A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, August 30, 2019
School: After technical difficulties, new school is set to open
Continued from Page A1
second year at the school after
transferring from a school in
Washington, said she’d already
been into the building before to
help some of the teachers move
into their classrooms.
She said she was most excited
by the expanded space compared
to the cramped confines at the
old Nixyaawii.
Shawn Joseph helped his
daughter Shelby and his niece
Susie Patrick, both students at
Nixyaawii, with their lockers.
Joseph said he was a mem-
ber of one of the first graduating
classes at Hopi High School on
the Hopi Reservation in Arizona,
so he knows how important the
new school is to the tribes and
the students themselves.
Susie said she’s looking for-
ward to the improved wi-fi at
the new Nixyaawii. She said
last year, the internet would go
out during class and students
wouldn’t even be able to access
Google to research things for
class.
The previously spotty internet
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Crews work to finish the floors at the new Nixyaawii Community School during an open house on Thursday
afternoon.
was a source of frustration for
teachers as well.
Nixxyaawii social studies
teacher Zack Brandsen said he’d
have to scrap whole lesson plans
when the internet went out.
Chelsea Hallam, a math and
language arts teacher, said some
students mentally checked out
in class when the technology
required for the lesson wasn’t
working.
She thinks the tribes’ invest-
ment in a new school could
inspire students to do better in
class.
“They like to play it cool like
it’s not a big deal, but you can tell
they’re excited,” she said.
One of the reasons Nixy-
aawii needed a bigger school was
because of its surging enrollment.
The old Nixyaawii was burst-
ing at the seams with its prior
85-student enrollment cap, and
the new facility has allowed the
school to set a new 105-student
ceiling.
Heinrich said 93 students
have enrolled at Nixyaawii for
the 2019-20 school year, and
although he doesn’t expect Nixy-
aawii to reach the new cap this
year, he anticipates it will happen
eventually.
Heinrich doesn’t foresee rais-
ing the cap past 105 students,
and Brandsen said the future of
Nixyaawii will be trying to bal-
ance community demand with
Nixyaawii’s small-school appeal.
Kicker: Taxpayers Movement: Sights set on Gov. Kate Brown
to see nearly $1.6B
refund next year
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
The unprecedented rev-
enues have roots in a num-
ber of factors, including
federal tax changes that led
businesses to put off paying
taxes until this year, ratchet-
ing up corporate tax receipts
by around 50%. Economists
say those impacts are likely
short term.
“Even without a reces-
sion, we’re expecting that
it’s going to be hard to match
the revenue we saw in the
last biennium,” state econ-
omist Mark McMullen told
lawmakers on the House and
Senate revenue committees.
Another factor that could
dampen the size of future
kickers: a new corporate
activities tax that lawmak-
ers passed this year. That tax
is expected to raise roughly
$1 billion a year to pay for
schools. But because it also
could raise prices for con-
sumers, lawmakers reduced
personal income tax rates.
McMullen explained this
shift will reduce income
tax money flowing into the
general fund, even though
overall revenues won’t be
impacted. And that means
fewer possible dollars flow-
ing back in the form of
kicker payments.
“Thank you for that facet
of the law,” McMullen told
legislators.
State economists have
missed the mark on state
revenue projections in each
of the last three bienniums,
triggering a kicker. In the
2011-13 budget cycle, they
hit the “sweet spot” where
revenues came in above pro-
jections but not by enough to
trigger a refund.
Lawmakers,
who
appeared in good spirits
when hearing of the record
revenues, alluded to that fact
on Wednesday.
“My takeaway, in spite
of the future and the possi-
ble headwinds, is that Ore-
gon’s economy is really
strong,” state Sen. Mark
Hass, D-Beaverton, told
economists. “You missed the
sweet spot by about a billion
and a half, but you had some
obstacles out there.”
Staff photo by Alex Castle
A truck sits blocking I-84 eastbound near milepost 212 fol-
lowing a fatal single-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon.
Crash: Cause still unknown
Continued from Page A1
“I just went running,”
she said. “I just feel awful
for his family.”
Those closest to the
scene said ambulances and
police showed up within 5
minutes. A Life Flight heli-
copter landed shortly after.
Marcos Prado was trav-
eling to Boise, Idaho, when
he saw dust spray into
the air and other vehicles
began to pull off the road.
As he tried to help, Prado
noticed cars beginning to
drive around the scene.
He decided to stand in the
road to help stop traffic.
“I just figured there
shouldn’t be a lot of peo-
ple coming through this,”
he said.
Clare James was driv-
ing behind Prado when
the crash occurred, though
she didn’t report see-
ing anything. James is an
ICU nurse at PeaceHealth
Southwest Medical Center
in Vancouver, Washing-
ton, and tried to help the
injured driver. But she said
she quickly realized there
wasn’t anything she could
do.
Traffic was soon stopped
in both lanes as the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation arrived and asked
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment to close Exit 209.
Exit 210 was jammed from
traffic before ODOT could
have it officially closed.
Within an hour, a tow
truck arrived to remove
the damaged vehicle from
the interstate while ODOT
directed traffic into the
right lanes.
two booths offering recall
petitions. They named busi-
ness taxes, environmen-
tal policies, and legislation
allowing
undocumented
immigrants to obtain driv-
er’s licenses.
The state GOP’s petition
outlines its issues on the
back, saying Brown over-
turned the will of the voters
by allowing undocumented
immigrants to get drivers
licenses and approving new
taxes. She attempted to vio-
late peoples’ medical free-
dom and impose environ-
mental regulations, it says.
She failed to fix an under-
funded pension system or
a troubled foster care sys-
tem, and supported use of
the emergency clause on
bills to keep policy from
being referred to the voters,
it says.
Brown, they say, is the
person responsible for turn-
ing Oregon into a tax-happy,
gun-hating, business-kill-
ing liberal haven.
At the state GOP’s
booth, the traffic to sign the
petitions ebbed and flowed.
Salesmen hawking beef
jerky and massage chairs
competed for the atten-
tion of fairgoers streaming
through the pop-up mall.
To the south of the GOP
booth, a woman demon-
strated dirt-repelling wel-
come mats. To the north a
team of men pitched peo-
ple on the benefits of Dish
satellite TV. The massage
chair salesmen aggressively
defended their territory.
But when people saw
the large cardboard cut-
out of Trump or the “recall
Kate Brown” banner, many
seemed giddy.
“They can’t sign it fast
enough,” said Sam Sapp,
who was working the booth
on a recent morning.
They
rushed
over,
eagerly asking where they
could sign, often follow-
ing up with “I hate her” or
“She’s terrible.”
Disliking politicians is
an American tradition, but
the recall process is gener-
ally reserved as a response
to corruption or scandal, not
a rejection of policy. In fact,
no recall of a state official
has ever made it to the Ore-
gon ballot.
The Oregon Republican
party claims it is on pace
to get more than 300,000
signatures by the Oct. 14
deadline.
According to volunteers,
the party has reported aver-
aging a signature per min-
ute, though the party has
not released how many sig-
natures it’s actually gotten.
To many seasoned polit-
ical observers, the pros-
pect of recalling Brown
is as likely as Santa Claus
and eight tiny reindeer fly-
ing around the world every
Christmas Eve.
Thomas
Wheatley,
Brown’s campaign adviser,
believes Republicans are
juicing the stats.
Photo contributed by Mark Buzzard
Santa, who declined to give his full name, signs a petition
at the Oregon State Fair to recall Gov. Kate Brown.
“I’m
extraordinarily
dubious about this claim,
though they do operate in
the world of alternative
facts,” he said.
The majority of those
interviewed at the fair about
signing the petitions strug-
gled to specify why they
wanted to recall Brown,
and seemed to be doing so
based on a gut feeling.
Most commonly, people
brought up cap and trade —
a failed effort by the Leg-
islature that Brown backed
to curb greenhouse gas
emissions.
“My understanding is
that a lot of people just don’t
think Salem cares about
them right now,” said Linn
County GOP Chair Adam
Keaton, pointing to that
county’s agriculture, timber
and trucking industries.
There was also a hefty
degree of conspiracy mon-
gering. Some affiliated with
the effort say they fear retal-
iation. They shared rumors
that people signing the peti-
tions or volunteering with
the campaigns have been
targeted for arson, beat up
or had their cars vandalized.
Opponents sometimes
cite Brown’s unconven-
tional path to the gover-
norship: as secretary of
state, Brown moved into
the job as directed by the
state constitution with John
Kitzhaber’s resignation in
February 2015.
The next year, 985,000
people voted for Brown,
giving her 139,418 more
votes than Bud Pierce, the
Republican nominee.
Last year, about 934,000
people voted for Brown.
She beat GOP opponent
Knute Buehler by 119,510
votes, according to the state
Elections Division.
While the petition sign-
ers often said Brown isn’t
following the will of the
voters, she won re-election
campaigning heavily for the
policies they oppose, such
as greenhouse gas capping
and an education funding
package.
“We are proud of the
accomplishments from this
year’s legislative session,”
Wheatley said. “Historic
investments in our schools,
stable health care funding,
bold steps to make hous-
ing more affordable, tack-
ling dirty diesel, campaign
finance reform, and much
more.”
Though some doubted
Brown really did campaign
on such policies.
“You know, I don’t
believe that,” said Lincoln
City resident Dee Right. “I
don’t believe it was in full
detail. I think she lied.”
Right stopped by the
fair booth, but had already
signed the petition.
“She’s only benefiting
the metropolitan areas and
not the rural cities that make
up Oregon,” Right said.
Right was especially
bothered by the cap and
trade proposal, which she
said would kill the logging
and trucking industries.
Right said she’s been a
registered Democrat her
whole life, yet when she
saw a recall booth in Lin-
coln City, she pulled an ille-
gal U-turn to sign it. She’s
never been political, she
said, but spoke with passion
when disparaging Brown.
“She’s making a mess,
and she doesn’t listen to the
people,” Right said.
Two months ago, Right
switched her affiliation.
“Sometimes you gotta
do what you gotta do,” she
said, adding she took sev-
eral sheets to get friends
and family to sign as well.
At the state fair, it took
three Marion County GOP
volunteers at a time to work
the booth. They each had
sets of two recall petitions
and one to refer a highway
tolling proposal for the Port-
land area to voters. They’re
working the booths from
10 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day
of the fair. It’s a total of 132
four-hour shifts.
One
woman,
who
declined to be named, asked
for a voter registration card
so she could change from a
Democrat to a Republican.
She happily obliged when
asked to sign the toll peti-
tion in addition to the recall
ones.
“What is wrong with
her?” she said of Brown.
“‘Cause Kate Brown’s
crazy,” said Jill, a Salem
woman, when asked why
she signed. “She’s destroy-
ing the state.”
Jill was one of many who
declined to give their full
names, citing fear of retri-
bution from liberals.
Some also talked about
Brown as a boogeyman.
One woman organizing vol-
unteers at the “Flush Down
Kate Brown” fair booth
declined to give her name
because she was scared,
though she couldn’t say
what of. Brown might take
her business away or jail her
for her activism, she said.
“People say Kate Brown
has her party — they will
retaliate against you,” the
Stayton woman said. “It’s
just what people are saying.”
The woman said she’s
getting her information
from Brown’s critics, and
hasn’t talked much to the
other side. She said it’s pos-
sible some might be using
rhetoric to stoke the sort of
fear she feels. She was one
of the few who said they
believe there will be a recall
vote.
“The passion of the peo-
ple — I think this will be
successful,” she said.
Michael Anna, visit-
ing the state fair from Bea-
verton, said he didn’t like
Brown’s politics and didn’t
think she was good for the
state.
He particularly dislikes
cap and trade.
“It’s a big scam, and it’s
not necessary,” said Anna.
“And I read somewhere
the only reason they want
to do it is to say, ‘We’re the
first state to do this.’ There
is no man-made global
warming.”
In fact, Oregon’s cap and
trade proposal was modeled
after one that passed in Cal-
ifornia years ago.
Sometimes,
critics
focused on what Brown
hadn’t done.
“She hasn’t done any-
thing that she promised,”
said Kaleb Jones, of Mon-
mouth, who at 19 was one
of the younger signers of
the petition that the Oregon
Capital Bureau spoke to.
“When she got elected the
first time, she got elected
because she promised to
help the homelessness
problem, and then obvi-
ously that didn’t change
at all. She didn’t do any-
thing, and she got reelected
— I don’t know how — so
I guarantee you that she’s
just going to do nothing
again.”
Keaton, the Linn County
GOP chair, said Brown
has a cavalier attitude, but
admitted she as governor is
only so responsible for poli-
cies the state’s 90 legislators
pass.
But, he said, “Brown
does get the final say on a
lot of this stuff.”
“On the whole, I think
it’s a lot easier to focus on
Kate Brown ... making a
single focus point of the
recall effort is a lot easier
than focusing out into dif-
ferent 15 different represen-
tative, Senate races,” Kea-
ton said. “So I think that
helps simplify the effort
while at the same time
focusing on someone who
has been rather egregious in
the operation.”