Cascade CounterPoint

Full Text: A few months ago, Oregonians learned they will be getting a Kicker next year. Now, like clockwork, a noisy network of naysayers is clamoring to kick the Kicker to the curb. I say, “No way!”

Experience has taught us that our Oregon legislature will spend every dollar it can extract from its citizens and businesses. And, if that’s not enough, it will raise taxes to spend even more.

Legislative budgets are not made on the basis of what is needed. Instead, legislators start with what the bureaucrats call the “current service level” based on the previous budget. From there, they expand existing programs and add new programs. Then they do it all over again the next session.

Over time, this method massively ratchets up spending.

Over the last 10 years, Oregon’s general fund has grown at more than double the rate of inflation and population growth.

It would be much worse without the Kicker, which returns to taxpayers the money that is collected in excess of the amount budgeted. That money belongs to us, and the Kicker makes sure we keep it.

Keep the Kicker. ​​It’s a rare and sensible protection against the spend-every-dollar philosophy that afflicts politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Full Text: At a time when many Portlanders are sleeping on sidewalks, tax dollars shouldn’t be wasted on expensive and unnecessary government redevelopment projects.

Earlier this month, commercial real estate firm Continuum Partners pulled out of its agreement with the City of Portland to redevelop a postal facility downtown, citing the real estate environment and “complexities of the project.” This sudden change should serve as a wake-up call for the city and force it to reexamine its priorities.

Prosper Portland, the city’s economic and urban development agency, purchased the old post office property for a whopping $88 million in 2016; but it has made little progress on the site. Rather than fostering rapid redevelopment, it seems Prosper Portland may be what’s standing in the way. Private developers would likely be more eager to invest in the improvement of a premier downtown location if they didn’t have to work with the demanding and slow-moving city agency.

If the city sold the property to the private sector, it would immediately have tens of millions of dollars to put toward expanding shelter space for the unhoused in Portland. Alternatively, the site could easily be repurposed as one of the city’s Safe Rest Villages. Either way, the City of Portland should stop wasting resources on expensive vanity projects and leverage every asset at its disposal to address its most pressing needs.

Cascade Policy Institute was recently joined by Wall Street Journal columnist Jason L. Riley for a discussion about his newly published book, MAVERICK: A Biography of Thomas Sowell. 

Listen to Cascade's Vice President of Research Dr. Eric Fruits interview Jason Riley about Thomas Sowell's contributions to economic and social thought and about how Sowell's writings remain relevant in the present day. Their wide-ranging conversation covers topics from social inequality to minimum wage laws to race in America. 

Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several previous books, including Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed.

Full Text: During the past 18 months, parents have taken a hard look at their children’s schools and considered whether or not their students’ educational needs were being met. This experience has led many families to make different education choices this year besides their assigned district public schools.

Traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, online learning, private and parochial schools, homeschooling—and now micro schools and pods—are all paths to success for K-12 students. Empowering parents to choose among many options can unlock the unique potential of every child. More than half the states in the U.S. currently give families this power through educational choice programs.

A RealClear Opinion Research poll released in June found that 74% of registered voters now support school choice, defined as “giv[ing] parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.” This is a substantial change in public opinion since early 2020.

As Oregon moves forward from the pandemic school closures, policymakers must recognize that each family should be able to find the right fit for their students to learn effectively and safely. All options should be valued, and education policies should promote parents’ ability to choose among them to help their children learn.

Full Text: Last week, I attended my first out-of-state conference in nearly two years. This week, Portland City Council is considering an emergency ordinance banning the city and its employees from doing business with the State of Texas. The ordinance is in response to a new Texas law effectively banning abortion in the state. What do these two things have to do with each other?

At the conference, I learned that outside of Oregon, no one really knows—or cares—about Oregon. They don’t care about our homelessness crisis. Every major city has a homelessness crisis. They don’t care about our spike in gun violence. Every major city is seeing a spike. They’ve heard about our wildfires; but to most people, that’s just something that happens out west.

So, when Portland City Council puts on a cowboy hat to talk tough to a state seven times bigger, you can bet our friends in Texas won’t be shaking in their boots. Heck, it may not even make it into their local papers.

Our region is facing some real emergencies; we’re on our own to solve them. We pay taxes and elect people to do the hard work to solve these problems. It’s time for our elected officials to saddle up and fix our own problems first before sticking their noses in other states’ business.

Full text: Did you just have an order for a desktop computer or gaming system cancelled by Dell? You have Oregon elected officials to thank for that.

Dell recently stated that it will cancel all orders of certain energy-intensive computer systems to Oregon and five other states due to local energy regulations.

California naturally led the way in limiting computer energy use through tight appliance standards approved in 2016.

It didn’t take long for Oregon to follow suit. The Oregon Department of Energy developed new energy efficiency standards for 11 products, including computers and monitors, in 2020 to match the most stringent standards among neighboring states. The Oregon Legislature formally adopted those rules during the 2021 session after passage of House Bill 2062.

Other products affected by the new energy efficiency standards include things such as faucets, gas fireplaces, showerheads, water coolers, and free-standing hot tubs.

However, the State Legislature is indecisive over its stance on reducing electricity use given the recent push for electric vehicles. Governor Kate Brown signed the appliance efficiency standards into law within a week of signing House Bill 2165, which expands access to energy-intensive electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. Thus, it appears that expanding energy use is acceptable only if it’s the “right” kind of appliance. While you may be banned from your dream desktop, your neighbor can receive incentives from the state for their new flashy Tesla.

Oregon officials should roll back these efficiency standards as soon as possible and allow consumers to choose the best products for them and their families. Additionally, the government should not dictate how Oregon ratepayers use the electricity they pay for. In the meantime, Dell customers can bypass this regulation by purchasing computer parts and building their desired computer themselves.

Full text: Recently, Governor Kate Brown quietly signed Senate Bill 744. The new law drops the requirement that high school students show proficiency in math, reading, and writing in order to graduate. The move has received significant media coverage. But little attention is being paid to what will happen once these students receive their diplomas.

A high school diploma is a sign of accomplishment. It shows the student has demonstrated reasonable proficiency in reading, writing, and math. These are important skills for any career path—especially if that path involves college. The new law makes it more likely college admissions staff will think twice before admitting graduates from an Oregon public school. Why would a college want a student who can’t do long division? Why would an employer hire a candidate who doesn’t understand basic algebra?

Just a few years ago, the education establishment pushed STEM skills: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Oregon’s new law effectively says the days of STEM are over. With SB 744, simply warming a chair is all that’s needed to get a diploma in an Oregon public school.

Believe it or not, the Oregon legislature reconvenes in less than 6 months. In the meantime, let your representative know how important it is we bring back proficiency requirements. The futures of our children are at stake.

Full text: Portland’s Harriet Tubman Middle School might be on the move.

The Oregonian reported last week that Portland Public Schools’ board demanded the state pay for the relocation of the school away from the I-5 corridor. PPS claims emissions from the freeway endanger the health of Tubman students, though it’s unclear why they didn’t express the same care and urgency when Tubman reopened back in 2018.

At first blush, it seems everyone walks away happy. PPS gets a new school. ODOT gets its freeway widening. Never mind that Oregon taxpayers from Coos Bay to Pendleton have to foot the bill.

But another question remains: What will happen to the existing Tubman property?

If Tubman does move, then it’ll leave behind an attractive piece of land. The property is on commercial/mixed use zoning, so there are prime opportunities for intense development. It’s next to a park, close to the river, three minutes from the freeway entrance, and covers a whopping 100,000 square feet of land.

There are plenty of neighborhood stakeholders who could profit from developing the site. We need to be assured that whoever acquires the property pays the full market value for the site. Taxpayers don’t deserve to pay for PPS giving away the site with a sweetheart deal.

The Tubman move may solve awkward problems for PPS and ODOT, but it raises more questions than answers. Cascade will follow what happens to the property, and you should too.

Listen to Micah Perry interview Mia Tiwana and Stew Robertson about their experience interning at Cascade Policy Institute. Mia and Stew recently joined Cascade as research associates for its nine week summer internship program, which runs from June to August. 

Full Text: You would think that Portland Parks and Rec is on a roll. Since 2013, the city has opened six new parks. Last year, Portland voters approved a property tax increase expected to bring in an additional $48 million a year to the parks department.

Even so, the city has put off park maintenance. It’s gotten so bad that 73 of the city’s 103 tennis courts have fallen into disrepair.

You may believe that, with their facilities deteriorating and money for repairs lacking, Parks and Rec would be grateful for any group of citizens looking to help. You would be wrong.

Fed up with only half of Sellwood Park’s tennis courts being usable, the retirees of the PDX Pickleball Club decided to take matters into their own hands. They raised $9,000 of their own money to repair the courts and, in alignment with Parks and Rec’s eventual plans, convert them to pickleball courts.

But just two weeks into their work, Parks and Rec ordered them to stop. They were told they would need to pay $1,000 to apply for a permit and, if accepted, an additional $2,500 per week in rent while the repairs were being undertaken.

We’re entering an era of do-it-yourself government. We have people filling in their own potholes. We have businesses hiring their own armed security. Now we have people maintaining their own parks. If the bureaucrats can’t do the jobs we hire them to do, they should at least get out of our way when we try to do them ourselves.