Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 3, 2017
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 Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Be true to your pool
Outdoor pools are a part of
every Eastern Oregon summer. And
when temperatures spike as they
are right now, pools offer critical
opportunities to get through a heat
wave.
They also offer fun and
recreation, a place to teach life skills
as well as a spot to meet and play
with your friends and neighbors.
Along with splash pads, pools offer
affordable, safe, healthy ways for
local families and children to spend
their summer months.
And as Pendleton learned this
month, they can be economic
engines, too. The city-owned aquatic
center hosted hundreds of families
from across the region who filled
local hotels and restaurants during
the multiple-day Inland Empire
Swimming Championships.
But the sun-soaked excitement of
the weekend was muted by the fact
that swim programs throughout the
region are in danger. Blue Mountain
Community College’s pool — which
has long provided a place for the
Pendleton Swim Association to
practice and compete, as well as
other schools in the area and as far
away as Hermiston — may never
open again. It is being prepped for
permanent closure; the pool needs
expensive upgrades that the college
has no way to pay for.
There is a bit of an improvement
on the west side now that an indoor
pool has opened at the Boardman
Pool and Recreation Center. While
it is not large enough to host
competitions, it can offer swimmers
a place to practice and train 12
months out of the year. Hermiston
has been without an indoor lap pool
since the closure of the Columbia
Court Club, which was damaged by
fire more than a year ago.
Pendleton is where the pool
situation is about to get much worse.
Members of the swim association
have spoken with Mayor John
Turner and other city officials about
finding ways to make the aquatic
center a year-round operation, which
would require a temporary cover.
Finding ways to pay for that upgrade
are key to keeping the Pendleton
Swim Association a thriving,
volunteer-run group that offers area
children a unique opportunity for
small town Oregon.
And while times are undoubtedly
tough for community colleges,
BMCC should also look to find
ways to continue to provide a
community pool. The former pool
provided a clear community benefit
for decades, and helped ingratiate
itself into the wider Eastern Oregon
swim community. Keeping that
asset going is good for the college
and good for the community, if the
money can be found to maintain it.
We advise to look under all possible
rocks for grant and loans, from
local to statewide to federal sources.
And ask locals to reach into their
pocketbooks, too. If the Pendleton
Fourth of July fireworks is any
example, lots of people are willing
to help lend financial support to
things they value.
A pool is a more expensive
proposition than a once-a-year
explosion, of course. Designing and
managing it requires thought and
planning and hard work, though
opportunities for advanced planning
have grown thin. Once the summer
gives way to fall, the Pendleton
Aquatic Center will close and there
will be no competition swim pools
in the county.
We should do better. Our hot
weather makes municipal pools
summer money-breakers (and
breaking even is the goal for a
government-owned enterprise).
Looking for ways to increase
the swim season with temporary or
permanent coverings should be the
goal of both the public and private
sectors.
Umatilla County needs it, both
for its economic success and the
thousands of young families who
have their fun in the water.
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
Transportation package the 2017
Legislature’s key accomplishment
The Eugene Register-Guard
T
he signature achievement of the
2017 Legislature was its bipartisan
approval of a $3.8 billion
transportation funding package — a
bill notable both for its size and for its
innovations in public policy. The bill
shows how tensions between opposing
parties and between rural and urban
areas can be harnessed for productive
purposes. No one supports all elements
of the package, but it will advance the
interests of the state as a whole.
This year’s success has its
genesis in a failure two years earlier,
when a deadlock over the state’s
clean- fuels standard killed a plan
to fund improvements to the state’s
transportation network. Lawmakers
then formed a 14-member committee
that toured the state and heard the usual
demands for repairs and improvements
to roads and bridges.
There were some unexpected
messages as well. Congestion on
Portland-area freeways was having
an effect on transport and commerce
throughout the state. And Sen. Lee
Beyer, D-Springfield, co-chairman of
the committee, reported strong statewide
support for improved mass transit.
The transit element of this year’s
transportation package is its biggest
departure from the past. The state
Constitution prohibits the use of gas-tax
revenue for any purpose other than to
build and maintain the road network.
That means state support for transit
systems must come from another source.
Lawmakers settled on a 0.1 percent
payroll tax, which will raise $100
million a year.
Mass transit is often regarded as an
urban concern, and a new tax of any
kind for any reason is a unicorn in the
legislative bestiary. But enough rural
legislators supported the tax, because
as Beyer found, transit services are
increasingly vital to mobility in mid-size
and smaller communities. Enough
tax-averse Republicans supported the
payroll tax because it raises a significant
amount of money at a low rate. The
Lane Transit District can expect an
increase of about 15 percent in its
general fund as a result of the new state
tax.
A second innovation is a tiered
vehicle registration fee, with electric
and highly fuel-efficient vehicles paying
the most. Vehicles that use little or no
gasoline pay little or nothing in gas
taxes, making them free riders on the
road network. The differential fee works
against the state’s goal of reducing fossil
fuel consumption and emissions linked
to climate change. But as fuel efficiency
improves, gas consumption will need to
be decoupled from transportation taxes.
And the unwanted effects will be offset
by rebates on the purchase of electric
vehicles, financed by a 0.5 tax on the
sale of new cars.
Oregon also will impose a $15 tax
on the sale of new adult bicycles costing
more than $200. This tax was the price
for the support of legislators who believe
bicycles are subsidized by the current
transportation funding system. Revenue
from the tax will be used to create more
and safer bike routes — and might
even reduce the long-running tensions
between bicyclists and motorists.
The package’s big-ticket projects
are mostly in the Portland area —
improvements to Eugene’s Randy Papé
Beltline are conspicuously absent. But
the Portland projects are likely to be
financed in part by tolls. Portland-area
lawmakers’ willingness to accept the
possibility of tolling shows how serious
congestion problems in that part of the
state have become.
The transportation bill passed by a
vote of 39-20 in the House and 22-7 in
the Senate — more than the three-fifths
majority needed in each chamber. It
shows what can be achieved when
legislators are willing to listen to people
throughout the state and compromise on
issues such as the clean-fuels standard.
The success contains a lesson for
lawmakers in Oregon and elsewhere.
OTHER VIEWS
Voters love lesbians
L
ike other minorities,
Brown, who won in Oregon last year.
LGBT people are seriously
She is married to a man but identifies
underrepresented in our
as bisexual. (In 2004, Gov. James
country’s political offices.
McGreevey of New Jersey came out
But I’ve seen a few signs that one
as gay more than two years after his
consonant in that cluster is especially
election, announcing his resignation
well positioned to gain ground.
simultaneously.)
Lesbians are on the march.
And there is only one openly
OK, that probably overstates
LGBT person ever elected to the
Frank
things. Let’s say they’re on a brisk
U.S. Senate: Wisconsin’s Tammy
Bruni
crawl. But consider: The Victory
Baldwin, a lesbian, who is in her first
Comment
Fund, which supports LGBT
term.
In the House of Representatives,
candidates nationwide in races
however, openly LGBT men have enjoyed
ranging from school board to governor,
the advantage. There are five in the House
recently crunched the numbers on how its
now while there’s just one openly LGBT
1,162 beneficiaries over the last decade
woman, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who
fared, and the results are particularly
identifies as bisexual.
positive for women.
That makes for a current total of seven
The results are encouraging overall —
openly LGBT members of Congress,
and they’re a subtle ray of light following
counting Baldwin, or 1.3 percent of the
a dark week in terms of the Trump
535 lawmakers in all. According to Gallup,
administration’s actions. Despite past
roughly 4 percent of
statements of affinity
Americans identify as
with lesbian, gay,
LGBT.
bisexual and transgender
Pat Spearman, a state
Americans, President
senator in Nevada since
Donald Trump hastily
2013, is one of them.
announced a ban on
“I’m African-
transgender people
American and a woman
in the military, and in
and a lesbian: I can’t
court filings, his Justice
catch a break,” she told
Department went out
of its way to enunciate
me. “You know what I’m
the position that gay
saying?” She laughed,
people are not protected
then talked about the
by a federal civil rights
many decades when
law on employment
she kept her sexual
discrimination.
orientation secret, partly because she was in
These are steps backward. But
the U.S. military and partly because she was
voters seem to be moving forward: The
an ordained Methodist minister. She’s 62
overwhelming majority of the Victory
and came out just seven years ago.
Fund’s candidates are prevailing. Not at
I asked her if she’d talked about that
equal rates, though.
journey during her campaign. Yes, she
Women in the LGBT community won
answered, and many voters, regardless of
70.3 percent of their races. Men won only
sexual orientation, seemed to hear echoes of
60.9 percent. And that’s unusual, because
their own struggles. “People could relate,”
there’s almost no difference in success rates she said, adding that they respected “that I
for female versus male candidates generally. embraced all of these: African-American,
(There are so many fewer women in office
woman, lesbian.”
largely because so many fewer women run.)
Openly LGBT politicians sometimes
Meanwhile, another set of data shows
get points from voters for candor and even
an increase in the number of openly lesbian
character. “There’s a little bit of the dynamic
lawmakers in state legislatures. There are
that if you’re honest about that, you’ll be
44 — still paltry, but an all-time high. The
honest about everything,” Parker said.
number of openly gay male lawmakers in
“There’s a kind of halo effect.”
state legislatures, 61, is significantly down
That accrues to gay women and men
from a peak of 72 in 2014, according to
equally. But what may well distinguish
figures compiled by Charles Gossett, a
lesbians and explain the success rates that
professor at Sacramento State University,
the Victory Fund observed is how well
and the LGBTQ Representation and Rights
prepared they are, political analysts told me.
Research Initiative at the University of
As women, they’re more hesitant than men
North Carolina. The number of openly
to run, and that, coupled with being lesbian,
trans lawmakers in state legislatures hasn’t
may make them pause several extra beats to
changed over the four decades that the
be absolutely sure that their experience and
initiative’s figures cover. It’s zero.
mettle can eclipse any bigotry they confront.
The figures show that 40 percent of all
“It might be that lesbians who have
LGBT lawmakers at the state level are
made it over all the hurdles to the stage
lesbian. In contrast, only 25 percent of
of candidacy are just damn impressive
all state lawmakers, regardless of sexual
community leaders and thus better
orientation or gender identity, are women.
candidates,” said Andrew Reynolds, a
So there’s something much closer to female- professor of political science at UNC and
to-male parity among the LGBT lawmakers. the director of its research initiative. “It’s
The New York Times is the first
pretty rare to find a lesbian in elected office
publication to be provided with these
who is out of her depth.”
selective snapshots, and they’re just
Parker noted that by the time of
that: snapshots. But they gibe with some
her election as the mayor of Houston,
politicians’ sense that voters may indeed be
she’d worked for many years in the
more receptive, or at least less resistant, to
energy industry, a vital part of the city’s
lesbians than to gay men.
economy, and had been a well-known city
“We’re less threatening, I think,”
councilwoman as well as the city controller.
Annise Parker, mayor of Houston from
When I asked her which sort of
2010-2016, told me in a recent telephone
discrimination — sexism or homophobia
interview. She said lesbians don’t deal with
— she’d encountered more often along the
anything precisely like “the long-dispelled
way, she answered instantly: sexism. “I
shibboleths about gay men being sexual
think at the highest levels,” she said, “the
predators.”
woman thing kicks in and kicks us in the
More gay men than gay women have
teeth.”
been mayors — including, currently, the
And the gay woman thing?
mayors of cities as disparate as Santa Fe,
Maybe that toughens a candidate. Maybe
New Mexico, and Lexington, Kentucky
that helps her bounce back from the kick.
— just as more straight men than straight
■
women have. But Parker remains the only
Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for
openly LGBT person ever elected to lead
The New York Times since 2011, joined the
one of the nation’s 10 most populous cities.
newspaper in 1995. Over his years, he has
Similarly, the only openly LGBT person
worn a wide variety of hats, including chief
ever elected governor is also a woman, Kate restaurant critic and Rome bureau chief.
Women in the
LGBT community
won 70.3
percent of their
political races.
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.