A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
PERS needs
productive
reforms
he message to Oregon
legislators from Gov.
Kate Brown’s staff last
week was that PERS has an
immediate problem.
Yet the solutions proposed
by the governor are modest at
best.
The problem is the Oregon
Public Employees Retirement
System has too little money
to pay its projected pension
benefits. That gap, whose size
ranges from $15 billion to more
than $20 billion depending on
what assumptions are made,
is PERS’ unfunded actuarial
liability. And to fill that gap,
schools, cities, counties and the
state are spending increasingly
larger shares of their budgets
on PERS.
Each PERS employer, of
which there are about 915,
has its own unfunded liability.
School districts generally are
in the worst shape, with their
unfunded liability averaging
176 percent of their payroll.
Brown will ask the 2018
Legislature, which convenes
Feb. 5, to pull money from
other sources and put it into
an account to help school
districts pay for PERS. Brown
suggested that money could
come from Oregonians’
unclaimed property, increased
collections of debts owed to
the state, lawsuit settlements, a
potential tax amnesty program,
higher-than-usual capital
gains and estate taxes and
other sources. Revenue from
new Oregon Lottery games
also could help schools, along
with community colleges and
universities, pay for PERS.
The governor’s proposed
legislation also would create —
T
but not pay for — a matching
fund to encourage employers
to act faster, instead of letting
their current budget needs
overwhelm their eventual PERS
obligations. For example, the
state might match 25 cents for
every dollar paid by a PERS
employer. It would be up to the
2019 Legislature to fund that
matching program.
Those are good ideas. Still,
it’s disappointing that this
is all Brown could come up
with from last year’s blue-
ribbon task force on the PERS
unfunded liability. And it’s even
more discouraging that Brown
won’t take up PERS benefits
reforms. Not in this year’s
legislative session; maybe not
in next year’s, either.
Brown says she doesn’t
want to try approaches that will
be thrown out by the Oregon
Supreme Court. Instead, she
and the Legislature must
recognize their Catch-22: The
only way to know whether
further reforms will pass legal
muster is to enact them and
have them tested in court.
Of course, that will require
going toe-to-toe with the unions
in an election year, and we’re
not convinced Brown will do
that, either.
Instead of shying from
productive reforms, the
governor and legislators
should embrace them with the
knowledge that they dare not
count on the PERS savings
until the subsequent litigation
ends.
That would be a more
courageous approach than
Brown’s modest PERS
proposals for the 2018
Legislature.
F ARMER ’ S F ATE
Farm hair, don’t care
By Brianna Walker
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
I have always fancied myself a
soul from the ’50s — with TV role
models like Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver,
Andy Griffith and Aunt Bee and
music from Elvis, Chuck Berry,
and Jerry Lee Lewis. Sometimes I
imagine myself living in “the good
old days,” but then I remember
that women needed lipstick and
town gloves to be properly dressed.
When I step out the door to face
the day, I check for sunglasses and
a pocketknife — to me, that acces-
sorizes any outfit.
Years ago, a Mary Kay salesper-
son was encouraging me to wear
more makeup, saying how much
more confident I would feel. One
look at the price tags, and I knew
she was right — I would feel con-
fidently broke! Attempting to say
no, I told her I preferred the natural
look. She quickly flipped through a
few pages and showed me 18 cos-
metics I could use to perfect the “all
natural” look! My mouth smiled,
my head nodded and my brain si-
lently screamed, “If I’m going to
paint something, my husband has
a whole fleet of implements that
could use another coat of John
Deere green!”
But the lack of sophistication in
my morning make-up routine may
be the cause for my recent string
of skin care vexations. Let me start
at the beginning. Earlier this year,
a cousin pointed out that I have fi-
nally been blessed with white hair.
In that moment, I experienced the
first four stages of grief: denial,
anger, bargaining and depression.
I tried all summer to get to stage
five — acceptance — without suc-
cess. Then one morning, standing in
front of the mirror, trying to assure
myself there were no new ones, my
husband made all the frustration go
away.
“They’re not white hairs,” he
said, “They’re wis-
dom highlights!”
So he sports his
“chrome”
beard,
and I have my “wis-
dom
highlights”
and all OK again —
Brianna
until my birthday. I
Walker
must have triggered
a magic number in
a database some-
where, because everywhere I go
I am bombarded with skin care,
wrinkle cream and anti-aging se-
rum.
My skin care rituals are pret-
ty minimalistic — usually just a
baby wipe before bed. I’ve never
thought of this as laziness. I like
to think of it as energy-saving
mode. But maybe it’s not working
as well as it has in the past. After
one salesperson worked especially
hard to get me to buy their product,
I have to say I took a good, long
look at my wrinkles in the mirror
that night. Time may be a great
healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.
The weeks passed with more
salespeople trying to sell me skin
care. And I kept making flippant
comments like, “Who needs that
when I can wake up like this?”
Then last week, after a straw de-
livery, I stopped at a local depart-
ment store to pick up some essen-
tials.
I was wearing dirty blue jeans,
cowboy boots and a shirt that prob-
ably still had a little straw stuck to
it. I rounded a corner of the store
with my cart, and that’s when it
happened — I inadvertently made
eye contact with a cosmetic sales-
woman. I quickly attempted to cor-
rect my mistake, but I couldn’t get
the cart to change direction. Before
I knew it, she had pressed a box into
my hand. A product valued at the
low price of only $199.
“It’s supposed to clean and hy-
drate, and exfoliate,” and every oth-
er wonderful thing skin care prod-
ucts can do.
I wanted to throw the box down
and run, but instead, I stood rooted
to the spot, nodding politely. My
brain was still screaming run, when
she took a cotton ball and dabbed
some of the miracle goo on it. She
pushed up my sleeve.
“Let me show you how much
this stuff cleans,” she announced as
she wiped the cotton ball across my
arm.
The arm that had been hit with
a rotten cantaloupe while picking
melons, had been covered in sweat
from loading hay and the arm that
I’d held up to deflect the dog slob-
bers from the hound. I held my
breath as she held up the dirty ball
of cotton.
“See?” she said triumphantly.
“Just look at all that dead skin res-
idue that this will remove! Most of
us don’t realize just how much dirt
stays on our skin, which contribute
to fine lines. That’s why this stuff is
so amazing...”
Honestly, I was surprised it
wasn’t dirtier. Those baby wipes
must do a good job after all.
“Isn’t it just terrifying how much
debris is on our skin?”
We had just come back from my
husband’s 20-year high school re-
union, and what’s really terrifying,
to quote Kurt Vonnegut, “is to wake
up one morning and discover that
your high school class is running
the country.”
Compared to that, what are a
few wisdom highlights and twin-
kle wrinkles? Those little lines that
scurry all around my face, they tell
the story of my life — all 38 years of
it. I’m not opposed to skin care, but
next time I receive before-and-after
photos of the latest in skin care rev-
olution, I just may start humming,
“Maybe she’s born with it, maybe
it’s an Instagram filter.”
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
‘Suppression and
civil rights violations’
W HERE TO W RITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityoflong-
creek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax:
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: www.
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
• State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario (Dis-
trict: 60), Room H-475, State Capitol, 900
Court St. N.E., Salem OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1460. Email: rep.cliffbentz@state.
or.us. Website: www.leg.state.or.us/bentz/
home.htm.
To the Editor:
What a more appropriate venue
for a public meeting than using it as
an opportunity to attack members of
the public. Perhaps there is no truer
character display of power-grasping
collaboratives and a federal agency
than to belittle citizens, their observa-
tions and opinions and to publicly and
aggressively castigate them with in-
sults. On Dec. 8, The Outpost Restau-
rant was the scene of the Harney
County Restoration Collaborative
meeting with the local Blue Mountain
Forest Partners collaborative and For-
est Service representatives. Two local
citizens attended this public meeting
by invitation from HCRC. Their at-
tendance, clearly not welcomed by
all, and their attempt to participate
in discussion was oppressed, verbal-
ly insulted and attacked to the point
of perceived violence. This brings to
mind the long-forgotten Grant Coun-
ty Ordinance 94-04, an Emergency
Ordinance (1) to protect the public
peace, general welfare, health, and
safety of the citizens from violations
of the constitutional rights of the cit-
izens (et al) such as the Civil Rights
Act, 18 USC 241 et seq, and public
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM
E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
R EPORTER ............................... R ICHARD H ANNERS , RICK @ BMEAGLE . COM
C OMMUNITY N EWS .................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
S PORTS ................................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
M ARKETING R EP ....................... K IM K ELL , ADS @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE M ANAGER ..................... L INDSAY B ULLOCK , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE A SSISTANT .................... A LIXANDRA P ERKINS , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
meeting laws. One of the public at-
tendees was a female very active
in county matters who had already
been demeaned by the BMFP, denied
membership because of her associa-
tions and her participation in public
meetings. This last attack strongly
indicates suppression and civil rights
violations. We should thank Mr. Han-
nibal of the BMFP whose actions
clarified the accepted character of
these organizations and the perceived
violent nature hidden within. The
involvement with Grayback, Iron
Triangle, BMFP and the Forest Ser-
vice will be noted as well as the shad-
owed persona of those who approve
of these actions. Regarding the ones
refuted membership because of asso-
ciations, that pendulum swings both
ways for those who claim to represent
our county through associations with
those aforementioned organizations.
Judy Kerr
Canyon City
End the sugar cartels
To the Editor:
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)
is in the pocket of the nation’s beet
and cane sugar cartels! Wyden con-
tinually votes to maintain the U.S.
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Sugar Program. Why? It is really
quite simple: Sen. Wyden received
well over $72,000 in political do-
nations from the sugar cartels since
coming to Washington in 1981.
Thanks to Sen. Wyden and others,
the U.S. Sugar Program continues.
The Sugar Program is a Soviet-style
command-and-control scheme that
restricts planting and imports. This
inflates the price of sugar in the Unit-
ed States to almost double the world
price. So, when you go to the store to
buy a snack cake or anything sweet-
ened, you pay more! According to
the Congressional Budget Office,
the program means Americans pay
$3.5 billion every year in increased
grocery costs, which breaks down to
upwards of $50 per family.
In Sen. Wyden’s 36 years in of-
fice, he repeatedly voted against
sugar reform, costing each Oregon
family an additional $1,800 for gro-
ceries. You have to ask yourself, is
my senator really fighting to make
life better, or is he just another pol-
itician in it for the campaign contri-
butions? It’s time for Sen. Wyden to
step up and end this costly govern-
ment giveaway to the cartels!
Nicholas A. Pyle, president
Independent Bakers’
Association
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