The INDEPENDENT, February 15, 2012
Where to Find Them
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
(Dem)
1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Suite 585
Portland OR 97232
Phone: 503-326-7525
223 Dirksen Senate Ofc. Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510-0001
Phone: 202-224-5244
E-Mail: http://wyden.senate.gov/
contact
Website: http://wyden.senate.
gov
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
(Dem.)
One World Trade Center
121 SW Salmon St., Suite 1250
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-326-3386
313 Hart Senate Ofc. Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3753
E-Mail: http://merkley.senate.
gov/contact
WebSite: http://merkley.senate.
gov
U.S. Representative Suzanne
Bonamici, (Dem) OR District 1
620 SW Main, Suite 606
Portland, OR 97205
Phone: 503-326-2901
2338 Rayburn House Ofc. Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-0855
Website: http://bonamici.house.
gov
Senator Betsy Johnson
(Dem) Senate District 16
PO Box R,
Scappoose, OR 97056
Phone: 503-543-4046
900 Court St. NE, S-314
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-986-1716
E-mail: sen.betsyjohnson@
state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.
us/johnson
Representative Brad Witt
(Dem) House District. 31
21740 Lindberg Road,
Clatskanie, OR 97016
Phone: 503-728-4664
900 Court St. NE, H-373
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-986-1431
E-mail: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.
us/witt
Representative Deborah
Boone
(Dem) House District 32
PO Box 926
Cannon Beach, OR 97110
Phone: 503-717-9182
900 Court St. NE, H-375
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-986-1432
E-mail: rep.deborahboone@
state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.
us/boone
Page 3
Letters
Thanks for help with Keep law library for
Christmas Dinner
use of all citizens
To the Editor:
We wish to express our
thanks to all of the volunteers
that helped make the Christ-
mas Dinner in Vernonia a suc-
cess this past year. We served
over 150 people in the commu-
nity but could not have done it
without a lot of help.
Special thanks to Pauline
Coffman, Bob and Audeen
Wagner and son for serving,
Richard and Wes Lubbes for
helping in the kitchen, and Art
and Georgia from McMinnville
for serving dessert. We also
want to thank Jim and Susan
Gore for their contribution and
the Vernonia Senior Center for
donating the use of their
kitchen and dining room on this
special day. There are many
others who helped to put this
event together and we thank
everyone who lent a hand.
We would like to remind
everyone that the Vernonia Se-
nior Center is open to the entire
community, five days a week,
for nutritious lunches.
The James Gang
Vernonia
To the Editor:
The Oregon legislature is
again in session with an agen-
da involving the transfer of pub-
lic dollars into the pockets of
big corporations and away from
basic public services providing
jobs and services to the citi-
zens of Columbia County.
One example is the cuts to
the court system in Columbia
County. Budget cuts have re-
sulted in layoffs and now the
courts are only open 4 days a
week and by phone 6-1/2 hours
per day, 4 days a week. Pro-
cessing of cases is delayed,
cases take longer, and contro-
versies and problems go unre-
solved longer. The people laid
off are our neighbors.
These cuts are on top of ma-
jor cuts to Legal Aid, which
sharply reduces the access of
lower income county residents
to the courts, making them
even more vulnerable in a
world where the wealthy and
big corporations have $1000/hr
attorneys and easy access to
courts and legal resources.
Lower income residents have
to rely on substantially defund-
ed Legal Aid working with an
excellent but limited set of local
volunteer attorneys, and local
educational resources to help
them through the process.
One vital element in this is
the availability of the Columbia
County Law Library (in St. He-
lens a block away from the
courthouse on 1st Street) as a
resource for Legal Aid, local at-
torneys, and Columbia County
citizens who educate them-
selves on the law and how to
use the legal system. This Li-
brary has been a resource in
our county for generations and
is currently being reorganized
to provide an up-to-date collec-
tion of legal publications in a
variety of areas of the law for
use by Columbia County citi-
zens, Legal Aid and local attor-
neys.
That’s the good news. The
bad news is that the legislature,
in addition to further budget
cuts to the courts, is consider-
ing wiping out county law li-
braries. The most often heard
argument is that “it’s all online”
so we don’t need libraries. This
is nonsense. While it is true
that most of the legal materials
in the library are on line some-
where, access is allowed on
line only through specific sub-
scriptions and they are very ex-
pensive. Libraries were invent-
ed as a form of co-op so that
we all pay a small amount (in
filing fees for court cases) for a
central collection that we can
all use when we need it, as op-
Please see page 10
Policy on Letters
The INDEPENDENT will
not publish letters with per-
sonal attacks on private citi-
zens. Preference will be giv-
en to brief letters, 300 words
or less.
All letters must be signed
and include a verifiable ad-
dress or phone number.
— NOTICE —
The INDEPENDENT is
published on the first and
third Wednesday of each
month. Because February
has five Wednesdays, there
will be three weeks before
the next issue, on March 7,
2012.
The deadline for the Mar.
7 issue is Friday, Mar. 2.
Salem Scene
By Representative Brad Witt
Oregon District 31
On Wednesday, we received the latest
update on the state’s revenue forecast. It
was better than we had hoped, but still
shows us losing an additional $35 million
for a total of about $340 million for this bi-
ennium. According to state economist
Mark McMullen, Oregon is experiencing
broad-based growth across many private
sector industries, although it is stubbornly
slow and still very fragile. In addition, the
loss of public sector jobs is still a drag on
the recovery. Nevertheless, due to some very adroit maneuver-
ing, there will be no further cuts to K-12 in the re-balance budget
that we will vote on later this month. That is great news for our lo-
cal school districts.
Furthermore, when we formulated the budget during the 2011
session for the 2011-2013 biennium, we knew that our ship of
state had not quite turned around yet, so we held back 3.5% of all
agency budgets, with the exception of K-12, as a contingency.
Thankfully, the $340 million shortfall is almost exactly the amount
of the holdback. Having said that, Human Services and Public
Safety were left, oftentimes, with programs operating at unaccept-
able levels.
We have heard from many constituents pleading with us to pro-
tect funding for essential programs for seniors, the disabled, and
both in-home and long term nursing home care. I’m happy to tell
you that we have been able to protect those programs. In addi-
tion, Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) and Temporary Aid
to Needy Families (TANF) will continue at substantially their pres-
ent levels of funding.
I’d also like to update you on the Senior Property Tax Deferral
program, which was affected by the housing crisis and therefore
threatened with insolvency. In order to fill a $19 million hole in this
budget cycle, the 2011 Legislature passed HB 2453, which
changed the parameters of the program in order to maintain its in-
tegrity. As a result, 1,664 participants were dropped from the pro-
gram creating major angst within the low-to-moderate income
senior community.
The House Committee on Revenue has been working with the
Department of Revenue to find a solution to this unacceptable sit-
uation. Thankfully, they have, and key elements of the resolution
are contained in HB 4039, outlined as follows:
• Delays by two years the reverse mortgage provisions of HB
2453
• Re-activates the 1,664 participants for the 2011-2012 proper-
ty tax years
• Directs local tax collectors to issue refunds to those who have
already paid their taxes
• Requires the Dept. of Revenue to collect information on pro-
gram participants and report to the 2013 Legislature
• Requires financial institutions to notify individuals applying for
a reverse mortgage that obtaining a reverse mortgage will make
them ineligible for the property tax deferral program
On Thursday, February 9, HB 4039 passed the House on a
unanimous vote.
Finally, the House passed two bills last week designed to sup-
port business and facilitate job growth. HB 4028 provides $29.6
million in lottery bond authority to create jobs by investing in air,
marine, and rail freight infrastructure, as well as sewer and water
projects and community college capital projects. HB 4150 ex-
pands the Credit Enhancement Fund to help businesses access
capital. These bills should get construction workers on job sites
right away and connect capital to growing businesses.