot.
Despite impassioned pleas from medical
marijuana users the Pendleton City Council
turned a deaf ear on medical marijuana, and
refused to let voters decide the issue.
Several council members were reported to
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to have noses reattached though this could not
be substantiated by any reliable source.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
The EO doesn’t know what
it’s talking about on EOTEC
The East Oregonian’s editorial boot
continually stubs its toe and misses the mark.
Last week it criticized the Hermiston City
Council for voting 8-0 to contribute $600,000
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Center. Yesterday they pillared the Pendleton
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roads. Today’s editorial criticized the Umatilla
County Commissioners for voting 2-0 to
match Hermiston’s $600,000 contribution to
EOTEC. The EO editorial board claims the
county commissioners asked no questions
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although yesterday’s EO article about the
meeting said four proponents explained the
matter to the board for almost an hour.
If the EO editorial board stepped down
from its ivory tower and attended meetings
related to EOTEC, or talked to someone
involved with it, they would understand why
these contributions were made, The EOTEC
process has been going on for six years,
with a county commissioner at almost every
EOTEC meeting. Two of the commissioners
have been involved in EOTEC for years and
they know the score and aggressively voted
for the measure. To my knowledge, not once
has an EO editor or publisher attended an
EOTEC meeting, a Hermiston City Council,
or Umatilla County Commissioner meeting
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to a single EOTEC board member about it.
The EO group sends its revolving reporters
WROLVWHQ²DQGUHSRUWEDFN7KHEO editorial
board never gets it right.
I have a solution to all the mistakes made
by the Hermiston City Council, Pendleton
City Council, Umatilla County Commissioner,
and EOTEC Board: Turn over governance
of these bodies to the EO publisher and
editors and let them run these governments.
Undoubtedly then all the correct decisions
would be made.
George Anderson, Hermiston