Issues
Oregon Lawmakers Consider Free Postage For Voting By Mail
– Chris Lehman, Northwest News Network
Voting in Oregon could get even easier — and cheaper. Lawmakers are considering a measure that would require the state to pay the postage when voters return their ballots through the mail…
This would let people return their ballots without stamps. The government would pick up the cost of postage.
Advocates, including the Oregon Bus Project, said millennials rarely mail anything and are often confused about where to buy stamps. They said having the state pay for postage would give younger voters more access to the polls.
The bill doesn’t have a price tag yet, but if every eligible voter took advantage of the offer, it would cost the state more than $1.2 million per election…
We Respond & Your Comments
Here it is, Dear Readers – Liberalism, Progressivism, Idiotism – whatever you want to call it – on steroids.
Look at the premises behind this latest act of Salem lunacy:
- People are stupid – Despite the fact that there are ballot drop boxes scattered around like goose poop in Alton Baker Park, people are too darn dumb to find them;
- Millennials, who can root out 200 micro-aggressions and 26 “Safe Zones” every day at every college, can’t figure out how to find a stamp and slap it on an envelope;
- People aren’t responsible for returning their free ballots;
- People are so irresponsible they’re glad to let “The Government” pay for it. Look, Stupid, it’s not “The Government.” It’s your neighbors.
This is just the latest, and maybe the stupidest example of how happy these Salem space cadets are to spread your money around.
Legislature eyes $1.2 billion property tax
– Oregon Catalyst, by Taxpayers Association of Oregon
… the Taxpayer Association of Oregon testif[ied] at the Senate Revenue hearing regarding a property tax bill SJR 201 which could raise property taxes as much as $1.2 billion.
The bill is in design stages and the Revenue Committee is using the hearing to explore many ideas around changing Oregon property tax system and measure 50 (1997) and we are always open to dialogue on how to make our tax system more fair or effective. But as it stands we Oregonians pay too much in property taxes. We make it clear that Oregonians are already paying just over more property taxes than the average American and that Oregon state and local government spends more per capita than the average state in America. The bill as it currently stands would eliminate Measure 50 and the protection it gives against rising assessment taxation values which if gone could raise over a billion in new property taxes…
We respond & Your Comments
Here they go again. Our “public servants” in Salem are looking here, looking there, looking everywhere to gobble up a few billion more in taxes.
Why? Because they know that, thanks to overcommitments for funding PERS and Medicare, Oregonians are facing a $2.8 Billion shortfall next year. And our “Progressive” legislators don’t want us to wake up to it before they get themselves reelected in November.
Well – wake up. Do whatever it takes to remember it when you vote. Carve it into your dining table. Carve it into your forehead. Just remember.
Merkley Introduces Major New Retirement Security Legislation To Give Every Worker Access To A Retirement Savings Plan…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley unveiled the American Savings Act, major new national retirement security legislation. The American Savings Act would give every worker without access to a retirement savings plan through their employer the ability to save for retirement through their own, personal retirement savings account …
We Respond & Your Comments
Way to go, Jeff! You & your buddies in Congress are going to “give” 68 million workers access to a government run retirement plan?
Will it be anything like the last one you “gave” us? You remember, Jeff – it’s called Social Security. It’s the retirement “security plan” that:
- Congress funded by taking money from our salaries to save for our retirement and then looted it to fund programs like teaching cougars to run on treadmills;
- Will probably pay us back less than we put in if we die before we’re 85;
- That pays a far lower return to those who put in more thanks to their higher earnings;
- Takes my money if I die without a spouse or kids;
- That has $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
We bet you’ll loot this plan just like you looted Social Security. So just keep it, Jeff. Don’t do us any more favors.
Why They’re Suing
Linn Co., on behalf of Lane and 13 other counties, has informed Gov. Kate Brown of its intention to file a class action lawsuit against the State for more than $1.4 Billion of revenue lost due to the State’s mismanagement of Forest Trust Lands. Here’s why:
- During the 1930s and ‘40s Oregon counties acquired more than 654,000 acres of tax foreclosed forest lands;
- These lands were subsequently conveyed to the State as “Forest Trust Lands”;
- The State agreed to manage the Lands so as to maximize revenue, which, after deducting a management fee, would be passed to the counties which had previously held them;
- In 1998 the Oregon Board of Forestry unilaterally decided that the Lands did not have to be managed to maximize revenue but would instead be managed for their “greatest permanent value,” as defined solely by the State;
- In 2005 the Tillamook Co. Circuit Court declared that the State had a contractual obligation to ensure that “…the lands would be used to produce revenue”;
- The State’s appeal of this case was dismissed.
Linn County is now suing to recover forgone revenues resulting from the State’s decision not to manage the Lands to maximize revenue. If successful, Lane Co. could receive as much as $59 Million in damages and the assurance of a continued revenue stream which could be used for public safety, schools and other basic services.
Rural Oregon’s Lost Prosperity Gives Standoff a Distressed Backdrop…
– Kirk Johnson, New York Times
BURNS, Ore – One of the largest wood mills in the West once belched its steam on the edge of town, sawing ponderosa pine. Out in the woods, tree fallers like Tex Ward were proud and prosperous…
Times were once very good out here on the high desert of east central Oregon, and a place like Burns…In their heyday, Harney County and its largest town, Burns, were economically important…
What happened was a steep downturn, especially in the timber industry, which has all but disappeared. Oregon lost about three fourths of its timber mills between 1980 and 2010; Harney County lost all seven…
People like the Wards said that when environmental groups filed lawsuits and applied pressure at the State Capitol in Salem or in Washington, D.C., to reduce logging, forest managers just surrendered…
…the sense that government…no longer hears the voice of places like this echoes through the community…
We Respond and Your Comments
Rural Oregon has one county – Harney – and several more where families are hurting. Really hurting. It’s somewhere between difficult and impossible to find jobs. Employers are gone – with no hope of returning. Citizens see Salem as deaf to their cries.
So what’re the priorities of our Liberal (or Progressive, if you prefer) Oregon government? Let’s see:
- Affordable housing. But the problem isn’t housing. It’s that people either don’t have jobs or don’t have jobs that pay them enough to buy houses;
- Minimum wage. No – the problem is no wages at all.
- Not enough taxes on corporations. Yeah, that’s the ticket – let’s make it even more expensive for companies to create jobs.
We could go on, but you get the picture. While rural Oregonians are screaming for help in getting jobs into their counties, our “Progressive” legislators have lashed themselves to the mast of a rucksack of policies that not only won’t create jobs but will flatline many of those that are still stumbling along.
Facts That Make You Cringe – Issue 109
According to the Congressional Research Service Congress created 439 new federal criminal offenses between 2008 & 2013.
Hats Off to Our County Commissioners!
State of the County
…When the legislature passed PERS reform in 2013, our financial, legal and Human Resources staff recommended to the Board that we set aside the projected savings in a reserve account because of the potential for those reforms to be overturned in the courts. In addition, that same staff had bonded some of our PERS liability when interest rates were low and nearly fully funded our liability.
This higher level of funding directly impacts the rate that Lane County is charged to cover PERS expenses for our employees.
While other public employers in Oregon, with less than 80 percent of their PERS liability funded, saw their rates raise by as much as 6 percentage points in FY 15- 16, Lane County experienced an increase of just 1.8 percentage points for the same time period. If we had experienced a 6 percentage point increase, it would have cost Lane County an additional $3.3 million dollars annually.
This cost avoidance, along with the reserve set aside… provides greater financial stability for Lane County into the foreseeable future….
We Respond & Your Comments
Usually, asking politicians not to spend money is like putting a T-bone steak in front of your dog and asking him not to eat it ‘til tomorrow. But not so with our Lane County Commissioners!.
Please join us in giving a big round of applause to our County Commissioners for having the foresight to put money aside in case PERS reform turned sour – which it did.
It’s always easy to criticize government. So it’s important that when our elected leaders do the right thing to acknowledge it and thank them.
So – Jay, Pat, Sid, Faye & yes, Pete too – a big THANK YOU!
Oregon lawmakers scramble closer to deals on minimum wage, housing relief
– Denis C. Theriault, The Oregonian/OregonLive
Lawmakers, advocates and Gov. Kate Brown are circling around compromises on two of the signature issues looming over next month’s short legislative session: housing relief and whether to raise Oregon’s minimum wage…
…The Oregonian/OregonLive has compiled a preview of those issues…
Housing relief: When Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, announced plans in November for legislation on Oregon’s housing crisis, advocates demanded a one-year moratorium on no-cause evictions. They also sought an end to a state ban on rent control…
And Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, will move a bill aimed at increasing workforce housing in Oregon — by ending the state’s ban on local inclusionary zoning…
Another proposal would make it easier for cities to set aside state building and zoning codes when installing emergency shelters and tent communities….
Minimum wage: Lawmakers and advocates are planning a major show of force Thursday night, when House and Senate members gather for a public hearing on whether to raise the state’s $9.25-an-hour wage…
Also unclear? Whether any compromise is enough to stay the hands of the state’s $15 Now movement…
We Respond & Your Comments
According to MoneyRates.com Oregon is the second worst state in which to make a living. Let’s look at these “compromises.” Will they make things better or worse for Oregonians?
Housing: Right on, Kate & Alissa! Let’s fix the affordable housing shortage by letting local politicians decide what kind of houses developers can build! We bet they’ll decide based on how it’ll get them votes. Then let’s make it harder to evict problem tenants. And we’ll grease the skids for rent control so apartment owners make less money. It’s a liberal trifecta!
And let’s let the politicos set aside zoning rules and throw up a tent city next to your development. Yeah – that’s the ticket!
Minimum Wage: Oregon’s unemployment rate is already .6% above the national average and its labor force participation rate is near a 40 year low. We’ll fix it by making labor more expensive! It works every time! Employers will crawl on their bellies over broken glass to pay higher salaries here than they would in Idaho or Nevada !
Is it too much to ask these Salem geniuses to filter every policy through this prism: “Will what we are doing create jobs?” Probably.
Pull plug on energy loans
Oregon’s Small Scale Energy Loan Program started out as a neighborhood credit union, but somehow became Lehman Brothers. Gov. Kate Brown should immediately accept Treasurer Ted Wheeler’s recommendation that the program’s lending be suspended due to a $20 million deficit that will require a taxpayer bailout…
…SELP puttered smoothly along for decades after the voters approved its creation in 1980…It was designed to be self-supporting — the state would sell bonds, government agencies and private parties would borrow the money for small-scale energy-saving or energy-generating projects, and their loan payments would retire the bonds…
In recent years…SELP could be labeled the Enron of the state Department of Energy…SELP loaned $18 million for an ethanol plant in Clatskanie that went bankrupt…Other big loans also turned sour…
In a letter sent Thursday to Brown, Wheeler said that for the fiscal year that ended last June 30 the program had a “negative fund balance” of about $20 million. That means taxpayers will be on the hook for bond repayments…
We Respond & Your Comments
Way to go, Ted! Most “Progressives,” when faced with a failing government program, just double down on it. Ted’s right to call for sudden death for SELP.
SELP is a perfect example of why governments at all levels should stay out of the loan business. First, they don’t know how to assess risks. Banks do. When somebody comes to a government agency for a loan it’s because the banks wouldn’t touch his project with a Jedi lightsaber pike.
Second, banks have “skin in the game.” If too many loans go stinko somebody’s out of a job. Politicians play with your money, not their own. And their DNA tells them to use your money to buy themselves votes. So they lend your bucks for projects that’ll return votes for them and bigger tax bills to you.
Keep it up, Ted. And don’t let Gov. Kate cave to the Beaver State Greenies.
Does This Drive You Crazy, Or What?
Abilify, duloxetine rank on Medicare cost list
– Julie Miller, Editor in Chief, Behavioral Care
Two of the top 15 most costly drugs for Medicare in 2014, according to newly released data, were Abilify (aripiprazole), which is an antipsychotic, and generic Cymbalta (duloxetine HCI), which is typically used as an antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug…
Abilify spending in 2014 topped $2.5 billion and demonstrated a 17 percent unit-cost increase over the previous year…
We Respond & Your Comments
OMG! We bought $2.5 Billion of this stupid psychiatric drug? Is somebody crazy?
Just one problem here: we didn’t. Bristol-Myers Squibb, maker of Abilify, reports in its audited 2015 SEC filings that U.S. sales of Abilify were just $1.57 billion and worldwide sales were only $2.02 billion.
What’s going on here? Medicare reported Abilify sales at the public list price of the drug, ignoring the discounted prices actually paid by insurers.
We step outside Oregon today to remind you to look behind numbers government numbers, see how they were calculated and what agenda they’re advancing. Here the agenda is to gin up anger at Big Pharma and gain support for price controls on drugs.
If we were cynics we might even worry that our buddies in Salem might pull a stunt like this. They wouldn’t, would they?