A service of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation.
by Kurt Weber Oregon local government officials take note of Sandy Springs, Georgia. “Indeed, the experiment in Sandy Springs, Ga., has proved that local governments don’t need hundreds of public employees to function. Sandy Springs, a fast-growing town of more than 80,000 residents, has only four public employees who are not involved with public safety.…
by Margaret Goodwin Lately, a number of people have been arguing that the prospect of increased timber harvesting on the O&C lands is an attempt to return to an unstable timber economy, and that we should be focusing instead on developing other more stable industries to sustain our local economy. This isn’t an either/or situation.…
by Wayne Brady The Marion County Commissioners have been committed to dealing with an increasingly difficult situation with criminal aliens. Criminal aliens have been a significant direct cost to the County as well as incurring costs to the victims of their illegal behavior. One policy change the Commissioners wanted to implement immediately was to have…
By Larry Huss There are few opportunities in Oregon for a plebiscite by only those directly impacted by the decision. But this December Oregon taxpayers are going to have just such an opportunity. In December the state is required to refund to Oregon taxpayers approximately $1.1 billion dollars in excess taxes collected in 2006. Already,…
by Wayne Brady Government agencies have an uncanny ability to mess things up. In 2004, people from the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office delivered confiscated illegal fireworks to the Marion County garbage-burning plant in Brooks. The Fire Marshall failed to let the people at the Brooks facility the explosive nature of the material they delivered.…
By Larry Huss There is a recession looming and Oregon is, once again, ill prepared to deal with it. No, I’m not an economist or a market analyst, or, for that matter, I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express. But a friend of mine, Jim Stack, President of Investech and a nationally know…
By Jim Karlock We all know that Portland planners just hate sprawl. But just what is sprawl and what does it look like? An online search turned up several definitions of sprawl, all centered around the idea that if it is low density or you have to have a car, it is sprawl. Additional criteria…
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…