A service of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation.
by Richard Leonetti The Oregon Legislature has managed to thumb their noses at simple, obvious needs of the people. They are spending $254 million on a new light rail line to Milwaukie (which also needs $500 mil from the Feds–not us either?) and almost nothing on the roads most people use. Another $102 million of…
by Tim Lyman Every once in a while we are granted the opportunity to see just how big an mistake a bureaucrat can make. Unfortunately, these opportunities always come at the expense of citizens. Roy Elicker, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, provides the latest example. Six years ago Franchesca Mantei and…
By Steve Schopp Nearly 8 years ago, the media reported “there is no more clear illustration of our ability to meet the needs of growth than our failure to address our transportation needs. Within the transportation arena we are facing utter chaos.” Since that time the taxpayers have spent around $10 billion in the state…
By Jason Coutts Oregon taxpayers are currently overpaying, to the tune of triple the cost, for police dogs. Further, the State uses, misuses, or bypasses the rules to shut-out local private canine small businesses. A citizen’s investigation into the matter reveals that the State gives false or misleading information in order to cover the misconduct.…
by Tim Lyman “Healthy Kids” is an incremental step towards socialized medicine and a future fiscal and healthcare disaster on many levels. Whatever model is adopted for “Healthy Kids” will be the model for complete socialized medicine in Oregon. The current argument among Republicans seems to be simply over how to pay for it (or…
by Jason Williams Well today is the day that postage rates increase by 2-cents. It came to no surprise that when I went to pick up the new postcard stamps last Friday that the new postcard stamps were not in. This is the same problem I encountered when they raised post rates last time. Their…
by Guest Opinion The Oregon Legislative Assembly is planning to convene a special session on February 4, 2008 for purposes of “testing” annual legislative sessions. Yet it is far from clear whether the Legislative Assembly has constitutional authority to convene a special session for this purpose. Article IV, Section 10 of the Oregon Constitution specifically…
by Jason Williams Gov. Kulongoski’s 20% budget increase is going to leave Oregon with a $1.3 billion dollar deficit according to preliminary budget analysis. That means the next legislature may have to pass $1.3 billion in new taxes to keep up. Contributing to the problem is the timing of when Kulongoski’s programs go into effect.…
By Dave Mowry “Oregon is taking cultural competency to a level never seen before.” Felice Goodenough (sp) from the NY Times on NPR, “Justice Talking Debates”. “What Oregon is doing in cultural competency is unique. Oregon is way ahead of the curve.” Northwest Regional Education Research Laboratory. The Oregon Department of Education received a $600,000…
by Jay Bozievich As Lane County contemplates how to increase revenue to support public safety and Portland discusses how to fund education, 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…