• Oregon Viewpoint
– Editorial –
Governor’s correct on cigarette tax
In Salem, Gov. Ted Kulongoski is once again beating the drum for a cigarette tax increase to provide medical care for uninsured kids. The rest of us should join his band.
The governor, you’ll recall, took a thumping in 2006 when Big Tobacco plowed $12 million into Oregon — the most ever spent in an election effort here — to defeat a smoke-tax increase. The measure lost because it was unfortunately cast as a constitutional amendment rather than a statute.
Raising deception to an art form, the tobacco barons made much of that, even though constitutional amendments for limited, specific purposes are frequent in most states in this nation.
The post-election feedback here was that Oregonians were sympathetic to uninsured kids, and they would be willing to support a statutory cigarette tax hike. Kulongoski should continue to work toward giving voters a chance to do just that.
The 116,000 kids who would get medical care if the tax passed are reason enough for the governor’s effort. They should be reason enough for the rest of us, too.
It’s for the kids
On the upbeat side of addressing the lives of children, it would be hard to find better examples than the Bobby Doerr Baseball Classic being staged this weekend in Junction City for pre-teen players of the game and the campaign for a new community swimming pool in Veneta.
Both reflect a strong community interest in youth activities, a trait that’s congenital in all good small towns.
Doerr, of course, is the former Boston Red Sox All-Star who played from 1937 to 1951 and subsequently retired to Junction City. The oldest living inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Doerr graciously lent his name to a local effort to revive the kind of youth baseball tournaments that once were common in Junction City.
Doerr’s name on the marquee has drawn out-of-town teams from around the region, raising hopes that the tourney can become an annual summer highlight. If that happens, local kids and their parents will be the winners, regardless of numbers on the scoreboard.
The Veneta effort, also youth-focused, is longer-range. It’s the result of a 2006 mishap in which the community’s swimming pool was destroyed after heavy rainfall caused it to “float” out of the ground during a repair procedure.
The insurance settlement was a relatively small $325,000, while the estimates for a replacement pool ranged from $2.5 million to $5.5 million. The City Council has weighed its options and formed a local pool construction committee that is now working toward passage of a bond measure in November.
Meanwhile, the city has shifted its summer swim program to nearby Camp Wilani and has a seasonal recreation director at work to maintain aquatic opportunities for children.
For the construction committee, the target amount is $3 million — roughly a million each from city coffers, the bond issue and a local fund drive. The last ingredient seems like a tall order, especially in tough economic times. But anyone who watched the bootstrap effort that produced Veneta’s sparkling library almost a decade ago wouldn’t bet against this project.
– MT