4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| OCTOBER 3, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
| 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
C
The First Amendment
ongress shall make no law respecting an es-
tablishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press, or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800)
Time to ask serious questions of state legislators
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submis-
sions on this and other topics are al-
ways welcome as part of our goal to
encourage community discussion and
exchange of perspectives.)
F
all is in the air and as we move
toward the end of another out-
standing year in the City of Florence,
we will soon be presenting our State
of the City message and I assure you
that it will be exciting.
That, however, is not what
this message is about.
As your Mayor, it is easy to
become inwardly focused on
the success of our community
and to forget about some of the issues
that our state is facing. With election
time just around the corner, it is also
easy to get lost in all the rhetoric from
both extremes and simply not focus
on what some of these issues mean to
you and to me.
Now, in recent weeks our legislators
and prospective legislators are show-
ing up in our community to let us
know how concerned they are about
local issues, but it seems that concern
disappears shortly after election time.
Shortly following the November
election, the 2019 legislative session
will convene and address some 2,000
bills that will be introduced under
the guise of making Oregon a better
place for all of us.
Now first, I must tell you that I am
not a legislative expert, nor will I ever
be, so whatever I tell you here is fil-
tered by my own perception and pret-
ty much limited to what I am told by
others. That said, in recent political
forums, such as the League of Oregon
Cities Convention and the Oregon
Coastal Caucus I have been enlight-
ened with what I believe will be the
legislative priorities in the coming
2019 legislative session.
Four of the top priorities will be:
• Public Employees Retirement
System unfunded liability has risen
to $25.3 billion (Yes billion) That is
a debt that each of us owe and will
someday have to be paid. It is expect-
ed that some form of revenue bill will
be enacted to begin to reduce this
debt.
• Cap and Trade: a bill that pur-
Guest Viewpoint
By Joe Henry
Mayor of Florence
ports to reduce carbon emissions
however estimates are between $800
million and $2.0 billion in revenue to
the state which will come from our
largest businesses and in turn will be
passed along to the consumer.
In short, the state will sell carbon
coupons to businesses and if they
don’t use all their allocation they can
in turn sell their coupons to other
companies to be used to pollute the
atmosphere and you and I will pay.
• Property tax reform. Regard-
less of what they tell you, there will
be legislation introduced to level the
playing field and tax all real estate at
fair market value rather than assessed
value.
I am pretty sure that no one’s taxes
will go down and that it will adversely
affect many Oregon property owners.
• I listened to a leader of one of the
houses emphatically state that the
session will not end without some
form of Sales Tax.
These are only a few of the top leg-
islative priorities being talked about
by your legislators but there are many
more bills that will be considered.
Almost without exception the have
a price tag and the ones that will ul-
timately pay that bill will be you and
me.
Take for example the $5.3 billion
transportation bill that was passed
last year under an “Emergency Pro-
vision” that allowed this bill to be
passed without being on the ballot.
Did you notice a new bite on your
paycheck on July 1st titled “Oregon
Trans Tax”?
Have you purchased a new car
and noticed a $500 excise (sales)
tax or a new bicycle with a sim-
ilar tax? Soon, your license fees
and other fees will increase sub-
stantially.
I know nothing about this organi-
zation but according to the Taxpayer
Association of Oregon Foundation,
but this is how Oregon ranks com-
pared to other states:
We are No. 5 on spending: Ore-
gon state spending per person is the
fifth-highest in the nation, outpacing
the national average by more the 55
percent, according to the Kaiser Fam-
ily Foundation.
The most recent information from
the Census Bureau shows state and
local government in Oregon spends
$11,300 per person, which is about
7 percent higher than the average
across all states.
Over the same time period, person-
al income in Oregon was 8 percent
lower than the national average.
If this is in fact true, shouldn’t we
be asking our legislators why? And
what is being done about it? Not just
our elected officials but those who are
seeking election to those positions?
I think that it is time to ask some
serious questions before we become
the #1 spending state in the nation.
LETTERS
Ignorance is more costly
than edecation
Temperment alone shoeld
disqealify Kavanaegh
That slogan has been around for
years, but it still resonates today.
It’s certainly what we citizens of
Florence should think about as we
consider support for our current
school bond measure. Our current
high school was built almost 50 years
ago, and not only does it fail to meet
current building safety codes, it does
not provide our students and teach-
ers the environment they deserve ...
and our community needs.
We will be voting “yes” on Bond
Measure 20-291.
I watched the entirety of the Senate
hearing on Sept. 27, and heard the
testimony of both Christine Blasey
Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Whether
you found Dr. Ford’s testimony cred-
ible or not is a personal decision that
each person must make.
I found Judge Kavanaugh's tes-
timony disturbing. Judges are sup-
posed to be impartial and non-par-
tisan. He showed he is neither. Judge
Kavanaugh was belligerent, loud, ar-
rogant and entitled, just as Dr. Ford
described him during his alleged at-
tack on her.
He was rude and combative with
the Democratic senators and gener-
ally disrespectful and inappropriate.
If Judge Kavanaugh did not attack
Dr. Ford, he has a right to be angry
— but as a man in his position, he
should know better how to express
that anger.
The FBI investigation is a re-open-
ing of Judge Kavanaugh's back-
ground check. It won't provide any
conclusions regarding the alleged
sexual assault, but it will provide ad-
ditional facts which senators can use
to make a wise and informed deci-
sion as regards this nominee.
If he is truly innocent of the attack,
he should welcome this.
In my opinion, based on Judge Ka-
vanaugh’s behavior at the hearing, he
lacks the impartiality and the judicial
temperament to sit on the bench of
the highest court in America.
That alone should be enough to
—Carole and Mike Babcock
Florence
Compelling words from
a candidate
Last week, I heard some compel-
ling statements made by a candidate
running for office:
1) Politicians do not want to solve
the problem; they only want to bene-
fit from them
2) When politicians oppose any-
thing, they call it a lie.
3) Don't believe in career politi-
cians.
The man who made those state-
ments was Art Robinson, who is
running for U.S. Representative form
Oregon.
In my opinion, he is a brilliant and
humble man.
For those reasons, I am voting for
him.
— Lita Edwards
Florence
disqualify him.
—Marybeth Marenco
Florence
Will miss working with
patients in Florence
It is time for me to retire from
medical practice in Florence. There
is a conflict for me in leaving because
I am aware of how difficult it is for
patients to access care given the lim-
ited availability of physicians and the
increasing struggles in navigating
the current medical system.
I will miss the wonderful staff and
my colleagues in the Department of
Orthopedics. As a group, they have
consistently tried to do their best by
patients.
I will miss the staff and clinicians
at Peace Harbor who try to meet the
needs of the community, fighting for
small successes in the face of finan-
cial and corporate forces that work to
diminish the human connection and
dedication that is at the core of excel-
lent medical care.
Mostly, I will miss you — the pa-
tients — who have shown incredible
courage and coping skills in the face
of major life challenges. Although of-
ten seeing you in pain has been dis-
tressing, overall it has been a joy to
work with you.
Successes we have achieved togeth-
er in improving your health and life
constitute my greatest satisfaction.
—Michael Weinstein, MD
Florence
USPS# 497-660
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Ned H ickson
Erik Chalhoub
Publisher, ex t. 318
Editor, ex t. 313
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echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com
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O ffice Super visor, ex t. 312
Pro d u c t i o n Su p e r v i s o r
Pre s s M a n a ge r
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Je re my G e n t r y
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WHERE TO WRITE
Pres. Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments:
202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line:
503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.gov
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
(4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609
541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan
(Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@
oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email: rep.caddymckeown
@state.or.us
West Lane County
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email: Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us