Issues
Oregon lawmakers consider state-run retirement plan to boost residents’ savings
– Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. — Democratic lawmakers are promoting legislation that would automatically enroll thousands of Oregon workers in retirement savings accounts, a move that proponents said Monday would help ensure nobody is forced to work until they die or to spend their retirement years in poverty.
House and Senate bills would create a state-run retirement plan. Workers who don’t have access to a retirement account from their employer would automatically be enrolled, unless they opt out, and a percentage of their earnings would be withheld from each paycheck…
“I’m proud to sponsor these bills with my colleagues because they’ll give Oregonians the means and the opportunity to take control of their retirement and the chance to retire comfortably and with dignity,” said Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton…
We Respond & Your Comments
You gotta love this…the brainiacs who blew $200 million of your bucks on the Columbia River Crossing (and didn’t even build the much needed bridge) and $300 million on Cover Oregon (and never covered a single person) now want to manage…your retirement nest egg!
Here’s how we see this working out:
- Oregon legislators decide to take10% of your salary to seed “Oregon Retires Happy”;
- They tell us, “You can’t retire on this 10%”;
- Then they say, “Greedy employers have to kick in another 10% to make this fair”;
- Despite promising not to, they loot Oregon Retires Happy to pay for pre-kindergarten “for the children”;
- In 5 years they tell us there’s an unfunded Oregon Retires Happy liability of $3 billion;
- To cover the unfunded liability they raise income taxes “on the rich” by 5 percent. But it’s only “temporary”;
- You retire. Oregon Retires Happy can only pay you half what they promised.
- You die unhappy 20 years later and the “temporary tax” has been raised to 10%.
So go ahead – trust them with your retirement account. What could possibly go wrong?
Study: 60 percent of 2014 job growth caused by expiration of unemployment benefits
– Jason Russell, The Washington Examiner
Sixty percent of job creation in 2014 was caused by the expiration of unemployment benefits, according to a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research…
In late 2013, a standoff between Republicans and Democrats led to the abrupt expiration of long-term unemployment benefits. Democrats warned that the expiration would have disastrous ramifications, but Republicans had long argued that allowing Americans to collect unemployment benefits for an indefinite period of time provided a disincentive for them to work.
The new working paper found that the expiration of benefits was responsible for the creation of over 1.8 million jobs. Nearly 1 million of those jobs were created by workers who would have otherwise stayed out of the labor force if unemployment benefits had been extended…
“The negative effects of unemployment benefit extensions on employment far outweigh the potential stimulative effects often ascribed to this policy,” the study said…
We Respond & Your Comments
Here, again, is an iron rule of economics: “If you want more of something, subsidize it.”
Driven by false compassion, Liberals subsidized unemployment by sending checks to the unemployed. What did they get? More unemployment. When payments for not working stopped, people found jobs.
We would bet the farm that you could show these facts to 100 Liberals and 98 of them would deny them. That’s because Liberals are driven not by facts, but by what sounds and feels good. And it feels good to take money from you and us and give it to someone who isn’t working.
That’s because of another Liberal guideline: “There just ain’t no end to the good you can do with other people’s money.” Even if you’re really doing harm.
Capitol Tax List: Over 50 taxes proposed!
By Taxpayer Association of Oregon, reprinted in The Oregon Catalyst
Hb 2080 – Provides that for first property tax year after sale or transfer of property, assessed value and maximum assessed value equal real market value of property.
Hb 2086 – Imposes fee on fossil fuel or fossil fuel-generated electricity to be paid by vendors.
Hb 2151 – Limits, for purposes of personal income taxation, availability of itemized deductions.
HJR 8 – Proposes amendment to Oregon Constitution to repeal individual income tax surplus refund “kicker” provision.
HJR 14 – Proposes amendment to Oregon Constitution directing Legislative Assembly to adopt sales tax at rate of five percent on sales of tangible personal property and services and use tax at rate of five percent on purchase price of tangible personal property….
Our Response & Your Comments
These are a mere one tenth of the bills proposing new or increased taxes that will be considered during the current legislative session. Taxes on gas, homes, water, more.
As the old saying goes,”Elections have consequences.” And Oregon’s continued leftward drift toward liberal (sorry, we meant “Progressive”) nirvana has resulted in these 50 new attempts to grab money from our pockets.
Unless you want 50 more new taxes in 2017, remember these 50 the next time you vote. Also remember…
“For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill
“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.”– G. Gordon Liddy
Is a carbon tax in Oregon’s future?
Oregon could significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions without impacting the state’s overall economy by imposing a fee on carbon emissions, Portland State University researchers told four legislative committees today.
That’s because those tax revenues would go back into the economy, perhaps in the form of business and individual income tax breaks…
While the overall impact would be neutral, some geographic areas, including Portland, would be harder hit. And some sectors of the economy, such as retail, would feel the effects more than others.
The tax also would be regressive, hitting low-income residents the hardest. That’s why income tax rebates or other methods of redistributing the revenue are important, the researchers said…
We Respond & Your Comments
Get it? Our Beaver State Legislators may add $1.50 per gallon to our gas bills, tax the daylights out of manufacturing and retail, redistribute 100% back into the economy and it won’t cost a dollar. Right!
They won’t add one department, administrator, enforcer or accountant to the payroll. They won’t rent one office floor in Salem or commission any analysts, economists or committees to study the results of their handywork. They’ll just give it all back in tax breaks.
Not one dollar will be tossed to donors. No money will be wasted on harebrained “green” energy projects. No “Special Favors” for “Special People”.
Remember the Oregon Dept. of Energy’s Small Scale Energy Program? You should, because even if the scale was small, the losses weren’t. They’ll eventually total an estimated $20 million of your dollars.
But it will all be different this time because our pals in Salem “promise”, on a stack of failed green energy loans, that it won’t cost us a thing. Sure.
The Hole Deepens
Washington ponders how to pay for smaller classes
Voters in Washington state (sic) had only three statewide ballot measures to decide Nov. 4 and two of them…drew national attention because they concerned firearms…
However, it’s the third initiative, 1351, that’s likely to prove most vexing for Washington voters — and taxpayers. It requires the state’s public schools to limit their class sizes to 17 students for kindergarten through third grade and to 25 students for grades four through 12, with limits of 15 students and 22 students, respectively, for schools in low-income neighborhoods…
Although Initiative 1351 attracted little attention outside Washington, it generated a ferocious battle within the state, with the teachers’ unions leading the charge for a “yes” vote…Virtually every major newspaper in the state recommended a “no” vote, with The Bellingham Herald calling the initiative a “funding black hole.”
That’s because the measure doesn’t say where the money will come from to implement the smaller class sizes…
In addition to requiring hiring more teachers — possibly as many as 15,000 — the measure requires increased student support staff, including counselors, teaching assistants and librarians. The Office of Financial Management estimated that the initiative will add $4.7 billion to the cost of elementary and secondary education over the phase-in period…
We Respond & Your Comments
We’re shocked! Shocked! You mean somebody has to pay for this? Who on Earth could be against smaller class sizes? Can’t we just raise taxes on the rich? How about corporations? Just take it from them! How about millionaires?
Yes, Dear Readers, somebody has to pay for everything – no matter how good it sounds. No matter if politicos call it an “investment.” Even if it’s “for the children.” And that “someone” is you.
So we snicker while we watch to see how our neighbors to the north will find the $4.7 billion they’ll need to fund this “sounds good…feels good” boondoggle. And we take this opportunity to remind ourselves that the government has only one source for getting dollars. As readers of this publication know – that source is the money you worked to earn.
EDITORIAL – Face up to pending retirement crisis
State plan could help Oregonians build savings to supplement Social Security
– The Oregonian
A convergence of economic and demographic factors…threatens the United States with a retirement crisis…
…According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, 36 percent of Americans have saved $1,000 or less for retirement…
In 2011, 31 percent of private-sector workers participated in a defined-contribution retirement plan….
That leaves about two-thirds with no workplace-based pension or retirement savings plan…
[Oregon Treasurer Ted] Wheeler asked the state Legislature to address the retirement crisis last year, and it responded by creating a Task Force on Oregon Retirement Savings…
The task force’s draft report…recommends creating a workplace savings plan that would be available to anyone employed in Oregon… Money to fund savings accounts would be automatically deducted from workers’ paychecks unless they chose to opt out… The savings accounts would be pooled and professionally invested by private fund managers, overseen by a state board…
We Respond & Your Comments
And now – from those wizards who blew $175 million of your dollars planning the Columbia Crossing bridge, light rail and highway complex and have nothing to show for it and then tossed another $248 million after it to build the Cover Oregon health insurance exchange, which featured a website that couldn’t sign up a single individual…
Comes a program to manage your retirement nest egg! Who could resist this offer? Where do we sign up? What could possibly go wrong?
http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/32044981-78/face-up-to-pending-retirement-crisis.html.csp
Benton County studies climate change
– Bennett Hall, Corvallis Gazette-Times
Corvallis — Everybody talks about climate change. Now Benton County is trying to do something about it.
The Benton County Climate Change Adaptation Plan, recently released in draft form, describes potential impacts of a warming climate on Benton County over the next century or so andoutlines possible strategies for dealing with those impacts…
Our Response & Your Comments
“New NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) data show cooling trend for last 10 years” – Arizona Republic, June 11, 2014
Maybe the Benton County brainiacs are just a bit late to the party?
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31838864-75/county-climate-benton-health-plan.html.csp
COLAs coming early for state employees this year
– Salem Statesman Journal, June 22, 2014 State employees are getting their cost of living (COLA) increases early this year, thanks to lower health insurance premiums and a clause in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 75 contract. The state has agreed to extend the clause to all state workers…which means paychecks will increase 2 percent, likely starting in September rather than December. The Public Employees Benefits Board voted Tuesday to adopt a new set of insurance premiums for 2015. Those premiums cost less than they did in 2014… That might seem odd to anyone not familiar with how labor contracts are negotiated…
Our Response & Your Comments
What’s That You Say?
You didn’t get a cost of living increase this year? Not even an early one that would put more money in your pocket sooner? Maybe if you explained to your boss that you should get an early salary bump because both you and he are paying lower health insurance premiums next year he’d cough up more moolah in your pay envelope this year. But then you don’t work for the exceedingly generous State of Oregon, do you? While this may seem a bit strange, it does help explain why government can never do with less money, but taxpayers always can. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/state-workers/2014/06/22/colas-coming-early-state-employees-year/11242145/
The Government Student Loan Program is a Mess
– Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2014
…A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that as of the fourth quarter of 2012 only about 40% of student borrowers were paying down their loans…
…A whopping 14% of borrowers who were not officially delinquent had the same balance as the previous quarter and 30% saw their balances increase.
That’s because borrowers who can’t afford to pay down their loans can ask the government for a deferment or forbearance, which freezes their payments while interest continues to accrue. During a deferment, Uncle Sam pays the interest on subsidized loans. To qualify for either option, borrowers merely need to claim an economic hardship or return to school…Student loan debt nearly tripled to $966 billion in 2012 from $364 billion in 2004, but not merely because more students are going to school and taking out bigger loans. The Fed report’s major finding is that government programs intended to prevent defaults are actually causing many borrowers to rack up more debt. (emphasis added)
Our Response & Your Comments
Oregonians facing college also face rising tuition (30% increase between 2009 and 2012). Let’s look at how government’s good intentions are actually causing the problem:
- National leaders start with the premise “Every kid needs to go to college.” No – every kid doesn’t. We all know successful adults who didn’t go to college.
- Building off that flawed premise they set out to make it easier to go to college by dishing out wheelbarrows full of (your) money to directly pay tuition or loan money to students so they can pay for it. College presidents see this avalanche of dollars rolling their way, smile, and raise tuition to absorb it.
- As tuition continues to rise government gives and loans more and more money on increasingly generous terms. And the cycle – funded by us – continues.
So – Who’s making college more expensive? The same geniuses who set out to help kids go to college. Brilliant!
Website: Defining Delinquency Down – WSJ.com
Oregon prisons, social services in need of millions of dollars as lawmakers adjust budgets
…When the Oregon Legislature convenes Monday, two large state agencies will be asking for tens of millions of dollars.
Lawmakers will revisit the 2013-15 budget to address collective bargaining costs, a record $40 million wildfire season and revenue forecasts that fell $70 million short of earlier projections…
Corrections officials say they need about $90 million, and Human Services officials say they need about $100 million to fill their gaps, though some money is expected from other sources…
The Oregonian, January 28, 2014
Our Response and Your Comments
Here are three rules to remember when you’re reading about government “needing” more money:
Government (at every level – city, county, state, federal) always needs more money;
Government can never do with less money;
You can always do with less money because of Rule #1.
As Ronald Reagan opined: “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”