Issues
Our Salem Tycoons
Of 90 members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, not even half have run a business. But they think their inexperience qualifies them to tell Oregon businesspeople how to run theirs.
The legislative agenda of these Donald Trump wannabees includes Senate Bill 454, which mandates that all businesses with 10 or more employees give paid sick leave to every one of them, even if they’re part time. Economic analysis reveals a $2 billion cost per year for businesses.
Then there’s House Bill 2960, which sets up a state run retirement savings program for employees without one. Employers, at their expense, would deduct contributions from employees’ salaries and pass them on to the state, which would run it (Cover Oregon, anyone?).
When PERS crashes on the rocks of financial reality would our Salem whizbangs raid this new retirement fund to save PERS?
When you give power to a crowd that wouldn’t know a payroll if it bit them and who sees business as a cash cow mooing to be milked to pay for a “Progressive” agenda – this is what you get.
Don’t let Oregon Democrats Steal your kicker
– The Bulletin, Bend reprinted in the Salem Statesman Journal
State Rep. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, was right. He said Democrats would come after the kicker tax rebate if there was one.
And sure enough, Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, proposes that the $473 million set to be sent back to state taxpayers be diverted. He wants some of the money to go to schools and some to go to state reserves…
Legislators are always looking for more of somebody else’s money. The kicker lets taxpayers and not politicians decide how to spend their money…
FrankenTax unleashed — Hiding tax hikes inside tax credits
– Taxpayer Association of Oregon, printed in Oregon Catalyst
Liberal lawmakers are creating a dangerous and reckless FrankenTax monster. House Bill 2093, the FrankenTax bill, is a massive unconstitutional tax increase designed to cheat the public from their 3/5th voter majority protection. In 1996, voters put in the constitution protections against easy tax increases by requiring a 3/5th majority vote for all tax increases. The FrankenTax scheme aims to hide real-life tax increases inside a tax credit renewal bill and pretend it is not a tax increase. The details of the FrankenTax scheme aims to raise millions of new tax dollars by reducing your home mortgage interest deductions …
We Respond & Your Comments
Progressives are always shouting that their programs are “Settled Law.” So’s the Kicker. But we guess “settled law” just ain’t what it used to be.
The paragraphs above are examples of government trickery in attempts to subvert what actually is settled law. They aren’t the only two.
We use these examples to remind ourselves and our readers of the need to constantly monitor not just what our “leaders” are saying, but what they’re doing. People tend to act in their own self interest, and politicians are no exception.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
Free community college? Oregon still debating the idea
– Taylor W. Anderson, The [Bend] Bulletin
…SALEM — Lawmakers hoping to make community college free for most students got a resounding message from the higher education community during a hearing on the matter Thursday…
Senate Bill 81 was proposed as a way to create a free college degree for low – and middle-income students. The cost to the state is estimated at around $20 million every two years, and aspects of the proposed law could bring in a rush of federal student aid to help carry the program…
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, has been leading the proposal since 2013. He said critics aren’t considering the likely gush of federal money that would come as a result of the proposal…
…the free tuition would deplete a [community college] budget that is still crawling back after
being cut deeply during the recession…
We Respond & Your Comments
We know – we’ve said it before. And we’re going to keep reminding our Salem brainiacs: NOTHING IS FREE. Somebody (are you listening, taxpayers?) pays for everything that man creates. The $20 million has to come from somewhere. That would be us.
It “could bring in rush/’gush’ of federal student aid?” The key word is “could.” We “could” win the lottery. Ever notice that when a state politico is trying to sell more spending he tends to suggest that Uncle Sugar’ll pick up the tab?
We all know that if you want more of something, in this case students, – subsidize it. If you want lots more, make it free. Lots more students = lots more cost to taxpayers.
Sen. Haas (Dem – Beaverton) may believe that “free” tuition is a great idea. He also knows that his “generosity” will turn into votes from students and their parents. It’s up to us to demand that we’re told the true cost of this before $20 million turns into $40 million turns into $60 million and yet another failed government program.
Oregon’s Highest Paid Union Bosses
– Catalina Gaitan, GoLocalPDX Contributor
In the midst of a national decline, membership in Oregon’s labor unions is on the rise. Moreover, while membership is thriving, so are the salaries of some of the state’s largest union leaders – many of whom are making six-figure salaries, or double or triple the average salary of the workers they are paid to represent.
Ten leaders of the state’s largest union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are receiving more than $100,000 annually. Similarly, Oregon’s chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) also has 10 leaders earning six-figures, despite having fewer than half the members and significantly less financial assets of their peer union, SEIU.
“They get those salaries because they can,” said senior policy analyst Steve Buckstein of the Cascade Policy Institute, a free-market think-tank based in Oregon. “…
We Respond & Your Comments
We aren’t in the habit of criticizing people for making as much money they legally can. But we do raise our eyebrows when they make it by snatching it from somebody else’s wallet. And that’s what union bosses do – you want a union job, you’re forced to pay them union dues.
Ever heard “Progressives” whine that “CEO’s make a bazzilion times the salary of a janitor in their companies?” Let’s look at some of the salary disparities you’ll never them whine, moan and bedwet about:
- Union bosses’ salaries compared to average workers’ pay;
- Liberal late night TV comedians’ appearance fees compared to what the janitors make;
- Aging pop stars’ salaries compared to what the concert ticket taker gets;
- Liberal movie stars’ checks compared to what an “extra” takes home.
Could it be that union bosses, late night comedians, aging pop singers and liberal movie stars all cough up big bucks for Democrats? Just wondering.
Editors’ Note: You’ll never, ever hear them even mention (let alone criticize) Chelsea Clinton’s $600,000 salary at NBC, either.
One For the Good Guys!
Really this is one for one very good dentist – Dr. Cedric Hayden.
Last year we featured Dr. Hayden in a three part series about his attempts to rotate his mobile dental clinic among rural Lane County cities and provide free dental care to the needy. He and his brother Matthew had already funded it with $200,000 out of their own pockets.
Unfortunately, not one city wanted it. According to Dr. Hayden, while city governments thought it was a great idea, they just didn’t want the clinic on their streets. So he shipped it to Chuuk, Micronesia, which desperately needed and wanted it.
Fast forward one year…
Now it’s Republican Representative Cedric Hayden, who sponsored House Bill 3139, which mandates that cities must allow nonprofits to set up temporary mobile clinics on private property. With the help of like minded Oregon legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, both House and Senate have passed HB 3139.
Please join us in congratulating Representative Hayden for his generosity, persistence and commitment to doing something for those in need instead of talking about it.
Read More Here >>>
Does One Party Want More Uninformed Voters?
…Voters can take their completed ballots to the Lane County Elections Office at 275 W. 10th Ave. in downtown Eugene or to any of more than a dozen election drop boxes…
The real vote-fraud opportunity has arrived: casting your ballot by mail
– News21 (a program of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)
From a continuing series of articles, Who Can Vote?, a News21 investigation of voting rights in America…
Election fraud is rare, but it usually involves absentee or mail ballots, said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political scientist, who directs the Early Voting Information Center in Oregon…
Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, said vote-buying and bribery could occur more easily with mail voting and absentee voting…
Our Response & Your Comments
We know the potential for fraud in vote-by-mail elections. For some it’s pretty easy to vote for granny, granddad and a couple of uncles. Others might go door to door in their neighborhood trolling for ballots.
But why let voters vote by mail at all? Because it makes it easier to vote? What’s the virtue of taking nearly all the effort out of voting? Because we get more people to vote? In fact, the easier it is the more we’re pulling into the election process people who are too lazy to go to a polling place or request an absentee ballot.
What else are they too lazy to do? Read a voters’ pamphlet? Read a newspaper? Get informed?
So who wants them to vote? Maybe the party that made these rules wants to attract uninformed voters because they think these people will vote for them.
Oh, by the way – just wait for motor voter registration. You’re gonna just love it. And so is the party that wants it.
Will Mr. Geranium Sue Mr. Dirt? And Will He Get Punitive Damages?
Do plants have rights? GMO fight returns to Oregon with Benton County vote
– Molly Harbarger | The Oregonian/OregonLive
The battle over genetically-modified food has returned to Oregon, despite attempts by politicians to stop county-by-county bans…
Measure 2-89 would create a framework to stop farming that uses genetically-engineered plants or any seeds patented by corporations…
The Oregon Legislature in 2013 prohibited ballot measures and local governments’ GMO bans. While Jackson County’s was grandfathered in, a measure that passed in Josephine County was stymied. But backers of the Benton County ban are using a different tactic.
Measure 2-89 would give rights to natural resources themselves – bodies of water, soil, trees…
If passed, Measure 2-89 would allow the soil, water, plants and other natural resources involved in the production and distribution of food to be plaintiffs in lawsuits — though residents of the county would assist in filing the suits…
We Respond & Your Comments
Just when you think you’ve heard it all…when activists agitate for your pooch to have human rights and sue you if she doesn’t like her treats, when jailbirds sue for color TVs, when a moron who changed his name to “Jack Ass” sues Viacom for producing a show with the same name. But wait…there’s more.
Now we have Oregonians who want to grant rights to plants, soil and water. We can see it now. We can hear the bailiff announcing “The court of the honorable Judge Pasquale Pretzelhonk will now come to order. Comes before the court the case of Mr. Geranium vs Mr. Dirt, in which plaintiff Mr. Geranium demands injunctive relief for damages arising from defendant Mr. Dirt’s failure to allow water to drain to plaintiff Dirt’s roots.”
We join you in wondering what comes next.
When Scorching $248 Million Just Isn’t Enough
Health Care for All Oregon Act Being Considered by Legislators
Legislators in Oregon…are considering bills that would provide every resident with comprehensive health care. In Oregon, [Democrat] Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson, chair of the Health Care Committee of the Oregon Senate, has scheduled a hearing for a bill titled the Health Care for All Oregon Act…
This bill, SB 631, outlines a plan to provide publicly funded universal health care for all Oregon residents…
Oregon’s SB 631 suggests a progressive employer payroll assessment supplemented by a progressive tax on some types of income, but in each state, the exact financing method and the amount of money to be collected are not specified
We Respond & Your Comments
“The burnt fool’s bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the fire.” So wrote poet Rudyard Kipling about our inability to learn from experience.
Can our Salem savants learn nothing from blowing $248 million on Cover Oregon, which didn’t register one Oregonian on the website?
Don’t these braniacs know that Obamacare is a train wreck gaining steam? That Obamacare families are paying outrageous deductibles for policies they neither need nor want? That liberal nirvana Vermont bailed out of the state’s “Green Mountain Care” precisely because of the unbearable taxes the plan demanded? We could go on, but you get the idea.
Wouldn’t you think Sen. Anderson and her merry band of liberals would wait to see how some “universal health care” plans under discussion in 17 other states work out?
No, they won’t. Because it’s not their money and all that matters to them is that they look like they want to do nice things. And they don’t care that the fire that burned them last time has only gotten hotter.
The Choo-Choo From Hell
End of line for Amtrak subsidies?
– Peter Wong, Portland Tribune
One key legislator says Oregon will continue state-subsidized passenger rail service between Portland and Eugene.
But Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, also wants Amtrak to change the timing of a weekday morning southbound train that carried barely 5,000 riders in 2014.
The Legislature’s budget framework proposes just $5 million in additional state funds, half of the $10.4 million proposed by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber…
But Johnson says lawmakers will come up with enough to continue twice-daily runs in the Willamette Valley…
But Johnson also says Amtrak needs to change the start time for a weekday southbound train that leaves Portland at 6 a.m., much earlier than it did prior to 2014…
Ticket sales pay about two-thirds of Amtrak’s actual costs on the corridor.
According to Amtrak’s website, a one-way standard fare between Portland and Salem is $16… Between Portland and Seattle, the one-way fare can be as low as $34…
Amtrak service southbound from Portland was switched on Jan. 6, 2014, from 9:30 a.m to 6 a.m….
Ridership on that run for 2014 was just 5,529, compared with 45,858 for the evening southbound run…
“Frankly, we have not been particularly happy with the results,” ODOT rail planner Bob Melbo said…
We Respond & Your Comments
Amtrac strikes again…and again! Yes, those wizards who spent $16 to make a hamburger and sold it for $9.50 (guess who paid the other $6.50) are back with more “questionable” business practices. And we have a few questions for them:
- If, over 10 years your business lost $900 million in food and beverage service alone would you still be buying burgers for $16 and selling them for $9.50?
- If you sold tickets at a price that only covered 2/3 of the cost, wouldn’t you raise ticket prices and cut a bucketload of costs?
- If any CEO saw that an average of only 16 passengers per day were riding his multi million south bound choo-choo from Portland would he say “Frankly, we have not been particularly happy with the results”? No – he’d scream ”Stop running this bleepin’ train. Now!” And he wouldn’t wait a year to do it, either.
But this is the government. And the lost money was yours.
It’s Baaaaack – Minimum Wage Campaign Rises From the Dead
Government-Imposed Minimum Wage Increases Don’t Work for Oregon Small Businesses
– Steve Buckstein, Cascade Policy Institute
The concept that everyone should earn at least some government-mandated minimum wage is politically very appealing. It’s almost the classic example of taking from the few and giving to the many. “The few” in this case are portrayed as rich businessmen who could never spend all the money they have, so what’s wrong with making them pay their workers a little more? Now, proponents of raising Oregon’s minimum wage are trying to convince us that somehow such policy is actually good for small business owners…
Let’s just hope that if another bump in Oregon’s minimum wage results in some workers losing their jobs and others not getting hired in the first place that they place the blame for their troubles where it belongs―not on employers, but on those who promised them higher wages but couldn’t deliver because economic reality stood in the way.
We Respond & Your Comments
They’re back – Democrats are again campaigning to raise the Oregon minimum wage from $9.25/hour to somewhere between $10.25 and $15.00.
We’ve shared with you why this is a bad idea. By way of review, here are some of the reasons:
- Businesses facing increased labor costs typically respond by a combination of reducing labor, increasing prices, or decreasing the quantity or quality of their products;
- Increasing labor costs incentivizes businesses to replace labor with technology. At about 800 Olive Garden restaurants you’ll soon order and pay for your spaghetti on computer tablets at the table – tablets that don’t earn anything, call in sick or take days off;
- Many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage. Raise that and you raise lots of union salaries;
- Low wage workers don’t necessarily come from low income families. A recent study shows that if you raise the minimum wage to $15/hr. only 12% of the benefits will go to poor families. 36% will go to families earning more than 3 times the poverty line.
These are just a few of the reasons that raising the minimum wage is bad for Oregonians. Please click the link above and discover even more.