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The INDEPENDENT, September 18, 2003
The
INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice
monthly, on the first and third Thursdays of each month, by
Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge Street, Vernonia,
OR 97064, as a free newspaper. Publishers, Dirk & Noni An
dersen. Editor, Noni Andersen. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410,
e-mail: noni@vernonia.com Display Advertising, Clark Mc-
Gaugh, 503-429-9410, e-mail: clark@vernonia.com
Town will miss Art Parrow
When Art Parrow died last week, no one was very sur
prised - not only was he 81 years old, but he had been
battling cancer and heart trouble.
Nevertheless, he will be missed.
His introduction to Vernonia in 1968 was as high
school principal, a job that requires both a strong spine
and a strong sense of humor. Fortunately, he had both.
There is an obituary on page 20, so we’re only hitting
the high spots here, but those characteristics served him
well in other endeavors, too, most notably as Vernonia’s
mayor, a position that includes brickbats and praise, de
served and undeserved.
Art’s dahlias are all over town and some of his wood
working projects still decorate our sidewalks at Christ
mas time. He didn’t run from controversy, but he didn’t
miss a chance for a laugh or two, either. Art Parrow was
a principled man with a twinkle in his eye; he will be
missed.
VRFPD board has chance
to make improvements
Vernonia Fire District’s Board of Directors has, for far
too long, neglected to completely fulfill it responsibilities,
which was made abundantly clear to them when Chief
Paul Epler resigned. They haven’t been dishonest in any
way; they just kept avoiding any controversy, which
meant they not only failed to eliminate the problems, but
they also failed to sustain their own policies or support
their chief when it was most necessary.
It appears that the board plans to get everything in or
der, now. So, instead of looking back and saying “well,
we used to...’’ keep looking - and moving forward.
Another park dedication
is good news for Vernonia
On Friday, September 26, there will be a dedication
ceremony at Airport Park to celebrate the improvements.
Among the invited guests, there will be representa
tives of several state agencies that were the key to both
funding and completing the project.
But the City hopes that local residents who haven’t
been out to see the work, will also attend the celebration.
It’s a beautiful park so why not join the party?
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tiy state Hep. Betsy Johnson (District 31)
While most Oregonians will remember the
72nd Oregon Legislature as being the longest in
state history - 227 days - it was also one of the
most productive sessions in recent years. The
Legislature successfully addressefd most of the
critical issues facing the state, including the
staggering budget shortfall, the public pension
crisis and the crumbling transportation system.
The Senate adjourned on Aug. 26 and the
House followed the next evening after Gov. Ted
Kulongoski signed a tax increase bill earlier in
the day. Republican House leaders had insisted
on staying in session until the governor signed
the bill into law.
I wish I could report to you that lawmakers
have come up with a long-term solution to shore
up the structural weaknesses in the public fi
nance system that has made Oregon's budget
crisis one of the nation’s worst. However, there
was no time left in the hectic final days of this
session to craft a tax reform bill.
The Legislature did vote to establish a com
mittee to develop a tax-reform plan and submit
its findings to a special session of the Legislature
next June. It's the only way to get past the talk
ing stage and come up with a practical long-term
solution.
The crux of the problem is that Oregon’s gen
eral fund relies solely on the personal, and to a
much lesser degree, the corporate income tax.
In healthy economic times the revenue generat
ed by these income taxes is also robust. When
the economy sours the receipts go down propor
tionately. When receipts are not sufficient to
meet the agreed upon level of expenditures, the
Legislature is faced with reducing expenditures,
borrowing money, or raising additional revenue
through an increase in personal and corporate
income taxes.
Key accomplishments of the 2003 Legislature
2003-05 Budget -W ith nearly a $2 billion
drop in revenue since 2001, the Legislature
managed to agree on a two-year, $11.6 billion
budget that leaders say contains adequate sup
port for schools and social services.
PERS reform - To control the ballooning
costs of the Public Employees Retirement Sys
tem (PERS), lawmakers passed laws that scale
back benefits of many of the 215,000 people in
the system by slowing the growth of retirement
accounts and freezing cost-of-living adjustments
for some retirees. Public employee unions have
already filed lawsuits in state and federal courts
seeking to overturn the changes.
Human services - The budget crisis threat
ened to remove 65,000 single adults and child
less low-income couples from the state’s innova
tive health coverage plan. However, lawmakers
approved the necessary funds to avoid reducing
eligibility for the plan. A $2.4 billion human serv
ices budget also restores mental health, chemi
cal dependency and emergency dental services
for these people; restores in-home and other
services for about 1,200 impaired people who
lost state assistance earlier this year; restores
monthly welfare payments that were cut by $5
the past 18 months; and rolls back monthly co
payment for job-related day care assistance
from $43 to $25 effective Oct. I.
State school support - The two-year budget
provides $5.2 billion in state school support
Please see page 15