Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, October 21, 2016
YOUR VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Ofice Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to our letter writers, who have overwhelmed the editor
with their thoughts in the last few weeks before November elections.
From presidential politics to local
levies, seceding from the union to building
a wall around the current one, we’ve had
people submit thoughts on all of it.
We’re pleased to see that level of
engagement, and that writers realize the
power of a letter to the editor in an age
when you can plaster your thoughts on
Facebook immediately. A newspaper
arrives on thousands of doorsteps each
morning — and many of those people
aren’t on your Facebook friend list and
they might even be inclined to disagree
with you. Reaching them is the important part.
If you want your letter to run before Election Day, please submit them
by Oct. 27. We hope to empty our election letter hopper on Oct. 29 and give
everyone a few days to breathe before illing out their ballot.
We’re cutting our tips and kicks short this week, so we can it in more of
those letters.
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.
YOUR VIEWS
Umatilla school bond
will not increase tax rate
Support Irrigon Fire
District bond measure
I am writing in support of the
Umatilla School District bond measure
on the November ballot. This bond
will allow the district to make needed
improvements at all three schools in
Umatilla — McNary Elementary, Clara
Brownell Middle School and Umatilla
High School. Our district staff have a
done a wonderful job of maintaining
our buildings, but there comes a time
when funds are needed for capital
improvements.
There are two really great things about
this bond. One is that it will NOT increase
taxes for Umatilla citizens; the new bonds
are estimated to continue the same tax
rate of the current bonds, just longer. The
second great thing is if voters approve the
bond, the Umatilla School District will
receive an additional $4 million from the
state of Oregon for district projects. This
opportunity will not come again from
the state for a long time, if ever, and is a
great beneit to the district — essentially
receiving a free $4 million.
I encourage the Umatilla community
to vote YES on this school bond — to
protect our students, to protect our
educational investments and send a clear
message that the Umatilla community is
dedicated to quality education.
The Irrigon Rural Fire Protection District
is submitting Bond Levy 25-76 to the voters
of the district to construct a much-needed
new building to meet the growing demand
for services, and to support the necessary
training needs of the emergency response
personnel. Our volunteers serve both the
city of Irrigon and the rural ire area.
The boundaries are Umatilla/Morrow
County line on the east to Paterson Ferry
Road on the west and the Columbia River
on the north to Depot Lane on the south.
The ire district is independent of the city
of Irrigon.
The new facility will be referred to
as the Irrigon Safety Center and it will
not only house the ire services but in
addition will serve the ambulance and law
enforcement. The repayment of the bond
levy is approximately $97.27 per year for a
home with an assessed value of $100,000.
The existing station was built in the
1940s and is lacking many of the safety
requirements currently required. We
encourage the community to come and
tour our current station and speak with
chief Larry Burns or any member of the
board elected to govern the district. Feel
free to call 541-922-3133 to visit or have
any questions you may have answered.
Please vote yes on bond measure 25-76.
Travis Eynon, chair
Umatilla School Board
Larry Burns, ire chief
Irrigon Rural Fire Protection District
Rowan hasn’t made
Umatilla County safer
Measure 97 will damage
Oregon businesses
Sheriff Rowan states on his website: “It’s
not in me to take a back seat; I have a desire
to serve and make the community safer.”
However, if you look at Umatilla County, it is
not safer. Especially it is not safer for children.
Since 2006, our county has had a very
visible meth and opioid issue. We have
policies and agencies that must be transparent
and up-to-date. We deserve someone who has
the collective support of police agencies, not
just board memberships. We deserve someone
who will question mis-spending.
Please support Ryan Lehnert for Umatilla
County Sheriff. Back seat or front seat, it
doesn’t matter if the vehicle is headed off a
cliff. Not only does Umatilla County need a
new driver, it needs Ryan Lehnert to stand up,
not sit down, as the new sheriff.
Measure 97 is bad for the average
Oregonian. Measure 97 is a value-added
progressive tax similar to what is used in
Canada and Europe. It taxes most all goods
and services at each level. While 2.5 percent
being paid by an out-of-state corporation
sounds good, that is not what really occurs.
Since most companies have some form
of debt and are responsible to owners or
shareholders, in order to cover a 2.5 percent
tax they have to gross it up to meet loan
conveyances and margin requirements. The
result is an average 3.2 percent increase
at each level. Since the product is touched
multiple times before it is actually purchased
by the end consumer, the average consumer
will experience an estimated 8 percent
inlation on all primary goods, which include
food, healthcare, fuel, living quarters, utilities
and even cell phones.
For example: Boise Cascade buys fuel from
Chevron, fertilizer and seed from Monsanto,
utility services from Cascade, Bonneville,
Century Link, etc. At the irst and second
levels, basic wood product wholesale prices
go up 1.6 percent for cost increases, plus 3.2
percent for Boise’s revenue tax. Home Depot
then realizes a 4.8 percent increase and has
to add 3.2 percent to cover its new tax; the
consumer then sees an 8 percent increase at
the cash register.
While the tax is not applied to non-“C”
corporations it does negatively impact all
businesses and consumers with higher costs.
Measure 97 is poorly deined — the money
can go anywhere in the state budget. It is
not legally obligated to support healthcare,
education or safety programs. With a billion
dollar PERS problem looming in the next few
years, this is a stopgap measure for the state
employee retirement program, which is why
M97 was brought forward and supported by
their union.
If tax money is needed to support
healthcare, education, and emergency services
then a better solution for the average citizen
would be a 4 percent sales tax on consumer
goods.
That way utilities, healthcare and living
quarters expense could be excluded. The
consumer would also have an opportunity to
be selective in what they purchase. Out-of-
state visitors and businesses would support the
system as they purchase Oregon goods and
services, with no one experiencing an across-
the-board inlationary tax.
Let’s not hurt the poor, our young workers,
or the economy.
Carol McMillan
Hermiston
Republican platform puts
public lands at risk
As a long time Oregonian who enjoys
our great public lands, I am deeply disturbed
by sections of the Republican Platform
that resulted from the 2016 convention in
Cleveland last summer. Under the section
titled “America’s Natural Resources,” the
platform outlines the party’s position on
federal lands, the Endangered Species Act,
and climate change.
The platform states: “Congress shall
immediately pass universal legislation
providing for a timely and orderly mechanism
requiring the federal government to convey
certain federally controlled public lands to
states.” Recent discussions indicated this
could mean up to 2 million acres per state as
a start. States have very talented and skilled
resource managers — that is not the question.
Each state has differing capabilities for
managing public lands, however, as well as
motivations. Differing approaches can slant
priorities for multiple-use and access that we
have enjoyed for over 100 years. What would
change? Would these lands be sold off to
help balance budgets or when they become
uneconomic to manage? The big question in
divesting federal public lands is, who would
be the big winners over time? President
Teddy Roosevelt and others established
these lands for the American public for
conservation purposes with an eye towards
future generations, not to be parceled out for
economic or political gains.
If Congress were truly interested in
improving management of public lands, they
could start with two basic actions. First, they
could pass legislation that would end “ire
borrowing” where funds intended for multiple
use management are routinely used to ight
ever increasingly expensive wildires. These
events, when exceeding regular ire budgets,
should be treated like other natural disasters
such as hurricanes and loods. Second,
Congress should provide some protection
from litigation when restoration projects
are developed as a result of diverse public
collaborative efforts.
These public lands belong to all of us —
not just those who would gain an economic
or political edge. For over 100 years, we
Americans have enjoyed the economic,
cultural and spiritual beneits of lands owned
by and accessible to all. As we look to the
future, they will only become more valuable,
especially in providing clean water, clean air,
and carbon storage, helping reduce the impacts
of climate change. To divest of these national
treasures for economic gain, to irresponsibly
throw away protections, and to deny the
changes in climate we are all experiencing
seems short sighted, leaving future generations
with fewer options and choices.
Barry Featherstone
Pendleton
Had enough of the way things
are? Vote Republican
Are you are tired of: Our society imploding
from a lack of character and honor; a
school system that refuses to teach the Ten
Commandments, allow prayer, or say the
pledge of allegiance; a court system that
incarcerates four to ive times more of its
citizens than any other country on the planet;
a court system that allows attorneys to lie in
their courtrooms.
They even reward it: A public retirement
system that indentures its citizens to pay
government employees 2-3 times more
retirements that the private sector, 15 to 20
years earlier; a national debt approaching
$20 trillion; a society that feels that they are
entitled; a legal system that allows judges to
not rule in front of the public that elects them,
then rule on their own retirement system; a
health care system that is 2-4 times higher
than any other industrialized nations?
If you have had enough you need to vote
Republican.
Jeff Blackwood
Pendleton
Kalvin B. Garton
Pendleton
OTHER VIEWS
The debate boiled down to its scariest answer
O
K, Donald Trump
manage to avoid going
won’t promise to
completely off the rails.
accept the results of
Does that make him a
the election. That’s truly ...
success? We are once again
good grief.
faced with the problem of
“I will tell you at the
the very, very low bar. Still,
no.
time. ... I’ll keep you
He did manage,
in suspense,” he told
particularly in the early
Wednesday’s debate
Gail
moderator, Chris Wallace.
Collins part of the debate, to ignore
Clinton’s effort to get his
The word “rigged” came
Comment
goat. When she claimed he
up. Yow.
“choked” at his meeting with
Hillary Clinton noted
the president of Mexico, he kept
that Trump tends to presume that
pretty calm. Although Trump did
whenever he loses anything, the
observe, weirdly, that when it came
system was rigged: “There was
to immigration, under President
even a time when he didn’t get
Barack Obama “millions of people
an Emmy for his TV program
have been moved out of this
three years in a row and he started
country. ... She doesn’t want to say
tweeting that the Emmys were
that, but that’s what’s happened ...
rigged.”
“I should have gotten it,” Trump big league.” Is moving people out
not the whole Trump plan?
retorted.
They also had a whopping
This is obviously what we
argument about — guess who?
should have known was coming
Vladimir Putin! “Putin from
when the host of “The Celebrity
everything I see has no respect for
Apprentice” wound up as a
this person,” Trump said, referring
presidential nominee. But jeepers,
to Clinton. The ight went on for a
people, this is serious. Trump was
while, until she cannily managed
refusing to acknowledge it was
to divert the discussion to the
even possible for him to lose a fair
possibility of placing Trump’s
ight. At one point, he announced
“inger on the nuclear button.”
the election was rigged because
OK, two critical takeaways.
Hillary Clinton was in it. (“She
Trump won’t promise to concede
should never have been allowed
if he loses, and if he wins, he gets
to run for the presidency based on
control of the nukes. These are the
what she did with emails.”)
only things you need to think about
The rigged-election moment
for the next 2 1/2 weeks.
overshadowed everything else in
We have been down this debate
the debate, during which Trump
road before, and we knew before
made very strange faces while
the evening started that when
Clinton was talking, but did
Trump was asked about groping
women, he’d deny everything,
blame it on Hillary Clinton and
then bring up the emails. And that
when the emails came up, Clinton
would mention the way Trump
insulted John McCain’s war record,
the Mexican-American judge and
the parents of the dead war hero.
“Such a nasty woman,” Trump
said at one point. As the debate
went on, he got more sullen, his
expressions stranger. One of the
things we have now learned for
sure, three debates running, is that
he has a serious stamina problem.
Hillary Clinton has many
faults. She tends to give long,
rather boring answers. She has
never learned how to deal with the
email question. But the woman
is an absolute rock in these
long-running, high-stress critical
encounters.
Also, she made it very clear that
she would accept the results of the
election, even if she lost. God help
us all.
Clinton was not particularly
good in defending the Clinton
Foundation. However, it did seem
fair for her to point out that Trump
used some of his own foundation’s
money to purchase a 6-foot portrait
of himself. (“Who does that?”)
But what difference did it all
make? The man wouldn’t promise
to concede if he loses. Later on
CNN, his campaign manager said
Trump would indeed accept the
results “because he’s going to
win the election.” This was not
particularly reassuring.
If you were totally ignoring the
entire event, you might want to
know that nobody shook hands,
that it took Clinton an hour to
mention that Trump had never
released his tax returns, and that
whenever she pointed out that
he had purchased the very same
Chinese steel and aluminum
he complained was ruining the
economy, he said that it was her
fault for not changing the laws.
She did bring up the Miss-
Universe-is-fat moment, and
Trump said “give me a break.”
He promised to run the country
“the way I run my company,” and
a great part of the listening public
contemplated the fact that this is a
guy who’s declared bankruptcy six
times. But we’ve already forgotten
all about it.
Only one thing matters. The
man says he won’t promise
to accept the results of the
election. All those establishment
Republicans who’ve been hoping
to get through this ordeal by just
being quiet and looking sad have
got some work to do. Fast.
■
Gail Collins joined The New
York Times in 1995 as a member
of the editorial board. In 2001
she became the irst woman ever
appointed editor of the Times’s
editorial page.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes
original letters for publication.
Send to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pend-
leton, OR 97801 or email editor@
eastoregonian.com.