Legislators must address spending: I had to read the In My Opinion piece by Rep. Jennifer Williamson twice to be sure that I had not missed something ("2017 session: A chance to stand up for Oregon values," Feb. 4). But I had not. There was no mention of tackling the PERS debacle, nor of any other attempts to address spending. In spite of a looming deficit, the only mention of fiscal issues was that we need to "tackle the longstanding flaws in our revenue system." We do not have problems with our revenues. We have problems with our expenditures! If Rep. Williamson's opinion represents the Democratic Party's position, then we are in for a long, unproductive legislative session.  

We need leaders from both parties who can reach across the aisle and craft compromise solutions that protect Oregon taxpayers and provide necessary government services at a reasonable cost. That includes tackling the elephant in the room, PERS. I consider myself a moderate, currently registered as a Democrat, but I am finding that there appears to be no room in either party for moderates.

John MacDonald, Northwest Portland

Fix PERS: I read with interest Rep Jennifer Williamson's column in the Oregonian about the 2017 Oregon Legislative Assembly.

Apparently she does not get it or choses to ignore the elephant in the room: PERS.

She scribes that the state's educational revenue is so broken that we are unable to fund our basic needs. Well, she fails to mention the reason why it's broken -PERS has siphoned billions of dollars away from funding our schools which leads to larger class sizes, shorter school years, and the higher college costs that she mentions.

Until the Legislature fixes the PERS program, it's an exercise in futility and the taxpayers are not going to approve more taxes. Measure 97 spoke loud and clear to that. 

Doug Pratt, Sherwood

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