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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1960)
o Go Legislative Candidates01 Views on O&C Controversy Are Presented State School Aid At Issue; Four ; Statements Given Editor's note: The use of O&C funds in school finance has become an issue in the present campaign. In an at tempt to get at what the con troversy is all about, and to put the candidates on record on the matter, the Mail Tri bune invited each of the four candidates for the house of representatives to provide a ' 500 words statement setting forth his or her views on the subject, in response to this question: "What is your position on the proposal that O&C reve nues be taken into considera tion in the formula allocating state funds for equalization purposes in education?" Replies were received from all four, John Dellenback and Eve Nye, Republicans, and Robert Duncan and John Gregory, Democrats. They follow: JOHN R. DELLENBACK I have been asked to state where I stand in connection with the suggestion that 0 & C revenues be taken into con sideration in the proposed for mula for distribution of funds for education. The heart of my answer lies in my convic tion as to the fundamental ob ligations of a state legislator. Under our system of repre sentative government a per son elected to represent Jack son county in our state legis lature has two basic obliga tions. First, at the time he is sworn in as a legislator he assumes an obligation to up hold the state constitution and to exercise deep concern for the welfare of the entire state and all its people. Sec ond, he is the chosen voice, arm and shield for the 72,000 people in Jackson county whom he has been elected to represenf. Sometimes the interests of Jackson- county do not run parallel to the interests of other sections of the state. When this occurs the basic concern of a representative from Jackson county must be to advance and protect the welfare and best interests of Jackson county and its peo ple. This is the keystone in the arch of our whole system of x a representative legisla ture. The system of represen tation is based on geographic areas and a person elected to represent the people of a cer tain area owes a primary ob ligation to those people to seek in all honorable ways to advance their best interests. .; Under the Oregon Consti tution the obligation of pro viding for the establishment of a uniform and general sys tem of schools is expressly declared to be a problem for the state legislature. It is of real importance to me that adequate educational opportu nities shall be made available to our young people through out the entire state. But if I am elected as a representa tive from Jackson county I will feel bound to seek to bring this to pass in a way that will not injure Jackson county. I feel that invading III V ft . - $ j ,;v HERB HUNTER FOR COUNTY ASSESSOR PLANNED ECONOMY "For which of you intending" to build a tower, lirterh not down first and counteth the cost." Luke 14:28 ' A certified Stote of Oregon Appraiser - . ' A working man's approach to' ! taxes.--". 1;;:'::"J " - r A man who listens to people Paid political ad by Hunter for County Assessor Comm., 409 Lynnwood Ave;,:.. m i i f t. ' if' f 'i DELEGATES MEET Attending a meeting of Jackson county delegates to the Gover nor's Conference on Children and Youth last week were John Snider, left, and, next to him, Mike Phillips, student body presi dents of St. Mary's and Medford High schools. The conference on Children and Youth will bs held Nov. 2, 3 and 4 in Salem and will be attended by 12 or 13 delegates from Jackson county. Pictured with the youths above are Mrs. Morris Parter, inter agency chairman, and Capt. William Ricken, chairman of the county delegation. The meeting was held in the conference room of the Public Library of Medford and Jack son county. the O & C funds which Jack son county receives instead of taxes will hurt our people economically. I am not convinced tlfat all other 'possible ways to assure substantial equality of educa tional opportunity throughout the state have been exhausted. I see no assurance that once the pattern has been estab lished of invading these funds for one purpose there will not be j increasing invasions, in larger and larger amounts, for the same purpose or for other purposes. I believe that under present circumstances the final result of opening the proposed road of invasion of O&C funds, in any percent age, will be' that Jackson county residents will pay higher real property taxes, and I am definitely opposed to this. I feel very strongly that it is my obligation to the ' peo ple of Jackson county to fight for their interests in this mat ter and,-while working for in creased state aid to our local schools, to do my best to stop iiT- , , ) , ELM0 SMITj "If I ... family man ' tFv I ff ..overseas If experienced f.jt'V? I legislator K-y - Oregon. V'- Elmo Smith I YOUR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATOR . t Your Candidate . ... for PEACE' through firmness with" Communism ... for MORE & BETTER ' JOBS for Oregonians. Your vote for Elmo Smith is a vote for continuing Amer ican military strength . . .'for a dynamic foreign policy to insure world peace through the United Nations ... for an aggressive program to give Oregon its fair share of space age industrial development ... for legislation to benefit . our senior citizens ... to protect and fully develop Ore gon's great natural resources ... to provide growing pros perity for all Oregonians. '' SMITH KNOWS YOUR NEEDS! Elmo Smith has a program for reappraisal of timber resources to provide more jobs in the Willamette Valley. He supports specific legislation to stimulate home building . . . he will take action in the U. S. Senate to gain more space age spending for the Valley ... to gain protection for Oregon farm and factory products from cheap foreign labor... he will work for YOUR benefit! Your Vote is needed le tea that ELMO SMITH Gets to Washington I Elmo Smith for U.S. Senator Committee John G. Crawford, Chm., 1503 E. Main St., Medforj), Ore. the legislature from adopting any formula which requires us to take O&C revenues into account in this regard. . . ROBERT B. DUNCAN One of the candidates has been making an issue of O&C funds, and has, perhaps inadvertently, misstated the situation and my position. I have never supported this proposal. I wrote the dissent to this, recommendation, and the bill died in committee in 1959. My opposition was based on the arbitrary percentage se lected, and the failure to con sider other sources of wealth in other counties, not on any narrow provincial desire to get something for us to which we were not entitled, at the expense of the rest of the state, while asking them for financial assistance. 1 I believe the long run wel fare of the state parallels that of Jackson county. No section can perpetrate an, injustice on another and win. xne geo graphical antagonism perpet uated by local prejudice, fan ned by political ambition, does a great disservice , to education. In determining a district's wealth for state aid purposes: true cash value of taxable property, county school funds, one-quarter of National Forest revenues (similar to O&C re ceipts), and other income, is added. If a predetermined millage rate will not . then support a basic program, that district receives equalization aid. Jackson county has bene fited from this! . O&C revenues are from sale of timber from O&C lands. Because of them we have not had a county tax levy for sev eral years. The funds are paid by federal law. No one can take this money from us. We received last year $2,- 549,345 in O&C funds; 25 per cent of this is $637,336; 12 per cent is $318,668. Both sums are less than the $781,- 410 in O&C funds which the county court in August put in the county school fund, and which is considered for equal ization purposes. Thus neither percentage proposed would af fect Jackson county adversely. The subject is inextricably conected with distribution of state aid to schools. For years we have sought a distribution formula fair to all parts of the state. The "Key District" plan sponsored by this area pro- v i d e d much equalization (more aid to poorer districts than wealth) to give Oregon children a basic education re gardless of domicile. Portland wants flat grants of state aid - so much per child regardless of the dis trict's wealth. At present, Portland gets less than it pays in income taxes, through a compromise (80 per cent flat grants, 20 per cent equaliza tion). Portland legislators sup ported this, even though it cost their county money, be cause of its importance to ed ucation. My concern is to find a dis tribution formula fair to all, and that all can support. If elected, I will continue to in- searching out the wealth of other counties as a counter argument, we -will be able to present an able defense and arrive at a fair decision. EVE NYE sist on justice for this county, along with the rest. JOHN L. GREGORY One of my Republican op ponents, John Dellenback, has based most of his campaign on this single issue, implying that some of the other candi dates would give away our O & C revenue. He has failed to tell the voters how he is go ing to prevent use of O & C revenue in ' the equalization formula for distribution of state support. In 1957, the legislature in creased the Basic School Fund to $105 for each child between the ages of 4 and 20. This fund is financed by s t a te taxes. Eighty per cent of this fund is distributed to each of the school districts based on the number of school chil dren in each district (flat grants). An equalization for mula was passed by the leg islature to distribute the re maining' 20 per cent of the Basic School Fund among the less wealthy school districts for the purpose of equalizing and improving educational op portunities of students in ele mentary and secondary educa tion. The present controversy arises from how the equaliza tion formula is to be deter mined. The 1957 legislature decided that the wealth of a district for such a formula would be "the true cash value of the taxable property in the district." The present demand by non-O&C counties is that O&C revenues be included as wealth in addition to our tax able property. This would mean we would have more wealth than under the old formula., The worst possible attack against this attempt to in crease our wealth under this formula would be the selfish and unrealistic arguments that we will not allow such to hap pen. It is selfish because we in Jackson county led the fight for equalization of state school support, based on the arguments of fair and equal educational opportunities for all. It is unrealistic because the 30 counties that do not receive large O&C funds can easily out vote the remaining six counties. ' I have never promised the voters that I alone could pass a measure, but only that I would work to the best of my ability for favorable legisla tive action. The best offense is the best defense. We should point out to the other counties all of the years when there were no O&C revenues. We should search out wealth of the other counties that has not been considered in the formula. We should consider all revenue to a county derived from non taxable property. If elected I would oppose discrimination against Jack son county as well as any county in arriving at a fair equalization formula. I would oppose the mathematical use of O&C funds in computing our wealth until all other counties of this state would agree to , use their revenue from all other sources in ar riving at their wealth. By My opposition to the use of O and C funds for state-wide distribution in support of schools is based on several actors. It was only after a long struggle that the Federal Gov ernment was persuaded to give the counties in which the Oregon and California Lands are situated 75 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of timber harvested on them. Of this amount, one third is used, by agreement between the counties and the federal Government, for de veloping and maintaining ac cess roads, reforestation, etc. The balance is placed in the county treasury to be used in defraying the costs of govern ment in the same way that Dur property tax receipts are used. Because of these funds, we in Jackson county have had no county tax levy for several years. The present issue, over whether or not a portion of these O and C funds should be considered in the formula for distributing state funds to school districts in support of tneir education programs, is not new. In the last session of the legislature a bill was introduced which would re quire O and C counties to add 25 per cent of their receiDts from sales of timber on gov ernment owned lands to the true cash value of Itheir assess able property in determining how much state support for scnoois they were entitled to. At present 20 per cent of state funds are distributed on the basis of a school district's ability to support its educa tion program as based on the amount of its true cash value. The proponents of this bill argued that since these O and C funds are in lieu of taxes they should be considered the same as other tax revenue. I SECTION D PAGES 1 to 8 Medford? Tribune MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1960 opposed the bill and it died in committee. I did it on the grounds that for many years these lands had produced no revenue for us at all and we suffered un der the handicap of an ex tremely limited tax base. Moreover, to tamper with the present handling of the funds, after the long struggle to establish our right to them, could conceivably result in the diverting of all O and C funds to the federal govern ment. This is a very real pos sibility according to those who have worked on the mat ter in Washington. The Legislative Interim Committee on Education, of which I am a member, has been working for the past 18 months on an attempt to de vise a bettor formula for dis tributing state funds in sup port of schools. The commit tee recently approved, by ma jority vote, a formula which included 25 per cent of O and C funds. I opposed this pro posal. My opposition, as stated to the committee, was based on the fact that other coun ties have certain tax advan tages, such as publicly owned utilities, Taylor Grazing Fees, etc., which are not being taken into consideration in FOR SALE! Shade traei grown at S&H LANDSCAPE NURSERY. Se lect your fall colors now. Large selection of 1 to 5 gallon , container frown plants. Out 99 North to El Rancho Motel turn right on Beal Lane left on Bursell road. Look for our sign Call NO 4-1686 the formula, and I maintain that if this principle of re quiring the use of O and C funds . is sound, then we should also consider all non tax revenues available to other counties on the same basis. This the committee has not agreed to do and I there fore stand on my opposition to the use of any O and C funds. POLIO STRIKES 140 Washington - HJPD - Polio struck 140 persons last week, 18 more than in the previous week but far below the 248 in the same week last year. The U. S. Public Health service said Friday the slight increase in polio last week mainly was caused by higher totals in the eastern states. NO SOAP London - (UPD - The bathtub is the place to get clean, ac cording to a new municipal law passed Friday which pro hibits persons from taking soap into public swimming pools. igggjgl! 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