Issues
Labor commissioner sets priorities for new term
– Peter Wong, Portland Tribune
More money for school-work programs, higher minimum wage, paid sick leave, pay equity.
As economic issues remain on center stage for the Oregon Legislature, newly re-elected Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian says he’ll take an active role in advancing many of them during its 2015 session…
The issues range from more state grants to re-establish career and technical education in public schools to a higher state minimum wage and pay equity…
“Families still are having a hard time making ends meet, especially those who are our lowest wage workers,” Avakian said in an interview Monday…
Among the steps Avakian wants taken are flexible work schedules, time off for parents to attend their children’s events, and a requirement for paid sick leave…
We Respond & Your Comments
OK, we’ll ask our usual question: Who pays for Avakian’s good intentions? Maybe Avakian’s families who “are having a hard time making ends meet”? Maybe Oregon taxpayers whose wages can’t rise fast enough to keep up with his compulsion to spend their money ?
Come on, Brad, you know that every one of your grandiose ideas has to be paid for by some Oregonian. And can you explain why grabbing money out of one Oregonian’s pocket to put it in another Oregonian’s pocket makes sense?
We bet Brad’s answer to the above questions would be “There just ain’t no end to the good you can do with somebody else’s money.”
During a discussion on Oregon taxes a friend asked rhetorically “How much more can they take from us?” We reckon Mr. Avakian would have answered “How much more have you got?”
Sen. Johnson predicts drones will be a topic for 2015 Oregon Legislature
– Senator Betsy Johnson in Tillamook Headlight Herald
…If drones were on your Christmas Wish List, keep an eye on the 2015 Oregon Legislature…
Since Oregon was one of six states selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct test sites on drones, this state is positioned to take advantage of what could become a clean, multi-billion dollar industry…
Results from Oregon’s test sites will be used to help the FAA develop a drone policy.
Currently, the FAA grants permits for unmanned aviation vehicles used in research and in such operations as aerial surveying and monitoring forest fires. The public can also fly them as a hobby…
We respond & Your Comments
We share Sen. Johnson’s hope that drones become a multi-billion industry. But why is it so slow in coming?
And why are drones right now creating jobs in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong?
The answer: government. The FAA that now wants to just test drones in six states has smothered this infant industry.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “…all the R&D [research & development] has been done outside the U.S. because beaurocrats at the [FAA] prohibit commercial use of drones. Amazon sought the FAA’s permission to operate an outdoor testing facility in the U.S. but was denied. The company now bases its drone work in Cambridge, England.” [Editors’ note: are they afraid commercial use might create jobs and get folks off welfare?]
With FAA rules not expected before 2017, how many companies will invest how many billions developing drones abroad? How many doltish Senators (and Presidents?) will curse them as “unpatriotic” for taking their business offshore? How many jobs will not be created here?
We hope Senator Johnson is right. But we fear that she may need to fly across an ocean to visit what should have been a multi billion dollar industry right here.
Portland Creates Socially Responsible Investment Committee
– OPB
Portland City Council voted Wednesday to establish a new committee to make sure the city’s investments are socially responsible.
The committee will consider a half-dozen issues when making that decision. They include labor practices, environmental impacts, health impacts (for example, a weapons producer might have harmful effects on health) corporate ethics, extreme tax avoidance, and disruptive market dominance…
There is concern that limiting the city’s investment choices could reduce earnings on those sums.
We respond & Your Comments
We suggest some questions that these “socially responsible” geniuses on the Portland City Council should consider before proceeding with this harebrained plan:
What’s their mission? To raise money to fund police and pave streets or to ram their personal preferences down citizens’ throats?
Who says what is/isn’t socially responsible? Some think oil companies aren’t. Others believe that the millions of jobs they create and the gas they supply to get people to them makes them responsible;
If returns on their oh-so-pious investments do “reduce earnings”, will they just respond “Yeah, we know we have to close police substations, but we’ll close them and fire 50 cops in a ‘socially responsible’ way”?
If these clowns are investing their own money they’re welcome to put it into Solyndra or generators powered by hamsters on wheels. But they’re not. They’re investing money confiscated from Portlanders who earned it. Their job is simply to legally return the highest possible profits.
Frankly, we doubt they’d recognize “disruptive market dominance” if it bit them on the behind.
Oregon $15 minimum wage drive picks up steam
City of Portland contract workers and other employees have begun sounding the bell for a $15 minimum wage in Oregon.
More than 5,000 workers have signed a petition demanding improvements in Portland’s Fair Wage Policy…Rep. Rob Nosse, a Southeast Portland Democrat, wants to introduce a $15 minimum wage measure during next year’s regular Oregon legislative session…
Those working for companies that contract with the city make $10.38 an hour plus $1.92 in benefits. Portland has a Fair Wage Policy that it adopted in 1998.
We Respond & Your Comments
Yes, we’ve talked about minimum wage before. But as long as economic dunces keep telling us it’s a hot idea to raise it, we‘ll keep on teaching basic economics.
Once again here’s why raising the minimum wage is a lousy idea:
- Raising the price of anything (including labor) cuts into demand for it. If you believe otherwise you probably think water runs uphill;
- Raising the price of labor either raises the price of what that labor produces or decreases profits that might be used to expand the business and create new jobs;
- Raising minimum salaries hurts young people. Why hire a kid, when for the same price you could hire an experienced worker?
- According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, “oftentimes, union contracts are triggered to implement wage hikes in the case of minimum wage increases.”When the minimum wage goes up, lots of union workers also get a raise. And you thought Democrats cared about burger-flipping kids? No – they care about union money and votes.
The next time you hear some politician wanting to give 1.6 million minimum wage workers a raise, ask him to show you how he makes water run uphill.
Kitzhaber, Richardson disagree on performance reviews
– Hannah Hoffman, Statesman Journal
Gov. John Kitzhaber and his Republican opponent Dennis Richardson disagree a lot…
They differ a great deal in what kind of managers they plan to be.
Our Executive Editor, Michael Davis, asked both of the candidates whether they think each state employee should receive an annual performance review…
Richardson answered Davis’s question pretty clearly. Yes, he said, every employee deserves an annual performance review.
Kitzhaber gave an answer that seemed less clear.
“I think that would be very impractical,” he said, noting that the state has about 35,000 employees. However, he then went on to say that everyone does need be held accountable for their performance, but he did not seem to think reviews were necessarily the mechanism for this.
Our Response and Your Comments
Hey, Guv. Kitz – How about if we give you a performance review?
Us: Oregon has lots going for it: natural resources, good universities, educated workers, a natural harbor and a whole lot more.
Guv Kitz: Yup.
Us: After you’ve had 12 years as Governor, why are we 6th among states in unemployment, 6th highest in gas prices, 4th in childhood hunger and 3rd in homelessness?
Guv Kitz: Give me four more years and I’ll fix all that stuff.
Us: Is it true that you scorched half a billion bucks on Cover Oregon and the Columbia River Crossing and have nothing to show for it?
Guv Kitz (scratching head): Maybe. But give me four more years and I won’t do it again.
Us: Do you represent the State well when Oregon’s “First Lady” isn’t your wife, has an office in your office suite, “consults” for clients who have business interests with the State, and is awarded a no bid contract with the Oregon Dept. of Energy that cost Oregon a million dollar settlement?
Guv Kitz: Is this part of your War on Women?.
Us: Thanks, Guv – You’ve reviewed your performance for us. And for the voters.
Oregon has lost a sawmilling legend
– Eugene Register Guard
Aaron Jones, founder of Seneca Sawmill Company and a long-time Eugene resident, died on Monday, September 22, 2014. He was 92 years old.
Jones was a prominent industry leader for more than 50 years, guiding the family-owned sawmills in the West through bruising battles with special-interest groups and industry giants bent on driving smaller, family, independent mill owners out of business…
Born in Utopia, Texas, Aaron came to Oregon with two of his brothers when he was 10 years old to live and work on an uncle’s dairy farm near Toledo….
Aaron was popular in school and did well academically. He was president of his class and one of only two 1940 Toledo High School graduates to go on to college…
Aaron went out on his own and founded Seneca Sawmill Company in 1953,
Seneca now employs over 400 people…
Aaron was featured in Oregon Business Magazine as “one of the visionaries who will shape Oregon’s future”…
Aaron Jones was an absolutely honest man…
We Respond & Your Comments
There’s nothing we can add to the article excerpted above. Instead, we encourage you to click on the link, read it and join us in honoring this exceptional Oregonian.
Wealth gap report paints grim picture for Oregon
– The Associated Press
SALEM — A new report showing that rising income inequality could negatively affect state tax revenue comes amid a push by Gov. John Kitzhaber, legislative Democrats and others to overhaul Oregon’s tax code…
A report released Monday by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s suggests that income tax-reliant states like Oregon face a future of declining growth in state revenue.
…Between 1950 and 1979, Oregon tax revenue grew on average 9.49 percent per year, according to S&P’s report. The figure has decreased in subsequent decades, and since 2009, annual revenue growth has averaged 6.52 percent…
Our Response & Your Comments
OMG! It’s a disaster – It’s the ebola pandemic, the San Francisco Earthquake and the Great Depression all rolled into one toxic catastrophe!
How can we survive the Oregon government not living on a 9.49 % increase every year? By the way – at this rate of increase their revenue would double in 71/2 years. At the “puny” rate of 6.52% it will take the cavernous maw of Salem government just 11 years to suck in twice as much of our money.
We have two questions for you: First – does your income double every 7 ½ years? Or even every 11 years? Second – Did your life suddenly go into the tank after 2009? We didn’t think so.
Novick poll: Tax the rich to repair streets
– Portland Tribune, written by Jim Redden
Commissioner Steve Novick has finally found a street fee that most Portlanders support — one that only the rich pay.
Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales have struggled for months to find a new source of revenue for funding street maintenance and safety improvement projects. They started by proposing a transportation user fee that assessed a flat monthly fee on households and a fee based on vehicle trips on nonresidential properties. Outraged reactions from residents, business owners and nonprofit organizations forced them to pull their proposal back for more work, however.
Now Novick has released a new poll that shows 60 percent of Portlanders supporting taxing those who earn more than $125,000 to pay for maintenance and safety projects…
That’s the highest level of support of any new revenue source measured by the poll…
Significantly, the majority of those who responded to the poll would not pay anything under the funding proposal they support…
Our Response & Your Comments
Yeah, that’s the ticket! Just tax the rich! They don’t pay their “Fair Share” anyway. Right?
Let’s see…According to the IRS, in 2011 the top 1% paid just over 35% of all Federal income taxes. Did they make that share of all earnings? No – their share of all Adjusted Gross Income was just under 19%.
How about the top 50%? They paid 97% of all income taxes paid.
And the bottom 50%? They paid about 3% of all Federal income taxes.
How’s that for “Fair”?
Now re-read the last paragraph (above). Like most people who want to “tax the rich”, Portlanders are just itching to raise taxes that somebody else will pay as long as the goodies the taxes buy go to them.
http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/227788-90656-novick-poll-tax-the-rich-to-repair-streets
Portland social-investment policy would be wrong recipe: Editorial
– Oregonian Editorial Board
In the classic 1970s commercial, two kids sit at a table with a bowl of cereal that’s “supposed to be good for you,” but they’re afraid to taste it. Finally, they arrive at a solution. “Let’s get Mikey. He will eat it. He eats everything.” Mikey, of course, likes the new cereal.
When it comes to progressive policy experiments, Portland plays the role of Mikey. Today’s good-for-you dish is socially responsible investing. And Commissioner Steve Novick, the council’s designated Mikey, has declared that the new policy tastes good…
First, let us say that there’s nothing wrong with socially responsible investing…if you’re socially conservative you can avoid companies that sell tobacco or alcohol…Similarly, progressives can avoid companies that sell fossil fuels…What tastes good to you might come at the cost of lower investment returns, but it’s your choice to make.
However, since the city gets its money mostly from taxpayers, it would be applying a social-investing screen to other people’s money.
Our Response & Your Comments
We’re all in with the Oregonian on this issue. It’s simple: Do what you want with your own money. Stick it all in stocks & bonds of companies that save the Spotted Owl if that’s your cup of tea.
But when you’re investing money that taxpayers have earned and you’ve confiscated, your sole obligation is to return to the people whose money you grabbed the highest legal return without taking inordinate risk – because IT’S NOT YOUR MONEY.
Got that, Commissioner Novick and other Oregon elected officials? We suggest that you carve it into your desktops so you don’t forget it.
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/08/portland_social-investment_pol.html
Critics want these subsidized flights to this eastern Oregon town canceled
– Steve Dunn, KATU.com, July 10, 2014
PORTLAND, Ore. – A daily flight from Portland International Airport to an eastern Oregon town has critics calling for its immediate landing.
That flight is aboard SeaPort Airlines. It uses a nine passenger single engine Cessna to fly passengers from Portland to Pendleton and back again…
…the federal government thinks that the flight is vital. In fact, it’s part of a federal subsidy called Essential Air Service. Every time the plane lands or takes off from Pendleton, SeaPort Airlines gets $849 from the feds. The plane will make 2,162 flights for a total subsidy of more than $1.8 million…
SeaPort is a small airliner serving rural communities all over the country. Many of its routes are paid for by the Essential Air Service program…
The federal government spends over $200 million a year on Essential Air Service. You pay for it through taxes when you buy a seat on a commercial airliner…
Our Response & Your Comments
We always thought that ”Vital” and “Essential” meant “can’t do without it.” Sort of like food and shelter.
So if Oregonians can’t do without this puddle jumper flight to Pendleton wouldn’t they find a way to pay for it (sort of like they do for food and shelter)? And if they figured it was “essential” enough to pay what it actually cost, wouldn’t some airline jump at it as a way to make money?
Maybe the next question should be “Is it ‘essential’ enough to taxpayers that they think it’s worth $1.8 million?”
http://www.katu.com/politics/youpaidforit/Critics-want-these-subsidized-flights-to-this-small-town-canceled-266704721.html