A service of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation.
by Britt Storkson Have you looked at your phone bill lately? Taxes on my phone service now are running at about 24%. After a multi-year battle with our local electric power utility to get illegally installed power lines on my property removed I did some checking into the power utility itself. The power company Wasco…
Tuesday, January 10. 2006 by Wayne Brady Several months ago, I had an idea that I thought would make the Education Service Districts (ESDs) more efficient. Under current law, the ESDs receive a fixed percentage of the state school fund and the school districts receive the balance. The ESDs then provide services to the school…
Wednesday, January 4. 2006 In my last post I described how Oregon’s high minimum wage was causing high unemployment for teenagers and young adults. Now I want to talk about how Oregon’s other minimum wage law negatively impact Oregon. Specifically the Prevailing Wage Laws for public contracting known as the “Little Davis-Bacon Act“.These laws require…
By Jason Williams Thursday, December 29. 2005 The year began and ended with political incivility in Oregon by liberals. The political year started with President Bush’s inaugural speech where shouting protesters in the audience did everything possible to stop his speech. The protesters were from Eugene and were able to get great, up-close seat tickets…
By Dave Mowry Wednesday, December 28. 2005 When it comes to Cultural Competency, Hasso Herring, editor of the Albany Democrat Herald, said in a May editorial, “Mao had his cultural revolution and Vietnam sent people to re-education camps. Some education leaders in Oregon can’t duplicate those efforts, but they are doing what they can.” A…
By Jay Bozievich Wednesday, December 7. 2005 Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums! Oregon has a 6.0% unemployment rate! On November 14th, Governor Kulongoski made a personal appearance at the Oregon Employment Department to announce the news that Oregon unemployment rate was down to 4-year low of 6.0%. Kulongoski crowed to all those gathered, “You…
By Wayne Brady, Monday, December 5. 2005 Recently, we have seen some horrible examples of poor management in Oregon state government reported in the press. I suspect these examples are only a small sample of what is going on behind the scenes. I think this is true because the people responsible for the errors have…
By Jay Bozievich Guest editorial, As Lane County contemplates how to increase revenue to support public safety, it is time to discuss how to achieve fiscal sustainability for our public agencies here in Oregon. Missing from these discussions is the root cause of the current instability, the overheated growth in the cost of labor to…
Oregon needs a flat tax, not sales tax By Jason Williams Also featured in Brainstorm Magazine May 2005 The tax reform Oregon needs is to flatten our income tax into a flat tax. Reduce, simplify and streamline is the answer to our state’s tax woes. An ideal state flat tax would tax all income levels…
Why the liberation was a necessary foreign policy expenditure and an effective federal campaign against terrorism. http://www.oregontaxnews.com/Iraq-report.pdf