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…
Money is not the teacher problem in Portland
By Richard Leonetti,
By Oregon Tax News,
A response to the Portland Public School’s call for a half-billion education bond and The Oregonian Editorial Board’s response.
Not so fast with a property tax increase of $2.00 per thousand for Portland Schools. Portland Schools already have borrowed $470 million and are already spending $50 million a year on capitol projects. The proposed new borrowing would make the total borrowing over $1 billion. Consider how well managed the Water Bureau and Portland’s recent computer upgrade turned out with multi-million dollar cost overruns on much smaller spending. Read more…
By Oregon Tax News,
- Did you know that of the 50 best-performing CEOs in the world only 14 had an MBA?
Josh Kaufman, a 28-year-old entrepreneur and former assistant brand manager for Procter & Gamble (P&G), thinks business school is a waste of time and money. Instead of paying $80,000 to $100,000 to attain an MBA, Kaufman suggests self-education. In an interview with Poets & Quants, Kaufman stated that MBA programs are so expensive that students “must effectively mortgage their lives” and take on “a crippling burden of debt” to get what is “mostly a worthless piece of paper.” Kaufman believes that MBA programs “teach many worthless, outdated, even outright damaging concepts and practices.” Read more…
The youth jobless numbers are staggering, and it is wrecking housing, consumer spending and marriage rates
By Oregon Tax News,
This year, the nation hit a record high unemployment rate more than 17% of 20 to 24-year-olds. The Labor Department reports that even young adults with college degrees face a 9.3% jobless rate. The figure doubles for older graduates. In fact, the employment-to-population ratio for those ages 16 to 24 reached an all time low of 42.6 percent.
As if skyrocketing unemployment rates are not enough, the Pew Research Center indicates that a large number of employed workers in their 20s, more than any other age group, lost hours or were cut down to part-time status. The research center expects these low wages to depress future earnings because most workers see their incomes increase slowly and steadily over the course of their careers, as opposed to sharp increases. Read more…
By Oregon Tax News,
How Would the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts Affect Oregonians?
The Bush tax cuts, set to expire at the end of the year, have many Americans worried about how it will affect their taxes. According to the Wall Street Journal, “If returning lawmakers don’t pass legislation by December 31, the expiration date of the cuts, tax rates would rise not only on income, but also on estates, capital gains and dividends. Important corporate tax credits and relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax also are up for renewal.”
Over a dozen states, including Oregon, intertwine their state tax codes with federal law so the expiration of the Bush tax cuts could affect state revenue. Read more…
$107M flap caused by one state’s highest paid
By Oregon Tax News,
State radio network is 22% over budget
Plans to build a statewide emergency radio network are running late and $107 million over budget, according to internal state audits and reports. The documents indicate that mismanagement, missed deadlines and hidden costs have pushed up the price tag to $592 million well beyond the $485 million that state officials were citing only a few months ago, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.
Director in charge of project was one of state’s highest paid employees received a 23% raise in 2007 Read more…
Oregon, Washington and Virginia Eye Liquor Reform
By Oregon Tax News,
In November, Washington voters will have the opportunity to vote on two initiatives regarding the privatization of liquor stores and revising laws concerning regulation, taxation and government revenues from the distribution and sale of spirits. If passed, Initiatives 1100 and 1105 will close state liquor stores and authorize private parties to sell and distribute liquor. Although the initiatives will maintain the liquor excise tax, liquor profits will go to private retailers. In addition, Initiative 1100 will eliminate beer and wine price controls and bans against volume discounts. Beer and wine retailers will also become eligible to add a liquor license and will have the opportunity to buy liquor directly from manufacturers. Read more…
Tax increases on oil companies, soda pop, income and parcels failedin June.
Oil tax loses in Congress
At the federal level, Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent Senator from Vermont, led the unsuccessful Congressional effort to pass legislation to repeal oil tax breaks. Senator Sanders argued that big oil companies make billions in profits and do not deserve the tax breaks at a time when the nation faces a record-breaking $13 trillion in national debt and an unsustainable federal deficit. The successful opponents to the legislation argued that removing the breaks for oil and gas drilling would hurt small producers as well as big oil companies. Read more…
