ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
PHIL WRIGHT
News Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
What are
the big ideas
on property
tax this year?
H
eads up, homeowners. For
Oregon reformers, you are next.
A legislative committee is
meeting this week to look at property
taxes.
Will you end up paying less? Or more?
We don’t know exactly what ideas the
committee will consider. But it’s not hard
to guess, because legislators bring some
ideas up repeatedly.
The big one is: Reset on sale.
Property values in Oregon do not
reset on sale. They are artificially limited
thanks to Measures 5 and 50. Basi-
cally, older homes had an artificial value
created to determine their taxes — the
assessed value. Their maximum assessed
value was set at their real market value
in 1995 minus 10%. And they can only
go up by 3% a year. That has benefited
people in older homes in areas that have
been gentrifying.
The system we got from the ballot
measures also has created other oddities,
such as two similarly sized homes in a
neighborhood having very different tax
rates.
What’s the real problem with this
system that helps keep property taxes
low? Doesn’t it ensure government has to
spend money carefully? Yes, but ...
The “but” is the controls on property
tax revenue can mean governments can
be more reliant on fees. And fees can be
relatively more difficult for low-income
people to pay, while people who are
richer benefit from owning homes.
Of course, any changes that are made
to the property tax system could be hard
on some family incomes. That’s why
reformers talk about including some
safety valves. There could be exemp-
tions to protect a certain value of a home-
stead from taxes, relief for seniors, and
also flat-out refunds for taxes that are
believed to be too high. But how and
where would those be set?
One other idea the committee is set to
discuss is the prepayment discount —
such as getting a 3% discount for paying
your property taxes in full by mid-No-
vember. We don’t know if the commit-
tee will talk about getting rid of the
discounts. It might.
If you are interested in what your
government might do to your property
taxes, a House Interim Committee on
Revenue meeting that was held earlier
this week is available online so you can
see what was discussed.
EDITORIALS
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.
LETTERS
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.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
Still shaking my head to ’rona responses
TAMMY
MALGESINI
INSIDE MY SHOES
am baffled by some people’s
gung-ho attitude about unproven
off-label use of medications in an
attempt to treat or prevent COVID-19
— yet they are reluctant (and in some
cases, dead set against) getting the
vaccination. While I’m not a doctor —
although my signature would qualify —
it intrigues me that people even started
using Ivermectin, which seems to be
popular with social media virologists
these days.
Information from the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration indicates
it’s used primarily with dogs, cats and
other mammals as prevention for heart-
worm disease and for the treatment of
certain internal and external parasites
with horses and other animals. As far as
human use, the Food and Drug Admin-
istration has approved tablets — which
are specifically formulated for adults
because, you know, we weigh a lot less
than cows and horses — for treating
some parasitic worms. Also, humans
I
can use a topical formulation to treat
some external parasites and skin condi-
tions.
Seriously, so who was dosing up
Rover or Sugar and thought, “Hmmmm,
I wonder if taking this could prevent the
‘rona?”
And it seems some people are
confused by the English language or
don’t have a dictionary handy. They
often refer to COVID-19 vaccinations
as experimental because they haven’t
received full approval of the FDA.
The fact is, getting the jab only
became widely available after each of
the vaccines received emergency use
authorization from the FDA. Pfizer,
which received EUA in December 2020,
was granted full approval for its vaccine
Monday, Aug. 23.
According to a report from The
Associated Press, the process “required
a 360,000-page application and rigor-
ous inspections.” That doesn’t sound
very “experimental” to me — in fact,
it seems more credible than someone
hearing the second cousin of a neigh-
bor’s co-worker used their horse pills
and got better overnight.
I think it’s odd that some people are
so willing to pop a pill — a horse pill
at that. That feels more questionable
than rolling up a sleeve for a vaccine
that has jumped through so many
hoops it could win an NBA champion-
ship.
Just as curious are those who negate
the potential benefits of wearing face
coverings. I agree masks aren’t 100%
effective. However, they have some
value in reducing the spread of respi-
ratory droplets — hypothetically, if I
were to spit in your direction, wouldn’t
you prefer that I had a mask on? While
merely a straw poll, most of my friends
haven’t even had a cold in the past 18
months. Coincidence? I think not.
And since today is National Dog Day,
I would be relegated to the doghouse if
I didn’t give a shout out to the General
and Biko, our German shepherds. Rest
assured, my husband and I will spoil
them in some way.
Rather than getting worked up over
people that baffle me, I’ll take a lesson
from our canine kids — I’ll tilt my head
and stare blankly.
———
Tammy Malgesini, who returned as
an East Oregonian community writer,
enjoys spending time with her husband
and two German shepherds, as well
as entertaining herself with random
musings.
at a rapid pace, spending billions of our
tax dollars on infrastructure updates
and technology, broadband internet
service for all and a transition to elec-
tric cars, trucks, buses, trains, and even
airplanes.
I hoped that Pendleton’s city officials
had begun to look to the future with the
appropriate actions to take advantage
of this rapidly changing technology.
Broadband internet for everyone: In
itself, it’s an amazing system — infor-
mation, books, and music available at
the speed of light on your phone, tablet,
laptop or desktop computers. Those
new overhead lines going up are the
beginning. They’re pretty ugly; aesthet-
ics and attention to detail have never
been one of the city’s strong suits. But
moving them underground is not a high
priority.
I was quite taken aback that rather
than take advantage this gift, our
library staff, with the approval of the
city manager, mayor and city council,
has decided to thumb their nose at this
latest opportunity to reach more of the
community electronically, and have
instead decided to invest $127,952 of
what they continue to refer to as “free
money” in the form of a grant through
the American Rescue Plan (the federal
COVID-19 rescue plan) for a new Ford
F250 XLT with a custom van box, a
“bookmobile.” It will allow the library
to reach out at the astonishing speed of
around 25 mph to all those adults and
children that don’t live within walking
distance of the library.
What about that significant invest-
ment in public transportation designed
to provide affordable transportation
to facilities such as the library? Has
it failed? To gain public support, the
program is also aimed at our children.
Thing is, they’ll be in school. According
to our school district, each school other
than the early learning center has its
own library.
So, what is the rationale for purchas-
ing a “bookmobile” rather than more
computers or books? They tell me
the purchase of a bus, just like those
taxi vans and buses, is stipulated in
the grants. I suspect, in the end, the
“busmobile” will spend more time
sitting parked for lack of a driver than
roaming our city streets and Mission,
much like all those buses and vans the
city continues to purchase with more
“free money.”
It kind of makes you wonder how
Hermiston does it. Evidently they’ve
embraced the 21st century.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
YOUR VIEWS
Afghanistan fallout will
be dire for United States
Because of the debacle in Afghani-
stan, it will be many, many years before
any intelligence assets will work with
the United States again. There are count-
less mistakes our national leadership has
made; one cannot count the unintended
consequences that will rain down upon
us. I could name at least 20 different
outcomes that will ensue.
The Chinese, Russians, Iranians,
North Koreans and a host of other
enemies of the U.S. will have picked up
some very valuable classified weapons
and secret equipment.
One is watching the fall of a great
nation, the United States of America.
Government used to be by the
people, for the people and of the people.
Now it is for the government and by the
government. One is no longer a citizen
but a slave to bureaucrats.
Roesch Kishpaugh
Pendleton
Stuck in the 20th century
Like it or not, our federal government
will be pushing us into the 21st century