4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| MARCH 6, 2019
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
The First Amendment
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ongress shall make no law respect-
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press, or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Govern-
ment 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)
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Copyright 2019 © Siuslaw News
Siuslaw News
Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County,
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Letters to the Editor policy
Local emergency services moving forward as ‘One team’
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submis-
sions on this and other topics are always
welcome as part of our goal to encourage
community discussion and exchange of
perspectives.)
Since December 2016, Western Lane
Ambulance District (WLAD) and Siu-
slaw Valley Fire & Rescue (SVFR) have
been sharing management and admin-
istrative services in a joint effort to in-
crease efficiencies in service.
At that time, we adopted the slogan
“Working Together for Our Commu-
nity.” We’ve surpassed that slogan… to
that of “One Team”
You’ll see WLAD paramedics on fire
scenes providing firefighter support;
you’ll see SVFR firefighters on medical
emergencies providing support to our
medics; on rescues and motor vehicle
accidents, we work seamlessly as “One
Team’.’
Bringing our agencies closer togeth-
er is providing greater service to our
communities, with WLAD providing
initial and ongoing medical training
Guest Viewpoint
By Steve Abel
Interim Chief Director SVFR/WLAD
to our firefighters, both career and vol-
unteer. In addition, WLAD Operations
Chief Matt House is providing vehicle
rescue and extrication training.
At the same time, SVFR houses a
back-up ambulance and places it in
service when needed — you may find a
firefighter driving an ambulance when
two paramedics are needed to attend to
a critical patient.
It’s important for both SVFR and
WLAD to provide the best possible
services, as efficiently as possible. We
are continuing to explore ways to max-
imize the tax dollars residents have en-
trusted to us.
Continuing to grow as “One Team”
is working. As a result, both elect-
ed Boards of Directors for SVFR and
WLAD will be considering a propos-
al to create a joint entity to formalize
a combined administrative team and
serve as a foundation for future areas
that could be shared.
The elected boards are working co-
operatively as are your firefighters and
medics in order to provide the best ser-
vices possible.
And to do so as “One Team.”
LETTERS
Little humor in bad
TV reporting on taxes
I have seen misstatements on TV
and political cartoons that only rein-
force a common misunderstanding
regarding payroll tax deductions and
last year’s tax cuts. I considered the
recent “editorial cartoon” on the edi-
torial page (Feb. 27) as humorous, but
after remembering recent “reporting”
on the local TV stations, I find that the
reported issues are very misleading
and just bad reporting; good reporting
would have explained the issue.
The headlines tell us that people are
complaining about having a smaller
refund or having to write a check to
pay taxes this year, suggesting that the
public did not receive a tax cut. Last
year, Congress did pass a “tax reform
and tax cut package” and most every-
one benefited. (Though, I do person-
ally disagree with some of the new
rules regarding deductions and wish
Congress did a better job of slashing
government spending.)
In America, we pay taxes using an
installment plan based on projected
earnings. Getting a “large” refund only
means that a taxpayer overpayed his
taxes and allowed Uncle Sam to hold
his over-payment until the taxpayer
figured out that Uncle Sam needs to
give back the taxpayer’s money.
The average taxpayer determines his
tax installment based on withholding
tables provided by Uncle Sam. People
in the “know” knew that the withhold-
ing tables were too high, as evidenced
by the “large refund industry.”
Furthermore, people in the “know”
adjust their withholding (tax install-
ments) accordingly. Frankly, people
receiving large annual refunds, are
poor money managers and would
seem “easy marks” for charlatans.
A conspiracy theorist might suggest
that high withholding tables is a meth-
od by the Feds to help with short-term
cash flow. Last year, Congress in its
wisdom adjusted the withholding ta-
bles to better reflect how much our tax
installments should be.
People in the “know” always try to
make taxes a zero-sum game; winning
the game means, at the end of the year,
you neither have to pay or receive
money to/from the Fed.
Estimating taxes is hard because
people’s incomes can be volatile and
variable. Ultimate financial success
requires you keep your head in the
game. Last year, net monthly pay-
checks was likely higher. The increase
is due to a lower tax installment, based
on a lower tax rate and a more accu-
rate withholding tables.
The only question that comes to my
mind is: Why is the reporting so mis-
leading?
Likely answers to the question do
not seem very humorous...
—Rory Hammond
Dunes City
New mural proposal doesn’t
represent Florence
I want to express my displeasure at
the proposed mural for the CLPUD
building. In my opinion, it looks like
inner city graffiti and does not rep-
resent Florence at all. If a “tagger” or
someone added actual graffiti to the
mural, could anyone tell the differ-
ence?
I don’t think so.
There are so many different beauti-
ful options that could still be designed,
i.e., whales passing by our coast, the
dunes, a lighthouse, dune buggies, our
state and national park forests, etc.
We have scenery that is beckoning
to many, but does this proposed design
do that? We want business to come to
Florence for economic growth — does
this massive graffiti mural attract
business or turn it away?
I have urged the Florence City
Council and our City Manager to vote
against the implementation of the cur-
rent mural design and reset the clock
with a new effort (with some new vol-
unteer members for the committee
that chose this design).
If anyone else agrees with me or has
opinion either way, please let the Flor-
ence City Council know. All Florence
residents should be able to vote on a
choice of murals and more appropri-
ate designs on how they want our city
to be represented and perceived.
—Don Drozdenko
Florence
Practical application of
costs of climate change
Have you ever experienced a travel
delay due to climate change, which
President Trump says does not exist?
Well, recently my wife and I spent
a week in Cabo San Lucas and the
weather was 72 in the day and 50 at
night which is below expected temps.
Coming back, we flew into San Fran-
cisco for a direct one-hour flight to
Eugene.
Canceled.
So, we booked a flight to Portland
instead of Seattle — but again, the
flights were canceled. We spent the
night in Portland because all flights
to Eugene were canceled due to the
weather; same for Seattle. We rented a
car and drove down I-5 to Eugene and
discovered why there had been can-
celations as we drove to the rental car
drop off through a foot of snow.
Ultimately, getting back from Cabo
cost me about the same as it would
have by staying three extra days there.
Climate change is real. And it is only
going to get more costly.
—Win Jolley
Florence
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the edi-
tor as part of a community discussion of issues on
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Email letters to:
nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com
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
@oregonlegislature.gov
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