Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Two candidates for state House District 17 presented themselves Monday night as regular people who just want to serve the interests of their district.
Republican incumbent Sherrie Sprenger and Democrat challenger Dan Thackaberry appeared in a debate Monday at Linn-Benton Community College as part of its Democracy in Action Days program.
District 17 Republicans appointed Sprenger at the beginning of the year to replace Fred Girod, who was appointed to Senate District 9 after Roger Beyer resigned.
“I’m a farmer and a forester,” Thackaberry said. “I’m a very good fit for the district. I have a very good balance between the urban and rural interests of our district.”
He has served on the Lebanon City Council and Planning Commission. He lives in Lebanon but operates a farm outside the city limits.
“I do all of my business, if possible, in the district,” Thackaberry said. “I know this district. I know the people in it right down to a first-name basis with a lot of them.”
The district has had 20 years of “not very good representation,” he said. “I want to break that culture of poor leadership and do what’s right.”
He is not afraid to take a stand, but he wants to end partisan politics, he said. “They don’t get things done. It’s about results.
“(But) sometimes you’re not going to make a popular decision, but it’s just the right decision. The thing about me is I’ll always tell you where I stand on the issues. That’s the problem. Too often, politicians don’t tell you where they stand.
“I’m not a professional politician. I’m a farmer who wants to do good.”
Sprenger served on the Lebanon School Board through difficult times, she said. “I learned on that School Board to stand for what’s right, and I learned that sometimes that means you stand alone.”
“I got onto the School Board for one simple reason,” Sprenger said. Her son was entering kindergarten, and she wanted to be part of the team that would directly be affecting her family.
“About the third year, it dawned on me, I was doing it for the other kids who didn’t have anyone to stand up for them,” she said. Her focus was on the children, she said.
Sprenger didn’t get involved to build a political career, she said. “I was just a mom from Lacomb.”
She became a representative to do public service in the state where her son and family will spend a lifetime, she said.
When she was appointed to the House in February, she didn’t celebrate, Sprenger said. She was at Camp Tadmor, peeling potatoes for about 100 children attending the camp.
She’s in the Legislature to serve and represent, she said. “I’m not representing what occurs in Salem to my district. I’m representing my district in Salem.”
Two years ago, again during those difficult times on the Lebanon board, she visited every site looking for input and having tough conversations, she said.
“They weren’t fun, but we have to be willing to have those tough conversations. That’s leadership.”
A leader must meet people where they are and bring them together, she said. “I worked hard to bring common sense back to the process.”
Dealing with legislation, she said that she asks, “Does this legislation cause more problems than it solves?”
She would be doing her constituents a disservice by saying she’ll vote for this bill or that bill, she said, until she has had a chance to hear all of the information.
At the same time, she keeps in mind that “all of the money (collected) in Salem is earned on the backs of taxpayers, she said. She wants to make sure that the taxpayers of her district have a seat at the table, to make sure that the interests of those taxpayers are represented.
Measure 49 and the “Big Look”
“Big Look is taking a look at land use across the state,” Sprenger said. Land use is always a tough issue. With the interests of Portland, Eugene, John Day, Scio, the coast and other areas, “it’s not a one-size-fits-all project. I support land use. I support property rights, but there needs to be some balance.”
“I supported Measure 49 (although the deadlines were a problem),” Thackaberry said. “I was very proud it passed in my district. The Big Look will probably come out with some good points. I’m looking forward to that. They’re looking at local control, independent of the heavy hand of Salem.”
He supports protections of farm and forest lands, and that protection must be balanced with property rights, he said. “Land use is very important. It’s what sets Oregon apart.”
Economic development
District 17 always seems to get bypassed by economic growth and then suffer during economic downturns, Thackaberry said, but the district is poised to take advantage of the alternative fuels market with cellulosic ethanol.
“Most of this district is timberland,” he said, and alternative fuels could put people back to work thinning the forests and removing wood waste. Linn County and Oregon could become energy exporters.
One of the cornerstones of economic vibrancy, as well as social vibrancy, are small businesses, Sprenger said. “There’s a lot of regulation out there. We need to take a look at the regulations and ask, ‘does this cause more problems than it solves?'”
Family pocketbooks need relief too, she said. To that end, she plans to support a tax credit to families and small businesses that provide their own health insurance and increase the child tax credit to put money back into family pockets.
Tax incentives in economic development
In District 17, 85 percent of the jobs are small businesses, Thackaberry said, yet tax incentives are aimed at big business.
“We don’t need to give Wall Street a shot in the arm,” he said. “We need to give Main Street a shot in the arm.”
He suggests coming up with incentives to that allow small business to provide health care and help them keep up with the big box stores.
“I’ve always worked against the big box things,” he said. “I don’t think they’re in our best interest.”
As she said in response to the earlier question, Sprenger wants to start a tax credit for small businesses that provide insurance for their employees.
“I stand behind that,” she said, and the state needs to make sure it doesn’t over-regulate them, allowing “them the freedom to thrive because they are employing our people.”
Education funding
Education is a priority, Sprenger said. She is planning to support a bill that will establish the K-12 budget by the 81st day of the session and prevent it from being used as a political hot potato.
While serving on the School Board, she remembered asking how much money the district has, she said. The response was always “we don’t know yet,” because school funding is not settled until after school districts’ budget periods.
She would like to examine various unfunded mandates, she said. Instead, she would prefer leaving decisions in the hands of local districts.
Not every good idea in one district is a good idea in another district, she said.
Oregon spends more money on incarceration than it does on education, Thackaberry said. Most of the incarceration is related to drug problems.
Texas saved $250 million by mandating drug rehabilitation instead of incarceration, he said. He thinks Oregon could become an example in this area.
“We need to get our priorities reversed to where we start spending more money on education than incarceration,” he said. Most of inmates are incarcerated for drug problems. Most of the time, they’re stealing for that reason.
SDCs for police, fire and library services
Cities are allowed to impose systems development charges on developers to pay for expanding infrastructure capacity. A construction excise tax does the same for schools. The candidates were asked if they would support an SDC for police, fire and library services.
“I support it,” Thackaberry said. “Development never seems to pay its fair share.”
Gates, for example, is growing but cannot pay for those services, he said. “It forces people to pay their fair share. Everybody receives those services. They should pay their fair share.”
Sprenger connected with local mayors and has earned many of their endorsements for it, she said. “I believe in local control. You know your community best.”
She voted to allow the construction excise tax, she said, “not to impose it but to allow it,” to allow local boards to decide for themselves.
She also voted to restore 39 state trooper positions during the special session earlier this year, she said.