Issues
A City Club Committee Says Portland Should Explore Rent Control—And A Lot of Other Strategies
– Dirk VanderHart, portlandmercury.com
…In a report released Wednesday, an 11-member research committee for the City Club of Portland recommends the city take an array of new steps to address its burgeoning housing affordability crisis… …here’s a brief rundown [of] strategies the committee is calling for:
- An end to the state’s preemption on rent control,so that local officials can consider policies that might help stem the tide. In particular, the committee seems intrigued by “rent stabilization” a sometimes-controversial strategy… that limits how high landlords can jack up rents…
We Respond & Your Comments
First we ask “Why is it the city’s business how much an owner charges for use of his private property? You don’t tell a grocer he can’t raise the price of carrots or a gas station owner he can’t raise the price of gas.”
Then we’d give these brainiacs a lesson in economics…
In 1994 Santa Monica, CA had a major earthquake. This “Progressive” city, concerned for “the little guy,” had long ago initiated rent control. Guess what? Apartment owners compensated for their inability to raise rents by skimping on maintenance and repairs.
Come the earthquake. Guess what crumbled like a stale cookie? You got it – the “little guys’” apartments – sometimes with “little guys” inside them.
The takeaways: a) people don’t just stand by while governments pick their pockets – they find ways to replace lost revenue; b) they react to financial incentives. In this case they skipped repairs. How’d that work out for “the little guy?”
NEWS FROM OREGON DEMOCRATIC ELECTED OFFICIALS
AG Rosenblum and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Launch Managing Someone Else’s Money Guides for Oregonians
Free, Plain-language Guides Designed to Help Financial Caregivers Understand Their Fiduciary Duties
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today joined the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB) to launch the CFPB’s Managing Someone Else’s Money, Oregon-specific guides for financial caregivers. The guides will help caregivers, particularly those who handle the finances of older Oregonians, carry out their duties and responsibilities in managing someone else’s money…
– Democratic Party of Oregon Newsroom
We Respond & Your Comments
Taking financial advice from any “Progressive” Oregon official strikes us as about as crazy as taking medical advice from Dr. Kevorkian. Let’s review how Salem’s done “Managing Someone Else’s Money” – ours:
- Cover Oregon losses – $300 million
- Columbia River Crossing losses – $175 million
- PERS investment losses, 2015 – $20 million
Then there’s the Oregon Energy Dept. – $20 million scorched in bad loans to green energy nutbars. Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler opines on this mess: “It’s in trouble.” Thank you, Captain Obvious. Yo, Ted – did it ever occur to you that these greenies only came to you because there wasn’t a bank in the world that would risk their own money on a loan to them?
So now Ted and his merry band in Salem want to teach us how to manage Gramma’s nest egg?
U.S. Government To Buy Up To 30 Million Pounds Of Blueberries To Combat Price Drop
– Andrew Galbreath, inquisitr.com
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to buy up to 30 million pounds of wild blueberries to help stabilize a drop in the price, ABC News reported on Thursday.
An unnamed member of Maine’s congressional delegation told the Associated Press that the agency will spend up to $13 million for the wild blueberries…
The government purchase came in response to a letter Maine’s congressional delegation wrote to federal agencies, saying the prices of frozen blueberries had fallen by as much as 50 percent in the last 5 years, and asking the government to buy the excess fruit for use in domestic food assistance programs…
Rep. Chellie Pingree from Maine defended the government’s action, saying it would provide a boost to the blueberry industry…
We Respond & Your Comments
Today we leave Oregon and visit The Pine Tree State for our lesson on Big Government.
We like blueberries. We know they have antioxidants that fight cancer. And we’d hate not to have blueberry farmers who supply them.
But markets reflect the relationship of supply to demand. In the case of blueberries there’s too much supply. So suppliers are hurting – maybe because they’re too many of them. But Maine’s blueberry farmers figured out a way to get Uncle Sugar to bail them out in what had become an inefficient market.
Question: When conditions for your business turned sour did the Feds bail you out? We didn’t think so. So why did they do it for the blueberry crowd? We’ll bet our blueberries that dollars and votes had something to do with it.
This is why so many voters this year are fed up with “Crony Capitalism,” where the government picks winners and losers based on dollars and votes and leaves us with the bill for their pandering.
Are Oregon Democrats backtracking already on the minimum wage?
Less than two weeks after Oregon’s minimum wage increase was signed into law, Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick told the Portland Business Alliance they’ll propose changes to it next year, including lower wages for younger workers and trainees — according to a report in the Oregonian. Only, Kotek tells the Northwest Labor Press, that’s not accurate.
Kotek says there are no plans to adjust the wage scale that was put in place over the next six years. But she said legislators are willing to have conversations about a lower wage for trainees and young workers — as a solution to the problem of youth unemployment…
State Sen. Michael Dembrow and State Rep. Paul Holvey — both chairs of labor committees — say they plan to discuss a training and/or youth wage, but they also say other solutions to youth unemployment might be as good or better — like targeted tax credits or additional state support for youth work programs…
We Respond & Your Comments
Here’s “progressive” government at its best. First they pass something that “sounds good” – in this case higher salaries for “the little guy” – without thinking it through. Now, to make their first law work they need more laws – here it’s lower wages for trainees and younger workers.
Next they have to define “trainees” and “younger workers.” For that they’ll need hearings and rulings. And more laws. Who’s a “trainee?” “Younger” than what? Employers will lobby and donate bucks to extend the “trainee” period as long as they can and define “younger” as old as they can.
Next Salem will need a new department to find and punish employers who fudge on training periods and ages. They’ll land on some pizza parlor owner in Heppner employing a 45 year old “younger” 10 year “trainee” and make an example of him.
It’ll go on – new law after new law – ever increasing government meddling in business. After all, it’s the “Progressive” way.
Excerpts from Gov. Kate Brown’s 2016 “State of the State” Speech
Together with my newly formed Small Business Advisory Cabinet, we will work with government agencies to provide troubleshooting and customer service to our small businesses…
Just what small businesses need – a new bureaucracy!
…global climate change is the major threat to our quality of life…
Folks in Brussels, Paris and San Bernardino might disagree with you.
Leadership from Speaker Kotex and the Legislature provided additional tools…to remove barriers to creating affordable housing statewide…
Ever think of advocating expansion of Urban Growth Boundaries to increase housing supplies and decrease prices?
Best of all…I approved the nation’s first “coal to clean” law that gives Oregon a vision for a future free of coal-powered electricity…
You mean you kicked the can down the road so some future politico will be stuck with it. Nice.
The key to continuing to grow the economy…is Oregon’s small businesses…
Right, Kate – and a trainload of new regulations is just the ticket here.
I will continue to champion much-needed seismic upgrades…[and] develop …a transportation package…
These investments will support the strong business sector Oregon needs…
Kate: What’s the difference between “investments” and “spending”?
…this too was a watershed year for Oregon, with several first-in-the-nation achievements of our own:
Our Three-tiered minimum wage increase…Oregon Motor Voter…
OK, so you’ve raised the price of labor and registered a slew of Democrat voters.
Now – Kate’s crowning achievement…
Oregon now allows pharmacies to dispense birth control pills without a prescription…
Kate, you’re a governor for the ages.
$100,000 PSU Donation Raises Business Hackles
– Rachel Monahan, Willamette Week
Portland State University’s plan to fund scholarships with a $35 million payroll tax has met with skepticism from business groups, labor unions and Portland Public Schools.
But as PSU moves forward with a November ballot initiative asking voters to approve the tax, it has received $100,000 in backing from its own private fundraising wing…
Now the president of the tax’s fiercest opponent, the Portland Business Alliance, says its members may stop donating to the PSU Foundation.
“We have heard concerns from many of our members who had made donations to the foundation…who are concerned about foundation money being used for the campaign,” says PBA president and CEO Sandra McDonough. “I have had members say they will think twice about contributing to the foundation.”
We Respond & Your Comments
You gotta love this – A PSU fundraiser meets with a Portland business owner and pleads, “Sir, our poor university is so underfunded – we can’t afford safe places for students in pain because they saw a Trump for President sign.
“We can’t even fund a chair for a professor of 16th Century Sustainable Korean Gender Studies. Would you please fork over $25,000? It’s for the children. Oh, by the way, we’ll use part of it to fund a ballot initiative to raise your payroll tax.”
OK, so the fundraiser didn’t mention the tax.
What did these 180 IQ geniuses think would happen when they took business donations and used them to promote a tax on businesses? That donors would just say “Thank you”? If so, they must live in Progressive Nirvana, where taxes are endless and no one ever objects.
Ballot language for liquor vote OK’d
– Kristena Hansen, The Associated Press
…The state Supreme Court on Thursday approved the title language of a November ballot proposal that would allow grocery stores to stock their shelves with distilled liquor across Oregon…
Oregonians Against the Takeover — a coalition formed by the Associated Liquor Stores of Oregon [and] Oregon Beer & Wine Distributors…argues liquor costs would soar as they have in Washington state…
It also says the measure would create a gaping hole in revenue for many public services…
“Oregonians will have a clear choice this November: A yes vote will blow a hole in state, local and mental health budgets, while corporate grocers make big profits,” Ryan Frank, a coalition spokesman, said in a statement Thursday. “A no vote will preserve a system that Oregonians believe works and has allowed Oregon’s craft alcohol industry to thrive.”…
Handing things over to the free market means the state either gives up that revenue entirely or it comes up with a way to preserve it through a new tax…
We Respond & Your Comments
Let’s look at these reasons for not privatizing liquor sales:
- Liquor costs would “soar” – just like in Washington. They “soared” because government just had to replace lost revenue with new taxes. That’s because…
- Government can never do with less money. Taxpayers always can. Maybe some lost alcohol tax revenue should be replaced. What we object to is the knee jerk reaction that every tax dollar lost must be “paid for” with new taxes.
- “Corporate grocers [would] make big profits.” Get it? Only Oregon liquor stores and beer and wine distributors are entitled to make big profits off the liquor monopoly.
- It would jeopardize the Oregon craft alcohol industry. So we’re supposed to pay more for our cocktails to protect some guy cooking up rotgut in his bathtub and calling the swill “craft.”
Government and liquor peddlers resist privatizing Oregon liquor sales because the state and its booze suppliers have a nice little monopoly going – and they’re not about to give it up.
Looking back on a year as secretary of state
– Jeanne Atkins, Oregon Secretary of State, for Oregonlive
Friday, March 11, marks one year since I took the oath of office as Oregon’s secretary of state.
…While I have certainly “taken care” of the agency this last year, I have also served with my own goals and expectations for the agency. I was determined to keep the agency moving ahead …I committed to successfully implementing Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program to automatically register Oregonians to vote.
As of Jan. 1, Oregon’s “motor voter” law is up and running smoothly. With this pioneering law, we are adding thousands of voters to the rolls every month….
We Respond & Your Comments
Under our new Motor Voter Law, when Oregonians apply for drivers’ licenses they’re automatically registered to vote. They can choose which party to join or be registered as “unaffiliated.”
According to our secretary of state’s website, “The program…provides a secure, simple and convenient way for more Oregonians to be registered voters.”
How many new voters will be registered? And why was Guv Kate sporting such a huge grin when she signed it? They project about 300,000. Now – about that grin.
Oregon was the first Motor Voter state. The second? California. What do they have in common? Hint: It’s more than just having governors named “Brown” and Democrat governors and legislatures!
“The Brownies” will say they did it out of concern over low voter turnouts. But we know better – they love motor voter laws because they’ll generate more Democrat voters – lots more.
Oregon’s new minimum wage will create ‘tough choices’ for public universities
– Andrew Theen, The Oregonian/oregonlive The Oregonian
As Oregon lawmakers celebrated passage of a historic minimum wage hike last week, leaders at each of the seven public universities were pulling out their calculators.
Oregon’s four-year universities collectively pay thousands of mostly student workers the minimum wage…
…Minimum wage [increases] will cost PSU [Portland State University] an estimated $2.5 million more during the biennium…
At the University of Oregon…the new wage will cost an extra $432,779 to implement during the 2017 fiscal year alone…
For the Beavers [Oregon State University], the extra wages due to students in the next biennium would be at least $4.8 million…
By the 2019 fiscal year, [OSU spokesman] Clark said, the school could look at reducing the number of student jobs by 650 to 700 positions to cut costs…
We Respond & Your Comments
As much as we hate to see kids lose jobs, especially when universities are raising tuition, we have to ask the kids, professors and administrators, most of whom were probably for the minimum wage hike, “Just what in the (insert your favorite word here) did you think was going to happen?”
It’s still Iron Rule of Economics #1: When you raise the price of something (in this case labor) you decrease demand for it.
We predicted this. Now we extract from our crystal ball two more predictions: 1) This is just the beginning; 2) By July 4 these universities will be begging the Legislature for a minimum wage exemption because “It’s just not fair to the kids.” Wanna bet against us?
Housing costs hit low-income households
– Peter Wong, Portlandtribune.com
Record-low vacancy rates, rising rents and a shortage of housing for lower-income people have combined to keep homelessness atop the public issues facing Washington County.
“We are developing market-rate housing to meet many of the needs of employees in the business sector,” said Annette Evans, homeless program coordinator for the county.
“But our aging population and people doing low-income sector jobs need a place to stay, too…”
Meanwhile, vacancy rates that once ranged from 5 to 7 percent have dropped to as little as 1.6 percent in Hillsboro…
“That gap (in affordable housing) has grown every year that our consolidated plan has been updated, and gets bigger,” Evans said…
The plan she referred to is “A Road Home,” which county commissioners adopted in 2008 with a 10-year goal of eliminating homelessness.
The plan has resulted in about $6 million spent annually in the county to cope with homelessness…
We Respond & Your Comments
So there’s a housing shortage in Washington County that’s hurting the poor, homeless, and elderly – people that “Progressives” say they want to help?
As usual, Progressives hurt these people and stick the bill for their foolishness to the rest of us. Let’s look at what they’ve done:
- Enforced a Metro Urban Growth Boundary that limits housing. As any non-Progressive knows, limiting housing drives up prices. But Progressives say expanding it would kill trees and little furry critters, warming Earth and killing polar bears. So they cling to their urban density religion – because little furry critters trump poor people;
- Increased the minimum wage…”Let’s help the poor by killing jobs.” Yeah – that’s the ticket!
- Raised taxes on businesses. If you’re starting a business, where would you go first: Idaho, Nevada, or…Oregon? Jobs? We don’t need no stinkin’ jobs!
And the gap in affordable housing “has grown every year that our consolidated plan has been updated.” Notice a pattern here?