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Blue Mountain Eagle
BROWN
Continued from Page A1
94 percent to 99 percent and
insured children from over
98 percent to 100 percent.
Housing and
homelessness
Brown has pledged to
request $370 million from
the Legislature for afford-
able housing incentives
and housing assistance in
the next two years. Since
she became governor,
lawmakers have allocated
$300 million to assist in
building affordable units,
homelessness prevention
programs and rental assis-
tance.
Oregon Housing and
Community Services has
awarded subsidies and
tax credits to build about
15,000 units in the past
three years.
Gun control
Next year, Brown plans
to again introduce failed
legislation to prohibit
transfer of a firearm for
10 business days if Ore-
gon State Police are un-
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
able to determine whether
the recipient is eligible to
receive the weapon. The
proposal is known as clos-
ing the “Charleston loop-
hole.” She supports rais-
ing the legal age from 18 to
21 to purchase an assault
rifle and a ban on bump
stocks.
Environment
The governor supports
and her staffers are active
in helping to craft legis-
lation to create what is
known as a cap and trade
program called “Clean
Energy Jobs.”
Cap and trade programs
set an allowance, or a cap,
for the amount of carbon
dioxide industry can emit
free-of-charge.
Any business that re-
leased more than that
amount would be re-
quired to buy credits at
auction to offset their
emissions.
The proceeds of those
purchases would go to-
ward investing in projects
aimed at stemming cli-
mate change.
She also was a player
in passing the state’s Low
Carbon Fuels Standard
to reduce the intensity
of carbon in fuel and the
statewide plan to gradual-
ly abandon coal-generated
electricity.
Public
Employees
Retirement
System
Public employers are in
heavy debt over the state’s
generous public retire-
ment benefits. Brown has
spearheaded some modest
changes to the pension
system, such as incentives
for public employers to
pay off debt, but none so
far have made a signifi-
cant impact on the state’s
$25 billion unfunded fu-
ture obligation to retirees.
Brown said she wants
covered workers to have
“skin in the game,” and
noted that after recent
rounds of collective bar-
gaining, 98 percent of
state workers will pay
6 percent of their salary
for their pension side ac-
counts. That’s known as
the “employee contribu-
tion” but had long been
paid by the state.
BUEHLER
Continued from Page A1
development and offer prop-
erty tax abatement to incen-
tivize the construction of
affordable units. He also is
a proponent of tweaks to the
state’s land use laws to make
it easier to build affordable
housing in areas that are now
outside the urban growth
boundary.
Gun control
Buehler supports a ban on
bump stocks and raising the
legal age to purchase an as-
sault rifle from 18 to 21.
In 2017, he voted for
Brown’s legislation to con-
fiscate firearms from domes-
tic abusers.
He voted against a bipar-
tisan bill designed to pre-
vent suicides and other gun
violence by creating a way
to petition the courts to tem-
porarily confiscate a fire-
arm from a family member
or loved one who is at risk
of harming others or them-
selves.
“... if you are going to
take away someone’s funda-
mental right in regards to the
Second Amendment, in my
opinion, they need due pro-
cess,” Buehler said. “They
need to have their time in
court, too, to make their case
why they shouldn’t have
their firearm taken from
them, and most other states
have that due process com-
ponent in the legislation.”
He also opposed a pro-
posal by Brown to prohibit
the transfer of a firearm for
10 business days if Oregon
State Police are unable to
determine whether the re-
cipient is eligible to receive
the weapon. The propos-
al is known as closing the
“Charleston loophole.”
Environment
Buehler opposed a pro-
posed cap and trade program
in Oregon earlier this year
but says he would be willing
to support a carbon tax to ad-
dress climate change.
Cap and trade programs
set an allowance, or a cap,
for the amount of carbon
dioxide industry can emit
free-of-charge. Any business
that released more than that
amount would be required to
buy credits at auction to offset
its emissions. The proceeds
of those purchases would go
toward investing in projects
aimed at stemming climate
change.
Buehler says he opposed
that plan because the reve-
nue went to the Department
of Environmental Quality
rather than bolstering the
state’s general fund.
He voted for the state’s
Low Carbon Fuels Standard
to reduce the intensity of car-
bon in fuel in 2015 and for a
statewide plan to gradually
abandon coal-generated elec-
tricity in 2016.
Public Employees
Retirement
System
Buehler says he would
move the pension program’s
$25 billion in unfunded obli-
gations to retirees to the top of
his agenda.
“I won’t sign any new
spending bills until I have
a PERS reform bill on my
desk,” he said. Reforms he
would like to see would: cap
annual payouts to future re-
tirees at $100,000 per year;
require public employees to
contribute to their retirement
fund; and transition the pen-
sion plan to a 401(k) retire-
ment plan.
MCLEOD-
SKINNER
Continued from Page A1
and Kosovo and an environ-
mental planner for the Santa
Clara Valley Water District
for five years.
In response to submitted
questions, McLeod-Skinner
promised to hold annual town
halls across the district as
well as using Skype to hold
debates with students.
She said she wants to
keep youths informed but
also restore confidence in
government.
For too long, Democrats
have focused on issues orig-
inating in urban areas while
Republicans focused on
helping big business, she
said. To achieve results in
Washington, D.C., repre-
sentatives needed to devel-
op consensus about an is-
sue, talk to experts and then
get legislation passed. She
said Congress should push
back on the Trump adminis-
tration’s tariffs, which were
hurting agriculture.
McLeod-Skinner
em-
phasized the importance of
bringing broadband internet
to rural counties to provide
Eagle photos/Richard Hanners
Grant Union High School senior Tanner Elliott speaks to Jamie McLeod-Skinner, the
Democratic candidate for Oregon’s Second Congressional District, during a Sept. 26
town hall meeting in Canyon City.
educational opportunities
and promote economic de-
velopment. Large data cen-
ters have been established
S
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A Time
Everyday Quality Used Furniture
Refurbished Mattresses
Jewelry
Home Accessories & Kitchen
Antiques & Collectables
in Prineville, she said, add-
ing that she has maintained
her connections with people
in Silicon Valley.
Eastern Oregon can boast
about its quality of life, but
it lacks good housing and
internet access, she said.
The
U.S.
Supreme
Court’s Citizens United
case, which changed cam-
paign finance regulations for
corporations, has had a ma-
jor impact on the U.S., Mc-
Leod-Skinner said. One rea-
son so many people distrust
government is the belief that
money is influencing gov-
ernment decisions, she said.
Her campaign is not as well
funded as Walden’s, which
will become evident soon,
she noted.
Grant County Judge Scott Myers speaks to Jamie
McLeod-Skinner at a town hall meeting Sept. 26.
McLeod-Skinner said health care, education and
economic development are top priorities.
McLeod-Skinner
sup-
ports proactive steps to ad-
dress climate change. Her
focus has been on promot-
ing renewable energy, but
other creative opportunities
exist to lessen human im-
pacts, she said.
Even if other nations
won’t step up and take steps
to address climate change,
the U.S. should at least
address its own impacts,
she said.
When asked about for-
est
management,
Mc-
Leod-Skinner said she
supports the collaborative
stewardship work of the
Blue Mountains Forest Part-
ners and the formal review
process that federal land
agencies follow.
Recognizing public frus-
tration and divisiveness
over issues, McLeod-Skin-
ner said officials in Wash-
ington, D.C., should not
micromanage the nation’s
natural resources. Listen-
ing to each other’s opinions
and agreeing to disagree is
better than shouting at each
other and not working to-
gether, she said.
McLeod-Skinner
and
Walden will debate at 7
p.m. Oct. 5, along with In-
dependent candidate Mark
Roberts.
Eastern Oregon residents
can stream the debate on
ktvz.com and can submit
questions to the candidates
on the station’s website at
ktvz.com/share.
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