Page 12A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, January 20, 2017
BUDGET: Much of the
shortfall comes from
loss of federal subsidies
for health care costs
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Ione Elementary students portraying the Marine Corps Marching Band perform during the Ione Community
School’s presidential inauguration on Thursday in Ione.
PRESIDENT: Some preparation lost to snow days
Continued from 1A
Neiffer said in this year’s
mock election, students
elected Trump by a small
margin. Teachers have talked
a lot with students about the
election, and plan to watch
some of Trump’s inaugura-
tion Friday.
“The kids are curious,”
Neiffer said, adding that most
of them were unfamiliar with
the process. But many have
older siblings who played
roles in past inaugurations.
While the older students
stood in for dignitaries
and politicians, third and
fourth graders presented the
colors, marching in carrying
American flags and wearing
matching red uniforms.
After the Pledge of Alle-
giance and some introductory
remarks by emcee Madison
Orem, Pence (played by
Cameron Proudfoot) and
Trump took their oaths of
office, administered respec-
tively by House Speaker Paul
Ryan (John McElligott) and
Chief Justice John Roberts
(Bryce Rollins).
Rietmann gave a brief
inaugural address, in which
he said he hoped to work
with others to solve the
nation’s problems.
The kindergarten, first
and second grade classes
sang “You’re a Grand Old
Flag,” and students marched
through the gym, ending the
event with a mock “inau-
gural ball.”
“We’ve been using P.E. to
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Kindergartners and first-graders perform “You’re a Grand Old Flag” during the Ione
Community School’s presidential inauguration on Thursday in Ione.
teach students the box step,”
said Collin. “It’s been hard to
practice because of the snow
days, but we’ve been out
here whenever we could.”
Some aspects of the
mock inauguration, such
as speeches and choreog-
raphy of the event, have
been similar in past years.
But planning for the event
was rushed, teachers said,
because of school closures—
leaving students with only
a short time to learn their
roles.
“Some preparation was
lost to snow days,” said
sixth grade teacher Haley
Winters. “We started right
after Christmas.”
Rietmann said he enjoyed
playing the role of Donald
Trump and learning about
the inauguration.
“I was a little nervous
when I first found out,”
Rietmann said of his role as
the president-elect. “But it
was good.”
Collin said while it was
a controversial election
year, students did not seem
impacted by the negativity
that surrounded much of the
race.
“We’re in a more Repub-
lican county,” she admitted.
“But we kept it to the facts.”
Donald Trump won
67.6 percent of the Morrow
County vote in November’s
presidential election.
Collin added that students
are most excited about the
tradition of the mock inaugu-
ration. There is a wall in the
school’s hallway with photos
of past ceremonies — a tradi-
tion unique to Ione.
“If you look out there,” she
said, pointing to the stands
where parents and students
watched, “you’ll see kids and
other people who were the
president, the vice president
or dignitaries in past years.”
AIR: Original proposal also called for tax incentives for dairies
Continued from 1A
2019.
The bill was filed at the
request of the Senate Environ-
ment and Natural Resources
Committee. It comes at a time
when the state is considering
whether to allow a proposed
30,000-cow mega-dairy in
Morrow County, dubbed
Lost Valley Ranch, which
would be built just 25 miles
away from the even larger
Threemile Canyon Farms.
A coalition of environ-
mental groups has fought
against Lost Valley Ranch,
citing both air and water
quality concerns. Lauren
Goldberg, staff attorney for
Columbia Riverkeeper, previ-
ously said she was “taken
aback” by the lack of air and
other public health measures
in the state’s permitting.
Ivan Maluski, policy
director for Friends of Family
Farmers, said they are solidly
in support of this latest legis-
lation.
“It should be something
everyone who was involved
in that task force back in 2008
can get behind,” Maluski said.
In adopting new rules,
the Environmental Quality
Commission would consult
with agencies and appoint
an advisory committee to
provide input. The committee
would be made up of dairy
industry
representatives,
environmental advocates and
university scientists.
Coming up with a set
of management practices
for dairies will hinge on
continuing research and air
quality monitoring, Maluski
said.
“It’s hard to know what
practices or changes in
management would be best
if you’re not even monitoring
what’s going on,” Maluski
said.
The original 2008 proposal
also called for tax incentives
to help dairies meet their new
air quality targets. Agencies
would then work with the
industry to provide technical
assistance and education,
while ODA would be in
charge of enforcement.
Marty Myers, general
manager
of
Threemile
Canyon Farms, served on the
2008 task force and said he
stands by those recommen-
dations. He said the bill is
“pretty vague,” and is unsure
about its intentions.
“I think this is a reaction to
the Lost Valley Ranch permit,
and continuing to find a way
to oppose that,” Myers said.
For its part, Threemile
Canyon claims it removes
60,000 tons of carbon every
year from the atmosphere by
running a methane digester
on site, which it installed in
2012.
When it comes to manage-
ment practices, Myers said he
considers Threemile Canyon
at the top of the curve.
There are 126,000 milking
cows in Oregon, according
to a 2016 ODA report. Milk
was the state’s fourth-most
valuable commodity in 2015,
raking in $474 million at the
farm gate.
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
BRIEFLY
Doctors consider
removing breathing tube
for George H.W. Bush
HOUSTON (AP) — Doctors
treating former President George
H.W. Bush for pneumonia considered
Thursday whether to take out a
breathing tube while his wife, Barbara,
said she was feeling much better after
undergoing treatment for bronchitis.
Family spokesman Jim McGrath
said physicians for the 92-year-old
Bush were evaluating him for removal
of the tube, which was inserted
Wednesday in a procedure to clear his
airway.
The 41st president has been in
the intensive care unit at Houston
Methodist Hospital since Wednesday,
relying on a ventilator to breathe.
Removing the tube — a procedure
known as extubation — would allow
Bush to breathe on his own. He was
struggling to breathe when he was
admitted to the hospital Saturday.
Bush “had a good night’s rest”
and remained in stable condition,
McGrath said. “We are hopeful he will
be discharged from the ICU in a few
days.”
Barbara Bush, 91, was admitted
Wednesday and diagnosed with
bronchitis after feeling fatigued and
coughing for weeks. She reported
feeling “1,000 percent better” on
Thursday.
Crews work through night
after avalanche hits hotel
FARINDOLA, Italy (AP) — Rescue
crews who reached the four-star
mountain resort on skis found only
eerie silence Thursday after a huge
avalanche flattened the hotel, trapping
more than 30 people inside. Two
bodies were recovered, but the search
for survivors was hampered by heavy
snowfall and fears the buildings would
collapse.
Two people escaped the devastation
at the Hotel Rigopiano in the mountains
of central Italy and called for help. But
it took hours for responders to verify
their claims and arrive at the remote
earthquake-stricken zone. They worked
through the night, but hopes were
dimming of finding survivors.
Days of heavy snowfall had knocked
out electricity and phone lines in many
central Italian towns and hamlets, and
the hotel phones went down early
Wednesday, just as the first of four
powerful earthquakes struck the region.
It wasn’t clear if the quakes
triggered the avalanche. But emergency
responders said the force of the massive
snow slide collapsed a wing of the hotel
that faced the mountain and rotated
another off its foundation, pushing it
downhill.
percent less than needed
to maintain current service
levels, while the Depart-
ment of Human Services
would receive 8.7 percent
less.
Proposed cuts vary in
size between K-12, higher
education and other state
education programs that
don’t fall into those two
categories, such as career
technical education.
The co-chairs were also
quick to note that cuts to
some state services mean
cuts to matching funds
from the federal govern-
ment.
It’s also unclear whether
any direct cuts to federal
funding may be coming
down the pike under the
new administration.
Much of the $1.8 billion
shortfall comes from the
loss of federal subsidies
for health care costs for
low-income Oregonians,
and the mounting costs of
the state’s public pension
system,
which
faces
$22 billion in unfunded
liability.
This year, the state must
now also pick up some of
the tab for insuring addi-
tional Oregonians under
the Oregon Health Plan,
as a result of the Legisla-
ture’s decision to expand
coverage in 2014 under
the Affordable Care Act
— a decision Devlin and
Nathanson said they stood
by Thursday. The federal
government covered the
initial costs of implemen-
tation.
Devlin and Nathanson
attributed the deficit to a
“fundamental imbalance”
caused by these and
other policies enacted in
Oregon’s past.
Measure 5 in 1990, for
example, reduced property
taxes and required local
public schools to be funded
by the state’s general fund
rather than by local taxes.
Senate Majority Leader
Ginny Burdick, D-Port-
land, called the framework
a “call to action.”
“The fact that we face
such a deficit during a
booming economic period
in our state demonstrates
the need for comprehen-
sive revenue reform,”
Burdick said.
She said legislators were
looking for ways to maxi-
mize the state’s dollars
but reiterated the need “to
reform our revenue system
to make sure it is fair to all
Oregonians.”
House Majority Leader
Jennifer
Williamson,
D-Portland, said the state
couldn’t “afford to move
backward.”
“We can’t afford to
move backward in our
investments in education,
health care and critical
services for struggling
families,”
Williamson
said in a statement. “We
shouldn’t shortchange our
economic future by making
it harder for students to
get a good education. And
I don’t believe that any
Oregonian wants us to
make these painful cuts.”
Jim Green, the head of
the Oregon School Boards
Association, called for
both revenue and PERS
reform in a statement
Thursday.
“Our students need
leadership on these two
issues from the governor
and
our
legislative
leaders,” Green said.
Republicans, however,
generally praised the
framework.
In a statement, Sen.
Jackie Winters, R-Salem,
also called the budget a
“starting point.”
“Now the work begins,”
Winters said. “We have our
work cut out for us to craft
a sound, sustainable budget
(that) benefits Oregonians,
urban and rural alike.”
Sen. Minority Leader
Ted
Ferrioli,
R-John
Day, said the budget the
co-chairs presented was
“based in reality.”
“It’s time Oregonians
understood the conse-
quences of explosive
growth of government and
overspending,
coupled
with anti-business climate
and restrictive anti-land
use laws,” Ferrioli said.
“The only way Oregon
will get through the current
budget crunch is by setting
better spending priorities
and demonstrating budget
discipline.”
Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, who is also
House Republican Caucus
Budget Chair, also framed
the framework as an
opportunity for “spending
reform.”
“This Legislature has
an opportunity this session
to finally address the struc-
tural deficits that led us
to this position in the first
place,” Smith said, “and
to put Oregon on the path
to a more stable financial
future.”
The co-chairs said
Thursday that the Joint
Ways & Means committee
plans to release recommen-
dations for the 2017-19
state budget after the next
state revenue forecasts,
which is due to come out
Feb. 22.
EMERGENCY: Hansell
wants to designate border
collie as the state dog
Continued from 1A
for any emergency clauses.
They are “way over-used,”
he said, and admitted he also
is guilty of using them.
Hansell also said the
Senate could simply pass
a rule requiring the 2/3
majority vote. The down-
side, he said, was a future
Senate could change the
rule.
Barreto and Hansell
also teamed up as chief
sponsors of House Bill
2383 to require “legislative
measure to contain brief
and impartial statement
of problem measure is
intended to solve.” Barreto
said he pushed the bill in
2013 session, and it passed
the House but died in the
Senate. The need for the bill,
though, remains.
“Some of these bills are
just confusing and we’re
trying to figure out what
they’re supposed to do, and
we should have on the bill
what it is meant to do,” he
said.
The meat of Barreto’s
proposal is 55 words in
three sentences. The bill is
simple and direct, he said,
and would bring clarity to
proposals.
Hansell also has two
“Some of these
bills are just con-
fusing and we’re
trying to figure
out what they’re
supposed to do.”
— Rep. Greg Barreto
Senate joint resolutions
to designate the Kiger
Mustang as the official state
horse and the border collie
as the official state dog.
Kiger Mustangs come
from the Steen Mountain
area in southeast Oregon,
and Hansell said one resi-
dent of Athena even has a
herd. The breed makes for
fine pack animals, he said,
and comes with a deep
connection to Oregon.
The
border
collie,
though, lacks that connec-
tion. Hansell said he was
carrying the resolution at
the request of a constituent.
But the challenge, Hansell
said, is that everyone has a
favorite type of dog.
———
This story is part of
a short series on what
local state lawmakers are
proposing for the legislative
session that begins Feb. 1.