Cascade CounterPoint

Full text: Last August, Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade issued a Request for Proposal for services to identify and mitigate “harmful information online as it relates to elections” (to see the full RFP document, click HERE). The Secretary is concerned with what she refers to as “misinformation,

According to the RFP, the selected vendor shall review social and online media for alleged instances of MDM on a 24/7 basis, and share relevant information with local stakeholders including the FBI and State Police.

Assuming bids were received, the Secretary of State was scheduled to sign a service contract on October 27th.

While election integrity is a noble goal, it’s troubling that the Secretary is placing herself as the arbiter of truth regarding supposed problems of misinformation. Over the past decade, Oregon public officials have repeatedly shown themselves to be

Moreover, it’s inevitable that monitoring social media related to elections will be broadened to include other kinds of speech that the government disapproves of.

This is an ill-advised move by the SOS, and should be terminated before it ever gets started.

Full text: It’s time to end home equity theft in Oregon.

In Oregon, if a property has unpaid taxes, the county can legally seize and sell the property, and keep the proceeds.

Pacific Legal Foundation found that, most of the time, property owners’ tax liabilities are minuscule compared to the value of their homes: 75% of homes seized by Oregon counties had tax debts less than the price of a 10-year-old Ford F-150. Yet, the average homeowner lost $237,000 in equity beyond the debt owed.

Oregon counties have pocketed an excess of $11 million in home equity that was not owed to them. This behavior was both unethical and unconstitutional. The Fifth Amendment states, “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” When homeowners fall on hard times and don’t pay their property taxes, the government has the right to collect what it’s owed. But the Fifth Amendment should stop governments from keeping more than what is due.

The solution is simple and uncostly. In a 9-0 decision in May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this government behavior is unconstitutional. The Oregon legislature should amend state law during the 2024 legislative session to comply with Tyler v. Hennepin County, the Supreme Court’s decision on home equity theft.

Full-text: A long-standing question about taxpayer-funded school choice programs like vouchers, education tax credits, and Education Scholarship Accounts is whether such programs would cause tuition to rise at private elementary and high schools.

A new study by the Heritage Foundation shows that school choice programs have kept elementary school costs from increasing in their states and had no impact on high school tuition. Lucy Graves at The Daily Signal reports: “Over the past 10 years, states that adopted school choice policies had lower rates of tuition increases than states that never had school choice policies. When adjusted for inflation, the cost of tuition rose more slowly in states that had previously adopted school choice. States without school choice had an average 27.6% increase in tuition, while states with school choice saw a 15.4% increase, the study found.”

In recent polling, seventy-one percent of voters said parents should “have the right to use tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.” School choice laws make it easier for families with fewer financial means to choose tuition-based education options. Data from the Heritage Foundation study should reassure policymakers that “letting the money follow the child” doesn’t cause inflation in K-12 school tuition.

Full-text: North Carolina has become the ninth state to enact universal school choice for K-12 children. The Opportunity Scholarship Program, created in 2013, offers vouchers applicable to private school costs, including tuition, fees, transportation, and necessary expenses.

In September, the General Assembly expanded eligibility to all families through an income-based system. Lower-income households have first priority. Middle- and upper-income families may apply as funding remains available, up to the statewide program cap. Lower-income families are eligible for 100 percent of the average state per-pupil allocation based on the prior fiscal year, about $7,200 in 2023-24. Households in higher income brackets will receive scholarships at reduced rates.

Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Utah, and West Virginia now have universal Education Savings Account (or “Scholarship Account”) programs. Indiana’s ESA program allows about 98% of families to participate, making it nearly universal. Oklahoma recently passed a universal tax credit program, and Ohio made its voucher program universal.

According to recent polling, seventy-one percent of voters say parents should “have the right to use tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.” Oregon policymakers should note that it’s increasingly important to families today to match their children’s educational needs with school environments that will serve them best. It’s time to offer more options to students here.

Full-text: Lawmakers and activists across the country continue to push for massive increases in renewable energy, and here on the West Coast, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has unveiled a plan for large scale offshore wind farms.  Representative David Gomberg of Oregon’s 10th district hosted a listening session on September 28th in Newport to hear the thoughts of his constituents on this subject. The response was overwhelmingly negative.

Over the course of two hours, coastal residents made it clear that they had no interest in BOEM’s plan, a sentiment that was expressed at similar meetings in Gold Beach, Brookings, and Coos Bay. Individuals from every part of the community had something to say, from engineers to fishers to city officials. Installing these farms would cost far too much, and the output would be far too little. The structures would negatively affect the ocean wildlife which in turn would be detrimental to the fishing trade, something the coastal cities heavily rely on. Turbines have a history of breaking after a short time, and they are rarely cleaned up well even on land.

One after another, locals made their point loud and clear: offshore wind farms are dangerous, unreliable, and ultimately not worth the cost.

Full-text: Portland’s TriMet transit agency and the Metro regional government have long tried to shape the city’s growth and transportation landscape. But it’s abundantly clear the current transit model is woefully outdated, a relic of the early 1900s. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this situation, accelerating trends like telecommuting, job dispersion throughout the suburbs, and increased car ownership among low-income commuters.

Cascade Policy Institute’s new report by Randal O’Toole, a land use and transportation expert, is a wake-up call.

In TriMet in the Twenty-First Century, O’Toole explains that today’s downtown Portland has made the transit model obsolete. The dispersion of jobs away from the city center, increased car ridership, and the expansion of remote work have increasingly become normal for the Portland area. TriMet’s downtown-centric transit route system doesn’t make sense when ridership may never recover to pre-pandemic levels, and commuters need more service to other destinations throughout the region.

Public transit can remain relevant and become financially solvent if it responds to riders’ 21st-century needs. O’Toole imagines the possibilities of modern hub-based transportation systems, a public ride-share bus system, and subsidies reallocated towards income-based transportation vouchers.

TriMet’s model worked many decades ago, but now it’s time for innovative responses to the region’s current and future public transportation needs.

Full-text: Have you heard of “No-School November”? Portland Public School (PPS) students could be away from their desks for a long time this fall. The district is bracing for a potentially imminent teacher strike at the behest of their union.

This is a classic example of how taxpaying families have lost power in public education.

Despite the union’s heavy demands, including a 23 percent hike in teachers’ compensation packages, the union stated at a September school board meeting that they wanted to find a resolution. But school officials revealed a different story. The union didn’t seem interested in a compromise; after reaching a formal impasse with the union, PPS released a statement indicating they were “disappointed” when the union made no counter-proposal, in addition to ignoring a compromise package created by PPS.

This event highlights one truth: Unions don’t represent the best interests of students; yet, they hold significant sway over what happens in publicly funded schools.

If parents want their kids at schools with quality education, it’s time to look to school choice. School choice allows state-level education funding to follow students to the schools that best serve their needs. Seven states now have universal or near-universal school choice laws, giving opportunities for every family to choose where and how their kids are educated.

Parents, not unions, should be in the driver’s seat of their children’s education.

Full-text: TriMet’s Blue rail line to Hillsboro opened on September 12, 1998. Westside MAX was unlike any light rail line previously built in America: It was deliberately routed through vacant land with the expectation that it would be a catalyst for so-called “Transit-Oriented  Development” (TOD).

TriMet planners claimed, “The success or failure of the public’s nearly $1 billion investment in Westside MAX will be determined in large part by what happens around its 20 stations. Unlike the East side MAX line, a substantial amount of land around the Westside is primed for development.”

After 25 years, has the strategy succeeded? Not really. Much of the land near light rail stations has been developed at high densities; but density is expensive so many of those projects were subsidized with below-cost land deals, tax abatements, or cash grants. And few people who live or work near rail stations actually use the train.

At Orenco Station in Hillsboro, a fully developed transit-oriented neighborhood, light rail ridership at the afternoon peak is only about seven percent of all passenger trips. Ridership is even lower at most other times.

The “Field of Dreams” strategy was a nice metaphor, but it has no basis in reality. TriMet and Metro should shut down their TOD programs and stop building light rail.

Full-text: As K-12 students return to school, more than four-fifths of them will attend a district public school. However, recent polling by EdChoice shows that only 29% of parents say their zoned public school would be their first choice, and about one in four parents say parental choice is

Here are three ways Oregon can expand options for K-12 students and parents:

1.     EdChoice reports that 11% of parents polled would prefer a charter school. Raising Oregon’s cap on charter enrollment would allow successful charter schools to meet student demand.

2.     Thirteen percent of parents said they would prefer to send their

3.     Education Savings Account programs receive broad support in polling. Enacting an ESA program would allow parents to use state-level education funding allocated for their children’s education to pay for the schools or services that best meet their learning needs.

Seven states now offer universal or near-universal school choice programs. These states provide legislative models that states like Oregon can follow to help children everywhere find their best paths to educational success.

Full-text: 2023 has been an outstanding year for school choice.

Utah, Iowa, Arkansas, and Florida enacted universal school choice programs for K-12 students. Families who opt into these programs may use a portion of their state education funds to pay for education costs including tuition or other education services.

Indiana expanded eligibility for its school choice programs, making its voucher program available to 96.5% of families with school-aged children.

Nebraska’s Opportunity Scholarship Act, a tax credit-funded program, provides opportunities for children to attend private schools chosen by their parents.

Legislation in Oklahoma included tax credits to offset tuition or homeschooling costs, pay increases for teachers, and funding for rural and charter schools.

Wisconsin increased funding for its existing school choice programs, charter school students, and the Special Needs Scholarship Program.

According to RealClear Opinion, seventy-one percent of voters now