A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Legislature
should be making
budget choices
O
regon’s general fund
budget may take a
$2.7 billion hit in this
current budget cycle. Oregon
cannot legally have a budget
deficit. How will the state cut
that money?
There are essentially two
ways. The governor can do
across-the-board cuts. Legis-
lators could choose to let that
stick, or they can come up
with their own plan.
The governor and legisla-
tors should work together to
come up with something more
discriminating than across-
the-board cuts. That’s what we
elect them for — to set pri-
orities and make those tough
decisions.
Gov. Kate Brown already
asked state agencies to make
plans to cut their budgets by
17%. That may be slightly
more than what is needed, but
the plans will be a good start-
ing point for discussion.
Since 2002, governors have
used what’s called allotment
reduction five times, driven by
recessions. Allotment reduc-
tion is just the official name
for across-the-board cuts. But
when the governor does that,
the governor can’t pick and
choose. The assumption must
be that all general fund budget
allotments have the same pri-
ority and each gets cut by the
same percentage. Some parts
of state government actually
can’t get cut under this pro-
cess. For instance, the sec-
retary of state, the state trea-
surer, the lottery, public
universities and the judicial
branch are exempt.
It also gets complicated
because agencies do get some
discretion in implementing
cuts. An agency doesn’t need
to spread them out equally
within an appropriation from
the general fund. It could
decide certain departments
could get cut and others would
not.
If the Legislature is con-
vened, it has much more
authority to fine tune any cuts.
It could fully eliminate a pro-
gram or service that had been
authorized. That can’t be done
without the Legislature. The
Legislature also could, for
instance, decide that it would
be silly to cut anything from
the state’s employment depart-
ment at this time because the
agency has had so much trou-
ble meeting the demand for
unemployment payments.
Additionally, the Legislature
has the authority to cut spend-
ing for any entity under its
budget power and can elimi-
nate jobs and positions.
Oregon does have about
$1.6 billion in rainy day funds,
and Congress may take more
action to help states. Regard-
less, the state will have some
tough decisions to make.
Because the Legislature has
the power to more precisely
decide how Oregon will
respond to the budget chal-
lenge, the Legislature should
convene to do so.
WHERE TO WRITE
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@
centurylink.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@
cityoflongcreek.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: 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:
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State
Capitol, Salem, 97310. Phone: (503)
986-1180. Website: leg.state.or.us
(includes Oregon Constitution and
Oregon Revised Statutes).
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol
or messages for legislators) — 800-
332-2313.
• Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario – 900
Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301.
Phone: 503-986-1730. Website:
oregonlegislature.gov/Bentz. Email:
Sen.CliffBentz@oregonlegislature.gov.
• Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale – 900 Court
St. NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-
986-1460. Website: oregonlegislature.
gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20500; Phone-comments: 202-
456-1111; Switchboard: 202-456-
1414.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
GUEST COMMENT
Make Facebook and Google
pay for local news, just like you
I
f you are a newspaper sub-
scriber or you pick up a copy
at a local retailer, you pay
for the news and information
you receive in your paper’s print
edition or digital outlets.
But it may surprise you to
learn that the multi-billion-dollar
digital behemoths Facebook and
Google don’t pay for the enor-
mous amounts of news content
they scoop up from newspapers
every second. Facebook doles
out a little bit of money through
grants and funds to a few pub-
lishers — and Google provides
some small grants through its
News Initiative. While these are
positive steps, they in no way
make up for the use of the news
content they are using for free.
Newspapers’ original report-
ing, especially on the com-
munity news and information
that only local papers can pro-
vide, drive traffic to Facebook
and Google, keeping people on
their sites longer and attracting
advertisers.
And news is a rich source of
revenue for the Big Tech plat-
forms. A 2019 study conducted
by the News Media Alliance
concluded that news publish-
ers’ content makes up 16-39% of
Google’s search results, which
goes largely uncompensated.
That figure doesn’t include the
more intangible benefits that
news content, and the data that
comes with it, provide the search
giant, such as using it for new
product development.
The irony is that the news
and content that newspapers pay
journalists to provide is used by
Google and Face-
book to steadily
drive advertis-
ing revenue away
from newspa-
pers, and into
their coffers. The
Dean Ridings two digital giants
now gobble up
60% of all online advertising in
the United States — an amount
certain to increase with the cra-
tering of newspaper ad revenue
caused by the coronavirus pan-
demic. Facebook and Google
don’t have reporters or the asso-
ciated expense. They rely on
small and large newspapers to
feed their search results.
Here’s why this patently
unfair situation should concern
you and your community: It now
threatens the existence of some
local newspapers, the source
of news and information that
underpins democracy and civic
life itself.
It’s long past time for Google
and Facebook to do what news-
papers and their subscribers do:
Pay for the local news that bene-
fits them so richly.
There are ways for that
to happen. Ideally, Google
and Facebook would take the
responsibility and voluntarily
propose a method to share rev-
enue with newspapers and
other news organizations. They
already pay licensing fees to
music publishers, for instance.
Realistically, though, the
two behemoths will have to be
forced to a solution. America’s
Newspapers, an association of
some 1,500 newspapers includ-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Ask if anything
else is needed
To the Editor:
I recently bought a butane
weed burner at one of our local
hardware stores. The clerk
checked me out, smiled and
said, “Have a nice day.” I just
stood there looking at her, and
finally, she said, “Will there be
anything else?” I said, “Do you
have the propane to go with
this?”
She was going to send me
home to use this device with no
propane, making it necessary
to drive all the way back to get
some.
And this was not an isolated
incident — none of the clerks
in town will ever ask you if
there is anything else you need
or would like to go with the
thing you just bought.
It’s almost a John Day dis-
tinctive. I’ve never seen any-
thing like it before, and it’s very
annoying.
Richie Colbeth
John Day
L
ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local,
state, national or world issues. Brevity is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No
personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you letters. Submissions to this page become
property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original
and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they
can be reached for questions. We must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m.
Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or
fax to 541-575-1244.
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
Publisher............ ......................................Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com
Editor & General Manager ...............Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com
Reporter ...................................................Rudy Diaz, rudy@bmeagle.com
Reporter ...................................................... Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com
Sports ........................................................sports@bmeagle.com
1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(including online access)
Grant County .........................................$45
Everywhere else in U.S. .......................$57
Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60
Subscriptions must be paid
prior to delivery
Marketing Rep .......................................Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
Online: MyEagleNews.com
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POSTMASTER
send address changes to:
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
USPS 226-340
Office Assistant .....................................Alixandra Hand, office@bmeagle.com
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
ing many operated by fami-
lies for multiple generations,
along with the News Media Alli-
ance and other media associa-
tions have urged Congress to
pass the Journalism Competition
and Preservation Act, allowing
newspaper publishers as a group
to negotiate rates with Big Tech.
Other nations around the
world have taken notice of
the ill effect the market domi-
nance of Google and Facebook
has on the viability of inde-
pendent journalism. Australia
is now developing a code that
would require Google and Face-
book to compensate news orga-
nizations when their content is
used in the digital giants’ news
products. Similarly, France just
ordered Google to negotiate
with news publishers over pay
for news content.
This public health crisis has
demonstrated the importance
of the reporting of local news-
papers, even as it has wreaked
economic havoc on them, forc-
ing layoffs and even silencing
printing presses on some days.
Requiring Google and Facebook
to pay their fair share for news
would go a long way to restor-
ing the long-term health of your
local newspaper.
Dean Ridings is the CEO
of America’s Newspapers. On
behalf of its approximately 1,500
newspaper and associate mem-
ber companies, America’s News-
papers is committed to explain-
ing, defending and advancing
the vital role of newspapers in
democracy and civil life. Learn
more at newspapers.org.
Phone: 541-575-0710
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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