A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
December 16, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
PERS
problem
can’t get
deeper
East Oregonian
O
ne of the most pressing issues for the longterm
health of this state is a signed contract to pay for
the Oregon Public Employees Retirees System —
better known as the four-letter word PERS.
On Nov. 20, PERS actuaries forecast for the public
their idea of how much more money will have to be
funneled into the system
in order for it to keep up
its end of the deal. The
actuaries predict a steady
rise of 2 percent annual
Voice of the Chieftain
rate increases, at least for
the next few bienniums.
While that might sound pretty reasonable, it translates
to cost increases of 20 to 30 percent for municipalities,
school districts, emergency responders, prisons and more,
all across the state.
Those kinds of increases are not sustainable. And rural
Oregon — where a larger percentage of the workforce
is government employees — is especially vulnerable to
runaway costs.
First, a few facts. There are 200,000 public employees
in Oregon, and 95 percent of them are tied into the PERS
system. That system is also paying 130,000 retirees.
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The fund has $70 billion to invest, but returns from
that investment bring in 70 cents for every $1 that is paid
out. Losing 30 percent on every transaction puts PERS
quickly into the red, and puts it deeper into that hole each
and every year. Its unfunded liability is expected to soon
reach $18 billion. That’s a black hole that reaches all the
way to China — and to a depth that could cause the whole
system to collapse.
So what do we do about it?
There are some facts both sides have to deal with.
A contract is a contract. Deals were signed and — as
we learned from the courts — past promises cannot be
renegotiated. Cost of living increases can be renegotiated
moving forward, but not looking back. That limits our
options, but doesn’t keep us from designing a more
sustainable system.
Another consideration, especially in rural Oregon
where government employees make up about a quarter
of our workforce, is the fact that public sector employee
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That’s great for attracting good candidates for
important, taxpayer-funded positions. But is such a wide
gulf between private and public sector employees in the
best interest of our country?
We would argue it is not — and closing that gulf is
imperative.
It will take movement from both sides. Wage increases
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initiated in statehouses and Congress, or incrementally
by employers themselves. As wages go up, competition
to secure educated, reliable employees will increase.
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help reduce the need for a social safety net. It might even
spur economic growth, meaning those PERS investments
would bring in a larger dividend on every dollar.
It’s a big problem with no easy solution, but action is
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EDITORIAL
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Volume 133
New food-safety rules need funding
Now comes the hard part.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion has for four years been writing the
regulations that will put in force the Food
Safety Modernization Act.
The job involved many revisions in
which industry members and university
researchers politely tapped FDA authors
on the shoulder and reminded them that
they were providing solutions where no
problems existed.
For example, the use of spent grains
from breweries to feed cattle has been a
common practice for centuries, yet the
FDA initially felt the urge to interject ex-
pensive new requirements that made no
sense and accomplished nothing.
The regulation of irrigation water in
the propagation of onions was another
area in which the FDA was politely re-
minded that no problems existed.
Now the results of all that work will
come to fruition and, presumably, make
the food Americans eat safer. Nearly ev-
ery week the news carries reports of an
outbreak of E. coli or some other prob-
lem at restaurants or processors. Though
many are linked to food handling prob-
lems, some can be traced back to the
farms where the produce was grown.
To improve food safety, Congress now
has to provide the money for the FSMA.
7KH&RQJUHVVLRQDO%XGJHW2I¿FHLQL-
tially estimated that implementing the
FSMA would cost nearly $120 million a
year.
That is a bargain. If the rules are ef-
fectively implemented, outbreaks can
be avoided, the public will be protected
This is good, but with a caveat.
It is good because state departments
of agriculture are intimately familiar with
the practices farmers follow. Better than
anyone else, they will understand how
By Capital Press
the regulations should be followed on the
and growers will be minimally impacted farm.
The caveat involves money. If Con-
from recalls.
But other aspects of the regulations gress does not adequately fund imple-
are disconcerting. While the FDA has mentation of the new rules, all bets are
aimed high in its attempts to assure food off.
FDA has requested nearly $110 mil-
safety, it appears the agency has a long
OLRQ IRU WKH QH[W ¿VFDO \HDU WR GR WKDW
way to go.
At a recent meeting, even simple Now Congress must decide whether the
questions from farmers appeared to food safety law it wrote will be an effec-
tive tool for helping to assure food safety
stump agency representatives.
Mateusz Perkowski, a reporter for the or it will be a shell that sounds good but
Capital Press, cited two questions that in reality does not live up to its promise.
came up:
The regulations cannot be implement-
• If several farms draw their water ed in a piecemeal fashion. To do that
from the same stream, one farmer asked, would give some sectors of agriculture
can they collectively monitor bacteria an advantage over others because of the
levels instead of each paying for separate differences in the costs of meeting the re-
tests?
quirements.
• How can a grower establish a base-
“We can’t expect it to happen as an
line for bacteria levels in irrigation water, unfunded mandate,” Michael Taylor,
asked another, if he leases different par- FDA deputy commissioner for foods and
cels of land each year?
veterinary medicine, told those at the re-
Such questions will be referred to a cent meeting.
Technical Assistance Network that will
He is correct. Congress needs to make
EH IRUPHG IURP WKH )'$ RI¿FLDOV ZKR sure its new law is adequately funded at
wrote the regulations.
the federal and state levels.
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Otherwise, FSMA will be just anoth-
they would talk with food safety auditors er half-baked congressional initiative
who already inspect farms and other op- that sounds good but doesn’t accomplish
erations to coordinate efforts.
much.
They also said state departments of
Much is at stake with the FSMA —
agriculture will do the heavy lifting when the well-being of U.S. agriculture and the
it comes to implementing the regulations. well-being of 319 million Americans.
GUEST EDITORIAL
Clarifying Food Bank Challenge article
Thank you so much for the article
about the Soroptimist/Rotary Food Bank
Challenge. I just wanted to mention that
the Soroptimist food bank challenge do-
nation this year was collected entirely
from members’ personal donations, not
from Thrift Shop proceeds. Although we
separately gave the food bank $4,000
from those proceeds, this was not part of
the challenge.
And this seems like a great opportu-
nity to thank all the folks who shop and
donate to the Thrift Shop. A reminder that
the shop will be open through Tuesday,
Dec. 15, and then will reopen Monday,
Jan. 4. We are taking a vacation!
Happy Holidays to all.
Ann Browder
PresiGent, 6oroptiPist ,nternDtionDO
oI :DOOoZD &oXnt\
Measure ¿lling our
prisons
I am writing to ask if anyone in Wal-
lowa County knows what Measure 11
is? Do you know how it works and what
it was meant for?
Measure 11 was meant for repeat and
violent offenders. After 21 years it has
morphed into a pipeline to prison. First-
time offenders with no criminal back-
ground or history of violence are given
the same sentence as violent and repeat
offenders.
Oregon has 14,694 inmates — 6,164
in under Measure 11 — and almost a
third of the prison population (4,314)
DUH¿UVWWLPHRIIHQGHUVZLWKQRFULPLQDO
LETTERS to the EDITOR
background. The state spends $137 mil-
lion per year for them.
Oregon, second in the country to
spend more on prisons then education.
That is why I am throwing my hat in the
ring for the state Senate seat in District
29.
I know that Sen. Hansell is a good
man, decent, but he is sitting on the
fence about this. It must be reformed,
NOT repealed.
We need more money for education,
more money for more police in our
towns and cities. No, I do not want vio-
lent and repeat offenders released. There
are other ways. My small town of Mil-
ton-Freewater has a terrible gang prob-
lem. We need help with that.
Barbara Dickerson
0iOton)reeZDter
Saving the wolves for ...?
I have read so many articles in the
local newspapers and I am disgusted by
the lack of common sense on the part
of environmentalists and animal rights
groups. They are predominantly urban
residents who fantasize about something
they know so little about. Yet they are
dictating what the laws should and will
be. I believe our government leaders
should have stopped this nonsense be-
fore it happened.
Some claim they want to work with
the stockgrowers. That is hard to fathom
when they have little perception of the
livestock business. Their ideas of pro-
tecting livestock from predators -- espe-
cially wolves -- are just plain silly.
, JUHZ XS RQ D VKHHS RXW¿W DQG ODW-
er I was a range rider for several cattle
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predators on livestock as well as all
wildlife. This loss will be much worse
with increasing the wolf population by
laws preventing containment of their
numbers. The idea that the wolves will
“selectively kill” is absolutely false.
The fact is that wolves take what they
can. This is a loss to the stockgrowers,
sportsmen and businesses that depend
on the livestock and wildlife.
The (Sept. 15 letter) submitted to
The Chieftain by Scott Beckstead, Or-
egon director of The Humane Society
of the United States, is an example of
the common sense of these people. He
writes: “California is privileged to host
a new wolf pack. Wolves have been in-
strumental in restoring biological diver-
sity in the Northern Rocky Mountains,
including increasing the number of song
birds, pronghorns, lynxes and other spe-
cies, while simultaneously improving
the ecology of vital riparian systems.”
As cattlemen, sheep producers and
hunters roam the ranges, they will be
able to listen to the birds and appreciate
the tall, green grass where the carrion
has decomposed. And maybe when they
check the spots of green grass they will
be able to salvage an eartag or cowbell
-- if the grass ain’t too tall.
Bart Harris
:DOOoZD
Where to write
Washington, D.C.
The White House, 1600 Pennsyl-
vania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.
20500; Phone-comments: 202-456-
1111; Switchboard: 202-456-1414.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516
+DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK-
ington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
5244. E-mail: wayne_kinney@wyden.
senate.gov Web site: http://wyden.
senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313
+DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK-
ington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. E-mail: senator@merkley.sen-
ate.gov. Fax: 202-228-3997.
2UHJRQRI¿FHVLQFOXGH2QH:RUOG
Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and
310 S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pend-
leton, OR 97801. Phone: 503-326-
3386; 541-278-1129. Fax: 503-326-
2990.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R — (Sec-
ond District) 1404 Longworth Build-
ing, Washington D.C. 20515. Phone:
202-225-6730. No direct e-mail be-
cause of spam. Web site: www.walden.
house.gov Fax: 202-225-5774. Med-
IRUG RI¿FH 1RUWK &HQWUDO 6XLWH
112, Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-
776-4646. Fax: 541-779-0204.
Pending Bills: For information on
bills in Congress, Phone: 202-225-
1772.