MARK BURROWS
OF PENDLETON
Visit Elite
Guns &
Bows in
Pendleton
for a free hat
SPECIAL
VISITORS
White House considers
expanding military draft
to include women
NATION/7A
REGION/3A
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2016
141st Year, No. 34
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
Brown proposes cuts, tax hikes
Governor’s plan maintains spending for
K-12 education and tuition assistance
•
•
•
Hermiston Christmas
Concert Friday night
Pilot Rock Winterphest
Saturday at 10 a.m.
Saturday Spin-In at
Pendleton arts center
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Weekend Weather
Fri
47/41
Sat
51/42
Sun
46/29
Watch a game
vs.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown Thursday
proposed a 2017-19 budget that
cuts spending across most areas in
state government, while keeping
whole K-12 education and programs
assisting low-income students with
college tuition.
The $20.8 billion budget plan
uses a potpourri of cuts and tax
increases to fi ll in a $1.7 billion
state revenue hole, caused largely by
increases in negotiated salaries and
benefi ts and a loss of federal funding
for subsidizing health insurance for
low-income residents.
“I present this budget as a short-
term solution,” Brown said. “It is the
starting place for a broader conver-
sation about how best to align our
resources with our shared values and
vision to move Oregon forward.”
She unveiled her budget proposal
at an event Thursday in her ceremo-
nial offi ce at the Capitol.
Brown proposed funding to main-
tain existing services at the K-12
level, while boosting allocations
for two college tuition assistance
programs — the Oregon Opportu-
nity Grant and Oregon Promise.
Despite Brown’s claim that the
plan would maintain K-12 funding,
the Oregon School Boards Associ-
ation issued a statement saying the
proposal falls short by about $500
million “of what schools are telling
us they need just to maintain current
services.”
The budget for higher education
will remain fl at despite increases in
costs for existing services, which
could mean colleges and universities
will have to consider program cuts
or tuition hikes. Brown’s budget plan
also preserves the number of clients
who receive subsidies for health
insurance under the Affordable Care
Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal via AP
Gov. Kate Brown speaks about her proposed 2017-2019 budget at
the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Thursday.
Act.
Proposed cuts are less severe than
the 10 to 15 percent across-the-board
reductions Brown had predicted
before the Nov. 8 election. State
agencies face cuts averaging 4.2
percent, but the cuts vary according
to the agency.
Education at the K-12 level faces
no cuts, while health care could
sustain 16 to 25 percent reductions
in general fund revenue, said George
Naughton, chief fi nancial offi cer at
See BUDGET/10A
Hermiston vs. Wilsonville
HERMISTON
Dec. 2, 7 p.m.,
Hermiston Dawghouse
‘Tis the season to light the tree
HERMISTON
Farm Fair
talks stock
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Grazing livestock respon-
sibly is not only a necessity
for ranchers, but can be a
plus for the environment
when it comes to managing
increasingly large wildfi res
on the open range.
That was the thrust of
two presentations given
Thursday during the newly
revived livestock seminar at
the 43rd annual Hermiston
Farm Fair, which focused on
how livestock can be used
for ecological, as well as
economic, benefi t.
Eva Strand, assistant
professor at the University of
Idaho, led the fi rst half-hour
talk where she outlined how
grazing cattle in some cases
can reduce the amount of
dead grassy fuel that catches
and spreads massive fi res —
such as the Buzzard Complex
in 2014 that scorched more
than 395,000 acres southeast
of Burns.
“It’s not the silver bullet,
but (grazing) can be helpful
at times,” Strand said.
Of course, grazing is
nothing new on rangeland.
But overall, Strand said the
See GRAZING/10A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Five thousand LED
Christmas
lights
and
one Santa Claus brought
hundreds of people to
downtown Hermiston on
Thursday for the kickoff of
the Winter Festival.
The lights were draped
around a 32 foot spruce tree,
surrounded by food vendors,
a cookie decorating booth, a
fi re and a stage featuring the
sounds of Hermiston-grown
brass band BBPD.
“Isn’t this a great event?”
mayor David Drotzmann
asked the crowd to cheers.
“How awesome is this?”
He said the city was
excited to bring life and
vitality to the downtown area
during the holiday season.
The Parks and Recreation
Department put up a tree
and light show last year, but
after its inaugural run, Drot-
zmann said, they listened to
feedback that it needed to be
more impressive.
“This year we made sure
to put more lights,” he said.
The
festival
area,
located on the corner of
Main Street and Southeast
Second Street, will feature
a light show and live music
each Thursday, Friday and
Saturday evening starting at
6 p.m. until Christmas.
The tree was donated
by Larry and Marjorie
Davidson, whom Drotz-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Five thousand LED Christmas lights illuminate the 32-foot tall spruce tree that is the centerpiece of the Winter
Festival in Hermiston.
mann invited up to share
the story of how Larry fi rst
found it as a sapling in the
Blue Mountains before
bringing it with him as he
moved from Milton-Free-
water to Pendleton to
Hermiston.
“I’ll be honest with you,
I miss it,” Larry said. But
he said he was glad the
community could fi nd good
use for it.
“Thank you for sharing a
piece of your life with us,”
Drotzmann responded.
After
Drotzmann’s
remarks came a visit from
Santa, who came in on a fi re
truck and settled in to greet a
long line of youngsters after
the offi cial tree lighting.
Jamie Littrell said she
braved the cold so that her
children could see Santa and
the tree, and she liked what
the city had done with the
street.
“The tree looks really
good,” she said.
Will and Courtney Keeler
also brought their family
See WINTER/10A
“Isn’t this a
great event?
How awesome
is this?”
— Dave Drotzmann,
Hermiston mayor
PENDLETON
Students get crash
course in careers
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Excecutive sous chef Jose Gutierrez talks about running the large
kitchen at Wildhorse Resort & Casino to a group of Pendleton High
School students during a career day tour of the facility Tuesday in
Mission.
Instead of selling themselves to
prospective employers, Pendleton
School District students found some
employers selling their companies
and their industries to them.
During a tour of Cayuse Technol-
ogies for the district’s career day on
Thursday, Mark Jones, the compa-
ny’s executive vice president of
delivery, asked how many students
were interested in working for the
tech support business.
Jones started querying the
students who raised their hands
about why they would want to work
there, and a few responded that they
were interested in the programming
aspect of the career fi eld or the
career’s generous benefi ts package.
Led by CEO Billy Nerenberg,
several company employees told the
students that tribally-owned Cayuse
Technologies separated itself from
other tech companies because of
its community-mindedness and
its commitment to developing its
employees, experience or not.
See CAREERS/6A