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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, August 9, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Measure 97 bails out PERS Gov. Brown sides with unions over taxpayers and real reform The bill to provide outsized pensions to government workers in Oregon is coming due. A new report on the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) says that contributions to the fund will need to increase $885 million in the 2017-19 biennium. Such massive increases are projected for subsequent years as well. The increases are the result of providing public employees with pension beneits far beyond Oregon’s ability to pay. The campaign to raise taxes to continue this largess has begun. Gov. Kate Brown last week endorsed Measure 97, a $3 billion-a-year general sales tax increase disguised as a toll on large corporations. The governor said the tax is necessary to provide stable support for schools and other government services. If our governor were as transparent as she claims to be, she would admit the obvious: Measure 97 raises taxes to underwrite PERS. Gov. Brown’s smokescreen became apparent in April. She avoided mention of the PERS crisis in her State of the State address then later told a reporter: “There isn’t a path forward” to reform the retirement system. The reality is quite different. Oregon’s Supreme Court predictably struck down in 2015 bipartisan legislation that reduced beneits already earned by state employees. However, the justices made clear that future beneits could be changed. Among the available options: • Reduce the assumed rate of return on PERS investments. Currently, participants are guaranteed a 7.5 percent return. Returns should match market rates. • Require participants to contribute to PERS. That’s the case in most private-sector retirement plans. While public employees are required to contribute to a second beneits plan, that beneit is often paid by taxpayers via the employer. • Change the retirement age. The federal government adjusted the retirement age to protect Social Security. Oregon should do the same. The average state worker retires after 22 years of service and earns a PERS beneit equivalent to 56 percent of their inal average salary. Those who retire after 30 years received 81 percent of their inal average salary. Astonishingly, 7 percent of PERS retirees earn more in retirement beneits than they did while working. • Cap earning levels. Mike Bellotti receives $513,612 annually in retirement beneits as the former athletic director and football coach of the University of Oregon. There’s no logical reason state taxpayers should foot the bill for such gold- plated state workers in the future. These reforms would reduce the cost of PERS and ensure its long-term sustainability. They would also allow our schools and local governments to spend more to address real needs without raising taxes. Instead, Gov. Brown is doing the bidding of Oregon’s public employee unions, who are heavily inancing Measure 97. These same unions are pouring money into Brown’s election campaign and to those of legislative leaders. They, not school children, are the true beneiciaries of Measure 97. At a glance The average PERS beneiciary receives $27,881 each year. Social Security beneits add more. Public employees in Oregon earn richer retirement beneits and contribute far less than those in Washington and Idaho. The average full-career state gov- ernment employee in Oregon has a retirement beneit exceeding the earnings of 90 percent of full-time employees in the state. 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. Culture Corner Alexie tries writing for a younger crowd N oted Northwest writer Sherman Alexie has long been a local favorite. Born in Eastern Washington and based in Seattle, his works — whether novels or short stories or poetry — have strong ties to the Paciic Northwest. A Spokane/Couer d’Alene Indian, Alexie wrote the screenplay for the 1998 movie “Smoke Signals” and is the author of the widely- read young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which won the National Book Award. In interviews, Alexie has noted “Snowy Day” as the irst book that really spoke to him as a child. “On the cover was a dark boy in a red coat out in the snow,” Alexie told ALAN Review in 2008. “I instantly igured he was Indian, he wasn’t, but I thought he was. I connected to that main character almost instantly in a lot of ways.” Alexie wanted to provide that connection and spark to a new generation of readers. And he didn’t want to wait until they were teens. So he wrote “Thunder Boy Jr.,” which was released earlier this summer and is geared to beginning readers. It’s a picture book mostly, containing just a few dozen words. I gifted it to my new niece Cora. And while not yet at reading age, she was enthralled by the large colorful pages and the work of illustrator Yuyi Morales. Soon enough it may speak to her, and a life-long love of reading is something worth supporting. As are central characters of all different colors and creeds. — Tim Trainor is opinion page editor of the East Oregonian. 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. Hillary’s summer of love I and several Senate Republicans told t’s looking more and more like me how surprised and impressed they Donald Trump is the best thing that were by her work ethic, warmth and ever happened to Hillary Clinton. willingness to cooperate. He’s deinitely the strangest. For many months now, she has With his its of pique, spasms of been sending signals that a second ignorance and lashes of demagogy, Clinton administration would differ he has turned the GOP’s favorite from President Barack Obama’s in boogeywoman into its summer crush. I the earnestness and aggressiveness of haven’t seen a love story this unlikely Frank its bid for bipartisan cooperation. Her since “Harold and Maude.” Bruni pick of Sen. Tim Kaine as a running Dozens of prominent Republicans Comment mate it into that framework. He’s have come out and said that they’ll liked and respected by Republican vote for her or consider it, including, colleagues, a dynamic that Clinton surrogates just last week, the Silicon Valley titan Meg immediately stressed. Whitman, the Jeb Bush conidante Sally What hasn’t happened, though, is the Bradshaw, and Maria Comella, a former construction of a substantive, policy-based spokeswoman for two of Trump’s most bridge across the aisle. She moved leftward pugnacious promoters, Chris Christie and during the primaries to deal with Bernie Rudy Giuliani. You can expect that list to grow. The Sanders’ challenge, and many of her positions Clinton campaign clearly does. As Bloomberg are anathema even to those Republicans who Politics and The Washington Post reported prefer her to Trump. last week, Clinton’s aides have gone so far Does she change that over the next months as to set up something of a special operation or, if elected, upon taking ofice? Does she — a defection watch — to have to? There are some monitor news accounts fascinating forks in the and any other public hints road ahead — some big that a Republican leader decisions — all created is thinking of renouncing by the singular mess of Trump, so that someone on Trump’s candidacy and the Team Clinton can reach out possibility, suggested in the and ask him or her to take latest polls, including one the next step. The Times’ that showed her ahead in Jonathan Martin revealed Georgia, that he’ll lose the that Clinton herself called election by a devastating Whitman a month ago. margin. I envision a box of Many Democrats smell cigars en route to Colin a rout, hope that a slew of Powell, long-stemmed Republicans go down with roses for Condoleezza Rice, Trump, and fantasize about a brand-new smartphone a subsequent Democratic for Sen. Lindsey Graham. dominance in Washington Hallmark should consider that will allow the party to a line of come-to-Clinton enact laws without much cards, with a donkey and if any Republican input an elephant gazing into and assistance. After all the each other’s eyes against Republican obstructionism the setting sun of Trump’s that they’ve put up orange head. with, they ache for such The breadth of GOP liberation. affection for Clinton But such a rout would shouldn’t be overstated. presumably require Clinton The grudging nature of to campaign stridently it can’t be overlooked. If against endangered House Trump stormed off and a and Senate Republicans more appetizing Republican between now and Nov. 8, was put on the menu, these an approach at odds with Clinton converts would most likely revert to her current entreaties to the Whitmans of the their usual diet. And there’s a real limit to the world. number of Republicans who will publicly It would also be a huge, risky bet on embrace her. sustained Republican disarray and a durable But many, many more Republicans Democratic advantage, without which are privately rooting for her. By making Republican revenge would be swift and clear that they won’t vote for Trump, they merciless. Obama deied Republicans during intend to throw the election her way. After the irst two years of his presidency, only to be decades of demonizing her and all those tormented by them for the remainder of it. Benghazi hearings, a noteworthy contingent That’s why I’m hoping that Clinton takes a of Republicans are giving her a degree of different, big-tent tack, and combines passion active and passive help that less polarizing projects with attention to areas of common Democratic presidential nominees never Democratic and Republican interest: tax received. She’s gone from Republican voodoo reform, immigration reform, maybe even doll to Post-Partisan Barbie. education reform. To appreciate the surprise of this, lash back Yes, a big Democratic victory in November on four words: “vast right-wing conspiracy.” would give Democrats both the right and That’s what Clinton labeled the political the imperative to implement their most enemies who exposed her husband’s sexual deeply cherished ideas. But it would relect involvement with Monica Lewinsky and who the unpopularity of Trump as much as any pressed, successfully, for his impeachment. sweeping, compelling mandate for a particular The phrase was larger than that ugly chapter. program. It traced the magnitude of suspicion and And we’ve seen, in recent years, what animosity that the Clintons felt toward many sharply drawn lines and perpetual warfare Republicans, and vice versa. between the parties bequeath: legislative And remember that toward the end of paralysis, debased discourse and the precise her husband’s administration, she provoked public disgust with politics and politicians that the fury of pro-Israel Republicans with a has given rise to Trump. Here we are, stuck public kiss of the Palestinian leader Yasser and miserable. Arafat’s wife, Suha. Now many of those Clinton’s summer of love isn’t merely a same Republicans are the ones most disposed stunning narrative twist. It’s an opportunity, toward her and opposed to Trump, whose in the nick of time. Despite our supposedly geopolitical naiveté and isolationist talk worry intractable partisanship, a swelling group of them more than anything in her past. highly visible leaders is putting country before Clinton isn’t unschooled in appeasing the indiscriminate allegiance to their party. That’s other side. For all the lorid ighting that her an invitation for Clinton to do a bit of the husband did with congressional Republicans, same. Of all politicians, she could be the one he also moved rightward on occasion, with the best chance to move us a few crucial famously signing welfare reform legislation. inches beyond this wretched sclerosis. Who After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when would have ever predicted that? she was inishing her irst year in the Senate, ■ I did a long magazine story on her and Chuck Frank Bruni has been an Op-Ed columnist Schumer’s effort to get help for New York, for The New York Times since June 2011. After decades of demonizing her and all those Benghazi hearings, a noteworthy contingent of Republicans are giving her a degree of active and passive help that less polarizing Democratic presidential nominees never received. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Telephone comments: 202-456-1111 Email: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
