A4
East Oregonian
Friday, February 22, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Tip of the Hat,
kick in the pants
A
tip of the hat to the hat tippers
— local chambers of com-
merce — that put on annual
award banquets to highlight the best of
their communities.
These annual events are a perfect
showcase for the uniqueness of each
town, and offer not just a who’s who of
the current citizenry, but a history les-
son of the people who have guided the
community over the years.
At Wednesday’s dinner in Herm-
iston, for instance, the audience was
introduced to an outstanding alumnus
who returned to the area to put crimi-
nals behind bars, an energetic accoun-
tant who has been a mentor to teenag-
ers, and a restaurateur who has been
front-and-center at many community
auctions, but does much of his self-
less work behind the scenes. And that
was just three of a dozen or so people
recognized.
We’re glad to extend our hat tip to
all the winners, and are pleased that the
tradition carries on.
A tip of the hat to George Gil-
lette and other referees like him who
don the stripes and whistle (or equiva-
lent gear, depending on the season) and
make youth sports possible.
Gillette, from Milton-Freewater, was
honored before the Blue Mountain Con-
ference basketball game on Saturday in
Pendleton for 50 years as a referee.
Officiating isn’t for everyone. It takes
an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules
of a given sport, athleticism, attention
to detail and an extra layer or two of
skin.
But without people like Gillette,
young athletes wouldn’t be able to
compete.
We may joke about the ump needing
a pair of glasses, or gripe about all the
calls going the wrong way, but we real-
ize it’s a difficult job and are glad some
are willing to take it on.
We’d also urge the local sports fan
community to remember that, as much
as you may love getting into the game,
the officials, coaches and players are all
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
George Gillette stands with his wife, Dominie Heiser, as he is honored Saturday at the Pend-
leton Convention Center for his almost 50 years as a sports official.
people. Good sportsmanship makes an
athletic event enjoyable for everyone
involved.
A tip of the hat to the proposal
to add a cellphone surcharge to pay
for expanded internet projects in rural
Oregon.
The fee — between $4 to $8 a
year for the average phone user — is
expected to raise $10 million a year to
expand internet access to places where
it’s nonexistent.
As we were reminded earlier this
week when a fiber line was severed,
access to the internet has become a cru-
cial part of our daily lives.
And it’s more than just checking
Facebook and streaming “Friends”
reruns. Access to fixed broadband
enhances education, health care and
business It allows remote places to
compete for new development.
We’re pleased that this Legislature
is addressing the shortcomings in our
statewide network, and hope they’re
able to bridge the digital divide.
YOUR VIEWS
16-year-olds not wise
enough to vote
OTHER VIEWS
‘Oregon Way’ is to ignore problems, raise taxes
Bend Bulletin
N
ew arrivals to Oregon sometimes have a hard
time figuring out how state government works.
For instance, the state has a $26 billion
unfunded liability for its future pension costs. That
means schools and other government entities can’t do
as much teaching, road paving and law enforcing as
they would otherwise. Why not? Because year after
year, they almost inevitably have to pay more and
more into the state’s Public Employees Retirement
System to deal with runaway costs.
Schools in Oregon already have a future PERS
shortfall of some $9 billion. Their PERS costs are
likely to go up by $375 million over the next two
years, and costs will continue to rise after that.
Gov. Kate Brown would like to increase school
funding. She is hoping to get some $2 billion more
into the schools with new taxes on businesses. But
to make that $2 billion a real increase she would also
need to find a way to add in another $3 billion just to
keep up with projected PERS increases through 2021,
according to The Oregonian.
Ideally, policymakers would look at the PERS
problem from two angles. First, what can be done
to pay the liability down? Second, what can be done
to reduce the cost drivers that created a $26 billion
unfunded actuarial liability?
But that’s not how things actually work here. The
people in control of state government seem to recog-
nize only the revenue problem, which leads them to
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
look for new sources of revenue. The state’s businesses
are consistently in legislators’ taxation crosshairs.
There’s another example of that this week. The
Oregonian discovered through public records requests
that Gov. Kate Brown is looking at selling the state’s
workers compensation insurance corporation or seiz-
ing some of its capital surplus and using the proceeds
to pay down the state’s PERS liability.
It wouldn’t be a direct tax in business. But make no
mistake — it would be a functional tax on business.
Businesses in Oregon enjoy some of the lowest
workers compensation costs in the country because of
the success of the agency called SAIF. It basically has
been taking in more in premiums than it has had in
losses and expenses. Businesses in Oregon have ben-
efited from low rates and have been getting some of
their premiums returned. Despite that, SAIF’s surplus
is growing. It now has a surplus of some $1.9 billion.
That success could make it an appetizing target for
purchase from the state by a private entity.
One proposal apparently under consideration is for
the state to sell SAIF. Another is to grab a big chunk
of that surplus and use it to pay down the PERS liabil-
ity. Businesses would lose one of the major advantages
of working in Oregon and perhaps also face the addi-
tional $2 billion in new taxes Brown wants.
That’s the Oregon Way. Ignore the problems that
send costs skyward and increase taxes on businesses
to pay for it. Only in Salem, it seems, is it so easy to
act as if squeezing businesses will have no effect on
the people those businesses employ.
A few comments and ques-
tions on lowering the voting
age to 16: Why, what an excel-
lent idea. The very thing we
need is to enfranchise tens of
thousands more people who
get much of their informa-
tion from social media and can
be counted on to vote based
on emotion and the fad of
the moment. Isn’t there a big
enough surplus of such voters
now?
Did allowing 18-year-olds to
vote do anything good for the
state? “Why can I drive like an
adult”; that might not be the
best talking point that could
be used — check out the acci-
dent statistics by age group.
“[P]ay taxes like an adult”; if
you work, you’re going to pay
taxes; age has nothing to do
with it. “[B]e charged and sen-
tenced like an adult”; be hon-
est — excepting very serious
crimes, this happens seldom,
if ever.
People, ask yourselves: “Did
you make wise choices about
anything when you were 16?”
John Kaufman
Pendleton
Why PAE matters
in Pendleton
At Tuesday’s Pendleton City
Council meeting, councilors
voted unanimously to approve
a loan agreement between
the city and the state of Ore-
gon for $2.6M to build another
18,000-square-foot hangar, as
reported in the East Oregonian
(“Pendleton Takes Out $2.6M
Loan for a New Hanger,” Feb.
20, 2019). This article explains
that the city has a letter of
commitment from a company
called PAEISR to lease the new
hangar once it is completed.
Who is PAE? Pacific Archi-
tects and Engineers Inc. is an
American company, based in
Falls Church, Virginia, started
in 1955 to provide critical ser-
vices rebuilding parts of Asia
after WWII. They employ
more than 20,000 people all
over the world.
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. 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.
They have many divi-
sions, one of which is PAEISR,
which manufactures the Reso-
lute Eagle UAS, a long endur-
ance Group 3 drone. PAEISR
is supporting a U.S. Navy con-
tract. They have also partnered
with the Pendleton UAS Test
Range and NASA to conduct
a UAS Traffic Management
demonstration in the summer
of 2020. PAEISR arrived at
the Pendleton UAS Range in
2016 and have recently named
Pendleton as their West Coast
Base of Operations, based on
range capabilities and the level
of support they have received
from range staff and the com-
munity. PAEISR is conducting
UAS final assembly, produc-
tion acceptance flight testing,
and crew training at the range.
They employ more than 30
people with numerous posi-
tions waiting to be filled and
are leasing a large city-owned
hangar that has sat vacant for a
number of years.
Why should we be will-
ing to build this new han-
gar? The Pendleton UAS Test
Range was selected from sev-
eral ranges around the coun-
try because of the unique char-
acteristics of the airfield and
the community. The ability
to work with the company to
help them expand strengthens
our ability to keep secure the
companies permanent pres-
ence in the community, add
family wage jobs in Pendleton,
and increase revenue for the
airport.
When will private invest-
ment begin and public invest-
ment end? We feel that we will
eventually build up enough
activity and clientele that pri-
vate investment will hap-
pen. We have had discussions
with private parties who were
willing to build hangars, but
wanted the city to provide
guarantee that if the hangars
sat empty the city would pay
the debt.
Up until the years ago, we
were a completely unknown
commodity in the aerospace
industry. But that is changing
rapidly.
Robb Corbett
City Manager, Pendleton
Send letters to managing
editor Daniel Wattenburger,
211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 9780, or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.