Rethinking Home Scores
Listening to the City Council’s public meeting on home energy scores was strangely upsetting and, on reflection, I realized that it sounded as though the proponents haven’t listened to opposing viewpoints of any kind and are stuck in their echo chambers. On reviewing the proposal, I could find no data on how well the process is going in those high-cost real estate areas already using it. Many questions surfaced: Who really is paying for this and benefiting from it? Lots of contractors, for sure. (Did you know that there are currently nine — just nine — qualified home score assessors for the entire South Willamette Valley? Can you say, “Backlog”?)
And why wouldn’t the seller just provide past usage and upgrade info instead of being demonized for installing high-efficiency gas upgrades? It’s as though they don’t know where the electricity can come from. The entire effort smacks of classism. Not only accountability is needed, but other supports: for low-income folks, for real estate agents, plus real data on the cost — and responsibilities — of ownership.
Candice Kramer
Eugene
More Political Doggerel
The pain, it’s plain, would mainly come from DeSpain.
Corruption will be brazen, and prices will be raisin’, if we elect Drazan.
John Brobst
Eugene
Clean Energy on the Ballot
The city of Eugene passed the Climate Recovery Ordinance in 2014 and committed to cutting fossil fuel use 50 percent below 2010 levels by 2030. To date, fossil fuel use has gone down only 11 percent. We must move faster to meet our climate commitments. Fortunately, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund (ECEF) is on the ballot in November.
ECEF, Measure 20-388, places a two percent license fee on the gross profits of large national chain stores that make more than $1 billion nationally and $500,000 locally, excluding basic groceries, medicines, garbage, recycling, and health care. Local businesses would not be affected because they do not meet the two profit criteria. Also, big chains wouldn’t pass the cost of the fee on to customers with higher prices because their prices are set nationally.
ECEF would invest an estimated $15 million per year directly back into our community through four grant areas: 60 percent renewable energy and efficiency programs for households, 25 percent creating clean energy jobs, 10 percent green infrastructure projects, and 5 percent future innovations.
Homeowners and renters would benefit through weatherization improvements, window replacements and heating / cooling upgrades, making energy bills more affordable. ECEF will provide training for electricians, HVAC and heat pump installers, building energy auditors, and solar, battery and EV infrastructure maintenance technicians.
Voting yes on the Eugene Clean Energy Fund may be the easiest single thing voters can do to lower energy bills and build the thriving green economy we all need.
Linda Kelley
Eugene
Let em’ Drive
When it comes to driving, age alone should not determine whether someone is safe to be on the road. I am writing in response to Kim Kelly’s letter, “Driving Older,” published on Sept. 24. I disagree with the idea that older drivers should generally be pushed off the road just because some of them may have slower reactions or physical limitations.
I believe the solution for improving safety is to require regular tests every few years that check reaction time and cognitive function for elderly drivers, as well as an evaluation by a physician with a mandatory report to the DMV.
Public transportation is also not a realistic alternative for every older driver in Oregon because many areas do not have reliable public transportation. In response to Kelly’s letter, Eugene Weekly reader Karl Keith Beyer pointed out in his Oct. 1. letter that the No. 33 bus route he used for years was reduced and now runs only rarely. Older drivers should be judged by their ability to drive safely, not simply by their age.
Dzmitry Fedarako
Eugene
A Message from District 3
I have known both Val Hoyle and Tina Kotek for decades, long before any of us were elected to public service. In 1999, Kotek and I were both working for regional food banks. Together, we advocated for policies ensuring basic needs for tens of thousands of Oregonians, helped streamline application processes for families needing food assistance, and ensured that the statewide network of local food pantries had the resources and training they needed to support the households that relied on them. A few years later, I met Hoyle, also through our shared work in nonprofits. This time it was working on vital initiatives creating innovative models for delivering community health care.
And none of us have slowed down since. Over the last 20 plus years, I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with these hard working, effective, smart women leaders. From rallies and events to protect reproductive freedoms; to launching apprenticeship programs for union workers; from passing Paid Family and Medical Leave to securing funding for wildfire recovery; from pushing back on Trump’s harmful anti-immigrant agenda to sounding the alarm about threats to our vibrant environment. I know I can count on them both to lead with the same values we’ve held all these years.
That’s why I’m proud to cast my ballot for Gov. Tina Kotek and Congresswoman Val Hoyle. I hope you will too.
Laurie Trieger
Lane County Commissioner, District 3
Eugene
Vote for Aguiar
I’m supporting Athena Aguiar for the Eugene City Council Ward 5 seat. She’s a progressive running against the conservative incumbent Mike Clark.
Athena is young, bright, high energy, outspoken and articulate. Most importantly, she is struggling with the same employment and housing issues that afflict other young and working-class people. She gets it, on a gut level, unlike present middle-class councilors who are moving so slowly on affordable housing and homeless shelters, while obstinately harassing the homeless. Clark has been a council leader on that persecution.
Presently the council is split 50-50 progressive-conservative. If Athena is elected she will tip the balance on critical votes to 5-3.
The council desperately needs new blood. Let’s give Gen Z a chance to be heard.
Lynn Porter
Eugene
DeSpain x Mannix
On her website, Oct. 6, Monique DeSpain says, “Career politicians are all talk with no results…” Then after many lovely words about what a fine person she is, we learn that after her retirement in 2019, DeSpain joined the Kevin Mannix Law Firm.
Mannix is a lawyer/politician who began his political career in Oregon in 1988 and is currently a state representative. To think that his law office is not influenced by politics, and does not influence politics, is at best naive. He is certainly a career politician.
Is this the kind of double-talk we can expect from DeSpain as an elected representative? I’m voting for Val Hoyle, and encourage you to do the same.
Doug Curry
Eugene
Time for a Change
The letters to the editor have over and over again complained how the city and the county have failed to address the problems and the needs of this community.
The time is over for letters to the editor, it is time to take steps to change this, this election you have the vote that will address the problems and needs of this community.
Stop voting the way you have been voting, step outside of the box as I call it, try a different approach, try something new, the old ways are not working.
Vote not for the incumbent but a new person who, like you, is not satisfied with the way our local government is working, what have you to lose, nothing.
This is not about the Republicans, the Democrats, this is about getting the city and the county to listen to the people.
Vote, nothing will change if you do not vote, and most of all, vote how you feel, not what others tell you.
Steven E. Hunnicutt
Eugene
Election Extra Letters
Expect a Blitz of Corporate Misinformation Against 20-388
Those who fail to learn history’s lessons will repeat them. Given recent history, the November referendum on the Eugene Clean Energy Fund (ECEF) means our mail and local media will be flooded by slickly produced corporate propaganda and misinformation.
In May, opponents of the Lane County Watershed Bill of Rights, including Big Timber and corporate PACs spent record amounts, about $400,000, to defeat the initiative. Another lesson can be learned from the fate of the Oregon Climate Resilience Superfund Bill (SB1541) that was killed by a handful of petroleum and chemical industry lobbyists, despite overwhelmingly positive public testimony.
Expect similar heavy hitters to line up against the ECEF, which would levy a 2 percent city tax on billion dollar-a-year corporations with $500,000 in local revenue. ECEF would exempt profits on sales of food, medicines and prescription drugs, healthcare services and waste removal. Contractors, utilities, co-ops and credit unions are also exempt. The law decrees that revenue will be overseen by a nine-member community committee and the city council and distributed, by law, 60 percent to renewable energy and energy efficiency, 25 percent to clean energy jobs and workforce development, 10 percent to green infrastructure and 5 percent to future innovation. No more than 10 percent can be carved out to pay administrative costs.
This will be obscured by the affected corporations, which include multinational banks, big tech and retailers. Learn history lessons. Read the measure before you vote. Make greedy corporations pay their fair share of the damage they incur. Vote yes on 20-388!
Bernard Cowen
Eugene
A Thank You to last week’s Submitter
Dear Jojo Breslin,
Thank you for your letter endorsing Measure 20-388, which would establish the Eugene Clean Energy Fund. The fund would allocate 40–60 percent of revenue to renewable energy and energy efficiency, 25–30 percent to clean-energy job training, 5–10 percent to green infrastructure and 5 percent to future innovation.
The measure proposes an annual 2 percent fee on gross profits for corporations and big-box retailers earning at least $1 billion nationally, and $500,000 in Eugene. Basic groceries, medicines, healthcare, garbage and recycling services and credit unions would be exempt.
Research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation indicates that every $1 invested in pre-disaster mitigation can yield approximately $13 in combined savings and avoided physical damage.
According to the Center for Sustainable Economy, Oregon’s 2018 wildfire season caused an estimated $6.8 billion in societal costs, equivalent to an indirect burden of approximately $3,900 per Oregon household.
Opponents, including out-of-state super PACs, warn that corporations will pass the fee on to consumers. Estimates suggest this could cost Eugene households $195.26–$520.68 annually if the entire fee were passed along.
Let’s do the math. Even if Measure 20-388 only saved each household $3,000 annually while costing $600 per year, the net savings would still be $2,400 per household.
Let’s vote yes on Measure 20-388 and invest in Eugene’s clean-energy future!
Darin Henry
Eugene
No Siphoning from Our Community
Supporters of Ballot Initiative 20-388, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund, often say that “corporations should pay their fair share.” While true, this sounds too much like friends splitting a dinner bill. The situation is more like if one diner ordered far more expensive items, expecting everyone else to split their outsized tab — while leaving a mess and secretly pocketing the restaurant’s sugar packets!
The reality is that billion-dollar corporations are doing just that — not only contributing less than their share, but additionally siphoning public resources and damaging the water, air and climate, leaving us to clean up after.
Local communities fund the infrastructure that corporations rely on for their construction, shipping and waste disposal, as well as the public services their underpaid workers need to survive. Meanwhile, mega-corporations pay little in taxes and actually move money out of our communities; national retailers recirculate only 14 cents per dollar back into the local community, in contrast with 53 cents at locally owned stores.
While corporate profits skyrocket, we see longer fire seasons, drier droughts, hotter heatwaves, public services cut and working families struggling to get by.
Ballot Initiative 20-388 would address these inequities by placing a fee on outsized corporate profits, and reinvesting the money to fund clean energy infrastructure and green jobs, reducing housing costs and building climate resilience here in Eugene.
A “Yes” on 20-388 is a vote to hold billion-dollar corporations more accountable for over-serving themselves from our community table.
Rose Comadurán
Eugene
Ambulance Levy
Last week’s (Oct. 1) Siuslaw News article on Tax Measure 20-389 is a case in point. Public agencies are a form of business with the same desire to grow. They extract profit in the form of salaries, benefits and influence. They grow by increasing responsibilities that need more regulations, supported by more fees and taxes. The main cost here is labor compensation with several being six figures; the highest is $1,000 plus compensation per day at work. Some of these compensation packages may be justified, only the public should be aware of what it’s voting on.
If a department, division, program etc. is costing more than it is generating; businesses will offload or shut them down. Lane County is required to provide ambulance service throughout the county unless covered by a political sub-division like our Western Lane Ambulance District (WLAD). Lane County convinced WLAD to assume the responsibility for an additional 22 percent coverage area from 564 to 686 square miles.
During a recorded public meeting, it was exposed that the 122 square mile area was a financial loss to Lane County, who were covering the subsidy in its 2026-27 $1.23 million adopted budget. Choosing to be philanthropic with other people’s money, WLAD agreed to assume the subsidy in its 26-27 almost $6 million adopted budget. It needs to be mentioned WLAD along with the smaller Siuslaw Valley Fire & Rescue District share administrative costs via an Intergovernmental Agreement named Western Lane Fire & EMS Authority (WLFEA).
Keith Stanton
Florence
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Health Care in America
I read this morning that more than a quarter of Americans are saddled with oppressive medical debt. When are we going to come to grips with this giant problem of healthcare? Obamacare was a breakthrough but unfortunately just a patch work with lots of holes. Medicare for seniors is also full of holes.
Yes, we need to get rid of the maniac who is currently running the country, but are the Democrats prepared to push for a universal national healthcare system that other developed nations have? We endlessly hear our politicians spout how great our country is, but still, Americans cannot afford to get sick. How great does that make America? Mexico inaugurates a universal healthcare system in 2027. Why can’t we?
Russ Desaulnier
Eugene
Anti-Trans in Washington?
Exciting news has come out of Washington State: Washington Initiative 638 would ban biological males from competing in girls’ sports in K-12. Polls show strong bipartisan support for the measure in keeping with national polls, which indicate that this is an 80-20 issue political elites on the left ignore.
Following court rulings that allowed states to implement such measures, 27 states have done so. The deep blue West Coast states are not among them. That may soon change.
Republicans sponsored House Bill 2037 in the 2025 Oregon legislative session which would have implemented the same common sense directive. The Democrat majority killed it. Democrats in Congress killed House Resolution 28, the “Protect Women & Girls In Sports Act.”
If Washington voters pass I-638 it will put Oregon Democrats in an untenable position. But given their record on other high profile issues (e.g., the 2026 Transportation Package), they are unlikely to care what voters think and to get this done would probably require an initiative.
Jerry Ritter
Springfield
Hogsbreath’s Wet Dream?
Anyone who calls for, approves of or views a public execution is a sick, sadistic and soulless monster. “Republichristian” viewership of this event will get Super Bowl ratings. No Christian will watch it.
Remember: Public lynchings drew hundreds or even thousands of cheering viewers (and there was at least one occasion where tickets were sold).
I have said before that the Rose Bowl would sell out if ICE staged public hangings there and that the stands would be a sea of “MAGATs” wearing red hats, and I would be willing to bet that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of viewers of the execution will time it so that their “guns” go off in perfect timing with the firing squads’ volley.
I also wonder how many MAGATs would have been willing to pay fifty dollars a “shot” to buy a ticket for a drawing for the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to shoot a human being all proceeds going to the Trump 2028 Fund).
Am I against the execution? No, although I would have preferred that the murderer serve a life sentence. I am however totally against making it a public festival.
The cultist zombies keep repeating their glorious leader’s line that we are living in a “golden era.” It sure is, but not for us. Rather it is for racists, white supremacists, haters, self-haters, liars, sadists, pedophiles, rapists, bullies and incredibly stupid people who think their evil and desperately moronic Dunning-Kruger-exemplar cult leader is a genius sent by God.
Jamie Selko
Eugene
The Next Disaster
Oct. 5, another misguided missile launched by Donald Trump which landed directly on the poor people of the U.S. Failing to consider the ripple effect of his executive order, allowing heating oil meant for furnaces to be used as fuel for vehicles (throwing a very small bone to the trucking industry by lowering their cost by a measly 25 cents a gallon after rising over $2 because of his war), will cause already unsustainable home heating oil prices to skyrocket and result in thousands of poor people freezing this winter. The pending crisis for homeowners brought on by seven months of Trump’s ego-fueled insanity is now a full-fledged disaster, just for a few lousy votes in a desperate attempt to try to keep the sinking GOP ship of fools afloat in the upcoming congressional elections. There’s an easier solution — stop the war with Iran now.
John Tietjen
Corvallis
Pet Medications across Borders
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a dangerous new rule beginning Oct. 22 that will threaten the health care of millions of Americans. The rule, “Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Mail Shipments,” will effectively end Americans’ ability to personally import their prescription medicines.
Importing prescription drugs from licensed international pharmacies is the only lifeline for seniors on limited incomes, people with high-deductible health plans and the uninsured. That’s why CBP and the FDA have allowed it for decades. Due to the much lower cost of medications in Canada and other countries, imported medicine is their only option.
Many imported drugs can be less than half the U.S. price. These necessary medicines prevent blood clots, treat diabetes and much more. This CBP rule will cut off access to the only affordable prescription drugs for millions, and that will lead to unnecessary harm and preventable deaths.
I rescue cats. I get a large dose of dog medication and split it between the 30-some-odd cats I care for. Fleas have become resistant to Advantage [flea medication] and it doesn’t work well — Revolution does work and also is an effective treatment for ear mites. I can’t take every single one of my cats to the vet to get a prescription for Revolution, which costs about 10 times the price it does with a prescription here anyway. This is all to help the drug companies and the private equity firms that own most of the vets in the U.S. now. This will break the rescuers trying to clean up after irresponsible people’s messes.
The people influenced by the orange disease in charge of this country, who doesn’t believe in vaccinating or spaying and neutering. The kids that can’t afford rent and groceries, let alone a few rounds of vaccines and a low cost spay and neuter. They have to be able to afford vehicles to take them to appointments also. Please reverse this when “Don the Con” is gone.
I ask readers to immediately call or write our senators and U.S. representatives and demand they stop CBP from implementing any rule-making that restricts Americans from importing personal-use prescription drugs from licensed pharmacies in Canada or other countries.
Susan Day
Eugene
Prose on the U.S. Secretary of War
Pete Hegseth: Would God help this man? Never. We know what he’s done and what he’s promising to do, following the cold-blooded murders of innocent Americans and those fictional “drug boat” crews, blown to bits by million-dollar missiles. Fun! Just not enough. He now proffers us his televised sine-qua-non, a bloody killing ripped from the worst aspects of human nature. And we’re all invited.
Popcorn!
Of all the unspeakable acts this hideous creature has gifted us, this latest should test the lily guts of any soul with one remaining atom of humanity. Will a single politician stand and demand this creature’s arrest? Can any law apply when all laws have been vomited into our faces? Or has a remaining spark of humanity vanished like the souls of Alex Pretti and Renee Good?
Calling all Republicans! Got a map?
I’d take it to The Hague, Democrats. Toothless gesture it is, but nothing vanishes quicker than a deafening silence.
Not that nervous Democrats will risk their precious careers. Hardly, as they’ve never shown the real spine to fiercely defend — at any cost — what tattered bits of civil law remain. Too much trouble and such a risky loss of income. Yes, a tough job — with great benefits! We’ve heard a weak squeak or two. Well, squeaks aren’t screams, but hey — thanks! Might take much more.
America —the greatest country in the bowels of Hell. My fellow citizens! Stand up and be shot.