Opinion: Page 379

Revenue Solutions

Looking for fair ways to close the budget gap

Viewpoint

As Eugene looks for ways to avoid serious service cuts, the Revenue Committee struggles to identify timely, equitable and politically acceptable taxes to generate the necessary revenue. We have ample representation from the business community, but we lack vocal representation from disadvantaged segments of our community. This opens us to the risk that our recommendations will fall heavily on those least able to afford it. While business is the ox that pulls the cart of government, it is working families that keep that ox fed. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 3-6-2014

Letters

HOLLOW PREACHINGS I grew up a broke, male WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) who regularly attended a fairly conservative church. Many of my friends in church, as it happened, were gay and subsequently pushed from our congregation via informal excommunication, to borrow a Catholic phrase, and were no longer welcome. Continue reading →

Slant 3-6-2014

Slant

• Mike Huckabee, the former right-wing presidential candidate, is coming to town April 2 as a fundraiser for the local Community Action Network. County Commissioner Jay Bozievich is likely to be there with bells on since the CAN political action committee sent him checks in February totaling $4,500. Bozievich, a Tea Party darling, needs to raise a lot of bucks because he has a serious and organized challenger in Dawn Lesley. Check out the list of Bozievich financial supporters on the state Orestar website at http://wkly.ws/1p2. Continue reading →

We Can Do Both

Large companies are important part of the mix

Viewpoint

Comments by EW in the Feb. 6 issue about the “new economy” criticize Lane County and local communities for spending time and money to lure large companies to create jobs and tax revenues. EW goes on to reinforce the commonly held myth that these companies are only here to get the cash and tax breaks and leave as soon as they are exhausted. Once again, Sony and Hynix are used as examples to perpetuate the myth. In neither case is it true.  Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 2-27-2014

Letters

COUNCIL MISLED Concerned citizens following recent Eugene City Council discussion around preservation of the Amazon Headwaters are wondering about the role of city management. At the Feb. 19 work session, staff repeatedly stated that the Deerbrook PUD has been approved. This is false. The application received a tentative approval. The property owners have chosen to delay applying for other approvals needed before any development can begin. Why was council misled on this point? Continue reading →

Slant 2-27-2014

Slant

• It is disappointing that two Eugene attorneys who are powerful statewide have led the effort to stop HB 4143, which would give to legal aid the funds left over when all the winners of class-action lawsuits do not collect their shares, for whatever reasons. Oregon and New Hampshire are the only states that return the uncollected funds to the guilty defendants. David Frohnmayer and Bill Gary, representing big oil and big tobacco, argue now that this short legislative session allows too little time to consider this issue. Continue reading →

A Reverie in Black and White

The color and form of giving matters not

Viewpoint

Part of my Eugene Experience is mentioning observances of famous birthdays, like Martin and Malcolm, and getting the response: “Martin who?” or “Malcolm who?” Even mentioning Angela’s work on the prison-industrial complex, and the school-to-prison pipeline, and people saying “Angela who?” Black History Month grew from Carter Woodson’s Negro History Week, which was situated to encompass two birthdays, Lincoln and Douglass, so we would always remember the contradictions of America, who actually freed us and wanted us free, and who took the credi Continue reading →