WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. DIRE STRAITS In your recent editorial "The Governor's New Math" [500 Words, March 10, 1999], you suggested that "local governments, in many cases, have more money than they know what to do with while a number of school districts are strapped." You then concluded that adjusting Measure 5 to take funds away from local governments might be one solution to Oregon's school funding problems. We beg to differ. There is no local government in Oregon that "has more money than they know what to do with." Despite some local governments' valiant efforts to help their area schools with temporary funding fixes, each dollar that has gone to schools out of these budgets is a dollar of unmet service needed somewhere else. In the City of Portland, monies used for schools will not be used to fund desperately needed affordable housing. Moreover, the vast majority of county governments in Oregon have faced severe financial losses over the last 10 years due to dwindling forest receipts under new forest management practices, the loss of O&C county revenue from the federal government, property tax revenue loss under Measures 5 and 50, and PERS obligations to retirees who recently won a lawsuit against the State of Oregon. These four factors alone have cost Oregon counties over $170 million per year in revenues. A new bill, HB 2050, would reduce local government's ability to tax "intangibles," reducing local governments' revenues by a further $3 million in the next biennium. How does this translate in individual counties? The Wheeler County Sheriff's Office, which requires a staff of four, operates with simply the sheriff, one deputy, funded by a federal grant which ends next year, and volunteers. In Union County, the county assessor and planning offices cannot even afford to stay open full-time--they simply close up shop one day a week. In Gilliam County, 77 percent of the roads are unpaved gravel, and the county roadmaster may be forced to allow the county's few paved roads to return to gravel if no new revenues are available. Even in the tri-county area, unmet county needs are clear. Multnomah County is struggling to fill revenue losses from state public safety dollars, with a $3 million shortfall in paying the costs of incarcerating state felons. Clackamas County needs funding for a new juvenile corrections facility and more sheriffs' deputies. Washington County needs to hire more deputy district attorneys and provide greater service to crime victims. The funds to provide these services today simply aren't there. Local governments provide a variety of critically important services, from public safety to transportation to health and human services. And local governments care deeply about the plight of schools. Unfortunately, given the severe financial straits counties have faced in recent years, it is unreasonable to look in this direction for a funding solution to Oregon's school funding difficulties. Mike McArthur, President Association of Oregon Counties THE BIG CUTBACK I have two observations regarding your article in the March 24 issue ["Whistle-blower"] that comprehensively outlined the regulatory difficulties of Pacific Northwest Renal Services: 1. State health regulator Kathleen Smail says in the article, "It's important to distinguish between an incident and a pattern," when referring to a mix-up at two Providence Health System dialysis providers that put 85 dialysis patients at risk. Based on my conversation with a reporter who covered that incident for The Oregonian, the mistake occurred because dialysis technicians were unaware of an incompatibility between new equipment and a commonly used dialysis solution. Unfortunately, the "pattern" with respect to this "incident" is the trend in health care to cut back on in-services and on-the-job training when new equipment and procedures are implemented. 2. As a critical-care registered nurse, I had the opportunity to consult with Dr. Joseph Pulliam, the chief executive of PNRS, when he would see patients on one of Portland's major cardiac surgery units. I found Joe Pulliam to be one of the most competent and accessible specialists in my eight years of dealing with physicians who consult in critical care. This leads me to believe that whatever the problems at PNRS, Dr. Pulliam is doing everything in his power to correct them. It is somewhat foreboding that these reports come at a time when health-care analysts are predicting an upward spiral in the cost of health care and a serious shortage of registered nurses with specialized training and experience. Not surprisingly, the basis for such predictions is the profit- and revenue-driven operating philosophy of the entities that have come to manage our health-care systems. That same operating philosophy is also why I no longer work as a registered nurse. Robert Knapp Northeast Tillamook Street - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published March 31, 1999