OPINION
Wallowa County Chieftain
A4
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File/East Oregonian
Mark Mulvihill (right) fi elds questions after a 2015
presentation at the Oregon Leadership Summit at the
Oregon Convention Center. Mulvihill, the superintendent
of the InterMountain Education Service District, has
proposed allowing pubic employees to draw a pension
while working to help pay down PERS liability.
‘Fixing PERS
is Job. 1 — and
it’s doable’
A
new legislative report underscores that
PERS could be headed for more trouble.
The report from the Legislative Fiscal
Offi ce reaffi rms that the Oregon Public Employ-
ees Retirement System remains highly dependent
on investment income for its fi nancial stability.
That is not a surprise. However, it should concern
Oregon offi cials, especially in light of the current
global economic swings.
Our federal leaders are not helping, with their
trade disputes and partial government shutdown.
Their lack of fi scal leadership and political coop-
eration adds to worries that the U.S. will fall into a
recession. Where the nation goes economically, so
goes Oregon.
The legislative report is based on a study last
year from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which com-
pared state pension
plans for fi scal 2016.
PERS had one of the
worst ratios of operating
cash fl ow.
Editorial
On the other hand,
PERS is one of the bet-
ter-funded public pension plans. Cumulatively,
state pension plans amassed a $1.4 trillion defi cit,
because they generally are paying more in bene-
fi ts than they receive in pension contributions. Poor
investment returns also are factors, although PERS
has done relatively well.
So … PERS is not in danger of imminent insol-
vency, it is in better condition than many state
funds but it is more subject to market volatility.
It should be of little comfort that PERS is not
as bad off as other public pension funds. PERS’
unfunded actuarial liability forces schools and
local governments to cut current jobs and services
to pay for pensions. The burden can fall dispropor-
tionately on rural Oregon, as is detailed in the win-
ter edition of The Other Oregon, a quarterly maga-
zine from EO Media Group.
Rural Oregon also has proposed solutions. Mark
Mulvihill, superintendent of the InterMountain
Education Service District in Pendleton, has pro-
posed changing state law to allow longtime pub-
lic employees to collect both their pension and
their salary for several years before retirement.
Schools and government agencies would benefi t
from retaining good workers who were consider-
ing retiring, employees would have more money in
the short term, and they and their employer would
contribute 6 percent of their salary toward paying
down the employer’s PERS liability.
The PERS burden is staggering, and it’s grow-
ing exponentially. For Clatskanie and Ontario —
cities on opposite sides of the state — the burden
is roughly the equivalent of six times the city’s
annual payroll, according to 2017 fi gures from
PERS.
That is why the Oregon Business Plan said in a
report last month: “Fixing PERS is Job 1, and it’s
doable.”
Among the plan’s recommendations: Oregon
should again require that public employees con-
tribute 6 percent of their pay to their pension, sim-
ilar to what most states do. Oregon could move to
a defi ned-contribution system, like a 401(k), for
future employees. The state also could give cur-
rent employees a choice of staying with PERS or
switching to a 401(k).
All are solid ideas. All are reasonable. Only one
thing is missing so far — leadership from Gov.
Kate Brown and the Legislature.
VOICE of the
CHIEFTAIN
The danger of resolutions and winter getaways
T
he only thing I like about
Christmas is the days have been
getting longer for three or four
days. The sappy Christmas stories are
off the TV and horrid Christmas music
is no longer cluttering up the radio.
Time to think about New Year’s res-
olutions and getting away for a few
days to Arizona or some other place
you don’t need long johns.
The problem with heading out for
a couple of weeks is even if you don’t
have stock to feed, you need someone
to check on your place. Some friends
of ours had really never had a honey-
moon or really any other type of vaca-
tion and after they had been married
for 17 years they fi nally decided to
take a few days off and get away from
the ranch and kids. Jim and Sharyn
asked me and my friend Jim to check
on the three boys, ages 16 to nine
years old. They had been gone about a
week when Jim and I remembered and
made a trip to the ranch to see how
things were going.
You know how some stories start
out bad and get worse, this is one of
them. About a mile from the ranch
we ran into the two oldest boys fi x-
ing a fence. It was obvious there had
been some kind of a wreck. It turned
out Brent, the 14 year old, had taken
his mother’s car to visit the neigh-
bors and not being an experienced
driver had slid off the road and wiped
out 40 yards of fence. The car still
OPEN RANGE
Barrie Qualle
ran but wasn’t what you would call
road worthy. We sympathized and
started to help unload fence posts.
Jim commented it was a good thing
they had the pickup for transporta-
tion. Blaine the oldest explained that
wasn’t exactly true in that it was only
good for off road ranch work for the
present. We looked at the pickup and
asked why that was. Well a few days
earlier the three boys had loaded up
horses and headed down to Cowden’s
to rope. Unfortunately, on the return
trip Blaine had neglected to release
the emergency brake when they left
and had burned out the brakes on the
pickup. Felt lucky it hadn’t ignited and
burned up. There was still front brakes
but the rig wasn’t really road worthy.
I shook my head and commented
that the boys had sure had some bad
luck. Nine year old Kyle piped up and
said yeah his mom and dad were sure
going to be mad. Jim said yeah, both
vehicles not functioning would do
that. Kyle went on that there was more
and was worried that he would also
be in trouble for his contribution. Jim
asked, “What could you wreck?”
Time for Oregon to say ‘Welcome home’
A
bout 50 years ago, more than
500,000 United States mili-
tary personnel were deployed
to Vietnam. The New Year of 1969
brought many of the same experi-
ences of 1968. 1968 was the year
of the greatest number of casualties
during the Vietnam War. Almost 3 mil-
lion warriors served in Vietnam. Thou-
sands were from Oregon. All totaled,
there were over 58,000 American
troops who died in Vietnam; 710 of
them were Oregonians.
These were the sons and daughters
of the Greatest Generation. The Viet-
nam generation of warriors went to
war and served their country well. Yet,
when they returned from serving their
nation, they did not get a thank you,
let alone a “welcome home.”
The era of the Vietnam War was
a tumultuous time. There was strife
and discord. The Vietnam Era Veter-
ans were treated poorly; spit upon, ver-
bally rebuked and on many occasions
physically attacked, for wearing a mili-
tary uniform and serving their country.
During the ensuing decades, the Viet-
nam Era veterans, and their service to
our country, were essentially ignored.
In our Oregon State Capitol build-
ing, you can fi nd a memorial to the
veterans of the Civil War. In our state
capital city of Salem, on state prop-
erties, there are memorials honoring
the Veterans of the Spanish Ameri-
can War, World War I, World War II,
GUEST COLUMN
Steve Bates
Korean War and the Afghan- Iraqi
wars.
Many Oregon communities have
a local monument, memorial or park
to honor their veterans and war dead.
Some communities have honored their
local Vietnam War heroes with sepa-
rate Vietnam War memorials.
Yet, in our state capital city, there is
not a statewide monument or memorial
honoring our Vietnam War Veterans.
The states of California and Washing-
ton erected memorials on their capi-
tol grounds to honor their Vietnam Vet-
erans and collectively say “welcome
home.” It is time for the state of Ore-
gon to do the same.
Over the past two years, a group of
Oregon residents have been working to
that end. The Vietnam War Memorial
Fund was founded as a nonprofi t chari-
table organization, established with the
sole purpose of funding and building a
Vietnam War Memorial on the Oregon
State Capitol Grounds.
As a result of the efforts of this
group, on Dec. 12, the Oregon House
Interim Committee on Veterans and
Emergency Preparedness voted to
sponsor House Bill 2195 which will
be introduced in the 2019 Legislative
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
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VOLUME 134
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Offi ce: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Contents copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
“Well, this last weekend we had a
junior rodeo in Livermore and since
their pickup wasn’t capable of haul-
ing their horses we borrowed Joe Vier-
ra’s pickup to haul the horses to the
rodeo,” he said.
When it was time to come home
they discovered Kyle had acciden-
tally locked the keys to Joe’s pickup
in the rig. Not knowing how to handle
that, the boys had jumped their horses
in with some other kids that didn’t
live too far away and rode home with
them. When Jim and Sharyn got home
from their vacation they had two inca-
pacitated vehicles and a neighbor’s
pickup 100 miles from home with the
keys locked inside. They never asked
us to watch the kids again.
Time for New Year’s resolutions.
I am much better at making resolu-
tions for other people, however unap-
preciated. Often I have a better per-
spective of how someone else could
improve their lives. You would be sur-
prised at how many people become
upset when you try to help them. As
for me, I try to set attainable goals and
this year I have resolved to not drink
whiskey in St. Louis or smoke cigars
in Kansas City. With a strong will-
power like mine I am sure to keep
these resolutions.
Barrie Qualle is an all-around
working ranch hand, author and ranch
rodeo enthusiast. He lives in Wallowa
County.
Publisher, Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com
Editor, editor@wallowa.com
Reporter, Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com
Reporter, Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com
General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com
Administrative Assistant, Amber Mock, amock@wallowa.com
Advertising Assistant, Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com
Assembly.
House Bill 2195 establishes a Viet-
nam War Memorial on the Oregon
State Capitol Grounds and provides
the necessary permissions for the expe-
ditious completion thereof. In addi-
tion, it iterates that the memorial will
be funded by donations from the pri-
vate sector.
House Bill 2195 begins the process
to enable the state of Oregon to collec-
tively say welcome home to our Viet-
nam Veterans.
This bill must be passed by the
House of Representatives and the Sen-
ate to be signed into law by the gover-
nor. You can help by telling your Rep-
resentative and Senator to support
HB2195: The Vietnam War Memo-
rial bill.
It is appropriate that a Vietnam War
Memorial be placed on the grounds
of the Oregon State Capitol. This
will demonstrate our state’s commit-
ment and gratitude to our Vietnam Era
Veterans.
Let us honor and memorialize our
Vietnam War Era Veterans for genera-
tions to come.
It is time for the state of Oregon to
say “Welcome home.”
— Steve Bates is a Life Member of
the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of
America. He serves as Chair of the
Committee on Memorials and Remem-
brance and President of the Vietnam
War Memorial Fund.
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