Merkley

GRANT COUNTY — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said he and fellow Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have been doing everything they can to keep both Payment in Lieu of Taxes and the Secure Rural Schools Act alive.

Merkley discussed this and other topics Wednesday, March 3, during a virtual town hall for Grant County.

PILT, which funds states to offset property taxes losses in areas with high concentrations of federal public lands, brought Grant County upward of $700,000, according to Merkley.

He said the Secure Rural Schools Act, a 2000 law that funnels federal funds to communities hit by declining timber revenue, put $3 million in the county’s coffers. Merkley said he and Wyden have had to take “extraordinary means” to keep SRS alive because Oregon is one of the few states that benefit from the program.

He said Oregon gets the lion’s share of the money. He said it has been hard to get permanent status for the program, which expired in September.

Merkley, along with Wyden and U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced a bill that would reauthorize the SRS program through September 2022, according to a Feb. 25 press release.

Voter reform

Merkley touted a bill House Democrats passed March 3. The For the People Act, H.R. 1, would provide sweeping reforms to protect voter rights, increase election security and mandate independent redistricting.

Merkley said the legislation would require states to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to redraw their congressional districts and prevent gerrymandering, or the manipulation of district boundaries to create an unfair electoral advantage favoring one party.

An independent commission, Merkley said, would prevent one party from trying to “squelch” the voice of another.

Most states now rely on their state legislatures to draw congressional lines following the Census, he said, which leads to districts disproportionately drawn and protective of either party.

Merkley said the legislation would restrict states from purging their non-active voters from the voting rolls. He said, in certain instances, some states purged voters that did not vote in two out of four election cycles without notifying them.

According to the bill’s text, other provisions include that states restore a felon’s voting rights, offer 15 days of early voting and allow for “no-excuse” absentee ballots.

Another section of the bill would force the disclosure of donors to “dark money” political groups, he said, which are reputed to be associated with overseas corporations looking to influence the political process while remaining anonymous.

Merkley believes citizens should know where that money comes from and decide for themselves if it’s a credible source.

He said the bill lays out that elected officials, particularly the president, would be mandated to reduce or eliminate conflicts of interest and would be required to sell off assets, or place them in a blind trust. He said the legislation also calls for a a code of ethics for among judges.

Debt-free college vs. free college

Adrian Kautzi, who is in her third year of classes online, asked Merkley about his thoughts on the notion of free college.

Merkley said he supports debt-free college.

Merkley said “debt-free” college would essentially work on a sliding-scale basis. He said, instead of an incoming student having $20,000 in tuition fees waived, they would pay a portion of it, based on the student’s income.

He said most developed countries have the goal of making college debt-free for students and their families. Merkley said he is from a blue collar area, and parents from the community have told him they are not sure if they want to encourage their kids to attend college because of the debt they might rack up.

“That’s not just bad for the individual student,” he said, “that’s bad for our whole society.”

Merkley said there was a time when that was not the case. He said when he graduated high school in 1974 it was possible to work a minimum wage job during the summer and pay for college on those earnings.

“Debt just wasn’t an issue that we had anxiety over,” he said. “So how is it now that college is more important for lines of employment opportunities that we’ve got this enormous burden?”

He said countries that have addressed eliminating long-term college debt are doing better by their youth and their respective futures.

Merkley said Kautzi “painted a really good portrait” of what people are facing.

He said he is fighting for a vision for a debt-free public university system in Oregon. Merkley said those who are headed to Ivy League schools are likely going to pay a lot more, and that may not be something the government can cover.