Wednesday, March 31, 2021
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Legislators
should
clearly state
what bills
would do
S
tate Senate President Peter Courtney
held a news conference before the
2021 legislative session to announce
steps to keep the legislative process acces-
sible to Oregonians.
“We have never seen a session like
this before. We need to keep members
and staff safe,” he said. “Legislative staff
worked hard to come up with a plan that is
safe and transparent. Every session, Ore-
gonians make their voices heard on issues
they care about. We need these voices.”
But if you don’t know what the Leg-
islature is talking about it’s hard to voice
your opinion. Consider Courtney’s Sen-
ate Bill 846. It’s a model of translucency,
not transparency. The bill shifts money
around. It also reduce potentially reduces
the kicker tax refund.
Does the language of the bill clearly
state that it potentially reduces the kicker?
No.
Does it even mention the kicker? No.
Shouldn’t a bill that potentially reduces
the kicker clearly state that? Yes, we think
so. Do you?
Now if you are fluent in the bud-
get-speak of the Legislature you could fig-
ure it out from the language of the bill
— maybe. What the bill does, in part, is
repeal transfers to the general fund of $15
million from the state’s insurance fund and
from an operating account of the Depart-
ment of Justice. The money stays where it
is, at least temporarily. It just doesn’t get
shifted over to the general fund.
That matters because it effectively
reduces the general fund by that $15 mil-
lion. That affects the kicker. The kicker is
Oregon’s unique law passed by voters. It
occurs if state revenues exceed forecasted
revenues by 2% or more over a two-year
budget cycle. If that happens, the excess
including the trigger amount gets returned
to tax payers.
No final determination has been made
there will be a kicker for the 2019-2021
biennium. But the kicker is on target to
kick, according to the latest revenue fore-
cast. And because SB 846 is moving for-
ward the amount returned to taxpayers
would be less.
Look, legislators need to be able to
move money around, such as in this bill.
They need to be able to balance the bud-
get and line money up how they want to
spend it. They also should be transparent
about what they are doing and clearly state
in a bill if it would reduce the kicker.
LETTER to the EDITOR
Response to Chieftain
letter ‘Vaccine ethical
issues are concerning’
The writer challenges the ethics of the
“coronavirus vaccine campaign.” She
states “we expect our young people to
take a non-FDA approved biologic in pur-
suit of (the objective) … to benefit the
older and sicker among us.” She implies
that coronavirus vaccination to young
people at low risk for severe symptoms is
unwarranted and potentially harmful. She
argues that insufficient attention is paid to
the ethics of conducting research trials in
children.
We address the following
misunderstandings:
1. Proposed clinical trials of new drugs
undergo rigorous scrutiny by profession-
ally trained bioethicists, medical practi-
tioners and research scientists during a
mandatory Institutional Review Board
process at each study site. Studies involv-
ing children receive additional scrutiny
because of more stringent requirements
EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa
County Chieftain editorial board. Other columns, letters and
cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the Wallowa County Chieftain.
LETTERS: The Wallowa County Chieftain 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. We will not publish consumer complaints
against businesses, personal attacks against private individuals or
comments that can incite violence. We also discourage thank-you
letters.
SEND LETTERS TO: editor@wallowa.com, or via mail to Wallowa
County Chieftain, 209 NW 1st St. Enterprise, OR 97828
for informed consent. Once clinical tri-
als are underway, Data Safety Monitoring
Boards continuously oversee safety, effi-
cacy and adherence to ethical standards.
2. Although coronavirus vaccines don’t
have “FDA approval,” they do have FDA
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in
adults. EUA is not a perfunctory sanction-
ing of the vaccines; investigators must
adhere to the same scientific integrity and
ethical standards as for FDA approval.
These standards apply for studies in
children.
3. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines
are currently authorized for individu-
als over 16 and 18 years, respectively.
As of yesterday (March 23) Moderna
began enrolling children between ages of
6 months and 12 years (following paren-
tal consent!) into a trial endorsed by the
American Academy of Pediatrics. We are
unaware of “planned experimental stud-
ies on newborns” as claimed by the writer.
Her advice to take a “slow careful look”
has long ago been adopted by professional
medical ethicists and incorporated into the
CONTACT your REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
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General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
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• • •
Contents copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
SENATOR
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
Member Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
USPS No. 665-100
Cliff Bentz
1239 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
VOLUME 134
clinical trial approval process.
4. The CDC reports 273 young Amer-
icans (less than 18 years old) have died
from coronavirus. Not a single death has
been reported from administration of over
146 million doses of coronavirus vaccines
to Americans. The ethics of NOT protect-
ing young people from severe coronavirus
symptoms, including death, is what should
concern us, if vaccinations are proven effi-
cacious and safe for this age group.
5. The comment that the vaccines “just
... seems to prevent severe symptoms”
is an understatement. The Moderna and
Pfizer vaccines dramatically reduce the
incidence of COVID-19 infections and
most importantly, they reduce adult deaths
by 95%. The qualifier “seems to prevent”
is incorrect; the benefits in adults are as
clear as any scientific fact can be. These
vaccines are the wonder drugs of this
decade.
Ron Polk
Lostine
Miles McFall
Joseph
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