Oregon Tax News

Little People Stars Sue Washington County building inspectors
By Oregon Tax News

Little People, Big World stars Amy and Matt Roloff decided to sue Washington County for $200,000 and legal costs after John Wheeler, a Washington County building services inspector, allegedly trespassed on their Hillsboro farm on July 16, 2010. The complaint holds that Amy Roloff suffered severe distress after confronting Wheeler for trespassing. The plaintiffs named Wheeler’s supervisor, Jay Winchester, a co-defendant.

A crew filming the Roloffs’ reality television series caught the encounter and broadcasted it on network television.

Wheeler contends that he acted on his supervisor’s instructions, which permitted him to enter their property without seeking permission. KPTV reports that he allegedly passed numerous “No Trespassing” signs, passed a locked gate and ignored a call box he could have used to contact the family for permission to enter the property. Read more…

Texas Free Market Policies Beat California’s Economic Strategy

Texas managed to pull itself out of the recession with its free market policies during a time when California’s economy continues to decline. The Chief Executive magazine ranked California as the worst business climate in the nation, while Texas’ ranked the best. Experts attribute Texas’ vast natural and human resources combined with its low spending, low taxes, and low regulation to its economic growth. Read more…

Warning Signs for Renewable Energy
By Oregon Tax News

Signs of renewable energy storm clouds…

- 86% of new Congress Freshmen oppose climate change legislation
- 17 Senators signed a letter calling ethanol indefensible and unwise
- Both Al Gore and Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu blasted ethanol in the past few weeks
- The IEA is predicting the global gas glut to last a decade

With the 2010 elections behind us, environmental experts worry that the political shift in the U.S. House of Representatives may reduce federal spending on renewable energy projects. President Obama recently conceded that his push for comprehensive energy legislation was not likely to gain much traction until after the 2012 elections. Other issues of contention could lead to debate in Congress over the deepwater drilling moratorium and restrictions on protected western lands.

Change in Congress

The new Congress is expected to place a greater emphasis on balancing the budget and cutting taxes. This will threaten new policies supporting green innovation and efforts to cut back on carbon emissions. Think Progress, a website run by the Center for American Progress on the new Congress, reported that half of the freshmen Republicans are climate-change skeptics and 86% oppose any climate change legislation that would cost the government money. Green-tech entrepreneurs say that without a unified national policy, investors and businesses will increasingly leave the United States for Germany and Asia, where many governments have comprehensive energy legislation. Read more…