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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2010)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, September 16, 2010 The INDEPENDENT Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Opinion How to approve new laws The Vernonia City Council was presented with Ordinance 655, which outlines rules and regulations for the Water De- partment of the City. This was billed as an amendment for better clarification. 655 repeals existing Ordinance 642 and all amendments to 642. The summary presented to council indicates the last amendment made to this city law was in 2001. The summary also says that the Public Works Com- mittee reviewed the suggested amendments. The last min- utes provided to council from the committee were from June 22 and this ordinance wasn’t mentioned. So what? First, it doesn’t say Public Works recommend- ed, suggested or approved the amendment. It doesn’t say the Ordinance has been seen by anybody who is NOT on city staff or a committee. The city has, again, missed an op- portunity for community input. How could they get citizen in- put? A meeting, a town hall, perhaps a survey in the water bill. Even Councilor Kevin Hudson, who also serves as liai- son to the Public Works Committee, had comments and suggested changes, which caused council to set Ordinance 655 aside and have the Public Works Committee review it for further changes. Second, section 8, Utility Charge Liens, in 655 includes this apparently new language: In addition to a deposit, the City shall obtain a signed agreement from the owner of the premises that they accept liability for any charges accruing as a result of the provision of water service and that a lien can be filed against the premises if charges are not paid. Then (Resolution No. 14-08 No. 8 Fees for Liens) finishes that section. Most of page 3 appears to be new language with no notations to help figure out from whence it came. Dit- to almost half of page 4 and pieces of pages 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. If it sounds complicated, it’s because it is. (Note: a copy of the old ordinance was not provided to council, but the en- tire section 8 is underlined, which usually denotes new lan- guage.) Third, how, you may well ask, does council know how to vote on a mess like that? The answer is that the council summary ‘recommends’ what Council should do. Do you think staff will do all the work needed to amend a 9-page or- dinance, and then recommend that council not approve it? In this case, the paragraph entitled “Staff Recommendation” says, “It is recommended that City Council Amend Ordi- nance No. 655 Utilities (Water).” The summary even tells them how to say it; under “Suggested Motion” is the sen- tence, “I Move to Amend Ordinance No. 655 Utilities (Wa- ter).” How’s the water in Timber? Timber has a bunch of dedicated people, who without ap- parent ego, got a big water project done. They just brought a new water plant online and under budget. See story on page 15. Out of My Mind… by Noni Andersen I find it interesting that many of today’s Republi- cans are negating the long-held belief that their symbol, the elephant, has an outstanding memory. People who are inter- ested in public affairs (not the sexual affairs of peo- ple in the public eye) are aware that both unregulat- ed financial markets and profligate government spending are elements in our economic melt- down. Nevertheless, I’m amazed at those who insist that every problem was created by Presi- dent Obama in less than two years! That would be truly astounding. The tax rate for top income earners during the Eisenhower administration, in the 1950s, was about 90%. That was also a period of rapid eco- nomic growth, even while taxes provided veter- ans with higher education and subsidized mort- gages. That rate was reduced to about 70% dur- ing the Kennedy administration. Today, Congres- sional lackeys serve their masters by shrieking that the sky will fall if the tax rate for the top one percent is increased from 36% to 39%. They shriek so loudly that, sadly, the middle class is being effectively exploited into believing that they will be harmed by that falling sky if the rich start paying for their own tax loopholes. Too many Americans watch American Idol or Dancing With The Stars, not enough watch C- SPAN. David Stockman, President Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, recent- ly put his opinions in writing, “How my G.O.P. de- stroyed the U.S. economy”, saying: “If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politi- cians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt...will soon reach $18 tril- lion.” It screams “out for austerity and sacrifice.” But the GOP insists “that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate in- crease.” According to Stockman, in the past 40 years Re- publican ideology has gone from solid principles to hype and slogans. He says: “Republicans used to be- lieve that prosperity depended upon the regular bal- ancing of accounts — in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the finan- cial affairs of private households and businesses.” Today, he says, there’s a “new catechism” that’s “little more than money printing and deficit finance, vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vest- ments of the prosperous classes” making a mockery of GOP ideals and resulting in “serial financial bub- bles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy.” “…in 1981, traditional Republicans supported tax cuts,” but Stockman makes clear, they had to be “matched by spending cuts.” Today’s GOP doesn’t support extending un- employment benefits, only continued tax breaks for the wealthy, and subsidies to send jobs over- seas. The principled conservatives are extinct, it’s too bad Reagan didn’t listen to them.