Cascade CounterPoint

Hardly a week goes by that Metro isn’t reaching into your pocketbook or getting deeper in debt. This week, Metro will move forward on issuing $28 million in bonds.

Why does Metro need to borrow $28 million? There are two reasons.

First, Metro needs the money because that’s how much it’s going to cost to set up its new system to collect TWO new income taxes that go into effect in the New Year. We warned you it would be expensive to implement two new taxes on short order. But, even we had no idea it would cost a whopping $28 million. It takes a lot of money to take a lot of money.

Believe it or not, the second reason is even worse. Metro is out of money.

Since Lynn Peterson began leading Metro, the regional government has more than quadrupled its debt load and now has more than $1 billion in debt.

And that’s where the problems really are. Metro has never brought in enough money to cover its expenses. Out of control spending combined with reduced revenues because of the pandemic have worsened its shortfall.

As a result, Metro is under enormous pressure to raise more money from taxes, fees, and charges. They’ve dug us into a hole, and the only way they can fill it is with our tax dollars.

Learn more at cascadepolicy.org or by emailing [email protected]. 

Listen now to Dr. Eric Fruits and a roundtable discussion about providing a money-back guarantee for Oregon public education. This recording comes from Cascade Policy Institute's September 24th virtual policy picnic. To learn about future events, be sure to visit cascadepolicy.org and sign up for our newsletter for more information.

Oregon parents are concerned about the increasing inequity in education because of distance learning and the lack of support from the ODE. In Cascade Policy Institute’s online "Policy Picnic," Dr. Eric Fruits explains why the quickest and most effective way to achieve equity during the COVID-19 pandemic would be to support students directly by providing each student with as much as $10,500 from the State School Fund. This gives students more options for a quality education as well as responsibility back to the parents. 

Learn more at cascadepolicy.org or by emailing [email protected]. 

Oregon’s very own NuScale Power, a nuclear company developing small-modular reactors (SMRs), has officially received a final safety evaluation report from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale is the first company to be issued a report for an SMR by the Commission, and receiving one serves as a technical review and design approval for the new technology.

This is a major milestone for NuScale which originally submitted its certification application in 2016, and puts it one step closer to installing its first 720-megawatt plant in Idaho Falls.

This is also good news for the Northwest, which is in need of reliable baseload energy in the future based on predictions that we’ll experience insufficient energy resources by the mid-2020s.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council estimates the earliest commercial online date for an SMR plant in our region is 2030. The Council forecasts its potential maximum build-out to be 3,420-megawatts, produced by five reference plants.

However, no new SMR plant can currently be built in Oregon due to a moratorium passed by voters in 1980. Legislation was considered in 2017 to carve-out an exception for SMRs, however, it never made it out of House Committee after passing through the Senate.

Recent blackouts in California and upcoming coal-plant retirements in the Northwest have established unique circumstances that call for additional reliable resources. Oregon officials should reintroduce legislation that would allow us to take advantage of NuScale’s new nuclear technology.

Public school parents are now part of the educational workforce, except they’re not getting compensated. There is an equitable solution to this.

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Freedom is America's precious treasure - and never too far from being lost. Despite the unprecedented events of 2020, let's remember to pause and reflect on this day of remembrance for all who died and were affected by the events of September 11th, 2001. Freedom is a gift. Let's never forget it.

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"Metro spent years finding ways to spend money on transportation projects, while spending about two months figuring out how to pay for it. They only settled on a payroll tax because polling was good."

Listen to Vlad Yurlov talk about Metro's newest tax measure, a $5.2 billion dollar payroll tax that will primarily go to building a light rail to Bridgeport.

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President Trump is frequently accused of lying. But, he doesn’t have a monopoly on falsehood. Look around the Portland region and you’ll see our local politicians lying to us time after time. And their lies have real consequences.

Listen to Dr. Eric Fruits, Vice President of Research at Cascade Policy Institute, talk about Metro's "Get Moving 2020" measure and how Metro is deceiving voters.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @CascadePolicy for more information. Enjoy our podcasts? Give us a review on iTunes. 

California’s recent blackouts should serve as a warning to officials in the Northwest as we continue to increasingly crowd out fossil-fuel plants in favor of renewable alternatives.

The rolling blackouts were a “perfect storm” of events, resulting from sudden drops in solar and wind power, a heatwave driving up demand, the sudden loss of a natural gas powered plant, and the inability to import electricity from neighboring states dealing with their own extreme heat.

Over the past decade, California has replaced natural gas plants with solar and wind power as part of its efforts to reach 100% renewable energy by 2045. In fact, California reduced natural-gas consumption by 21% between 2014 and 2018, while increasing renewable energy capacity by 54%.

To make up for the loss of reliable baseload power during times when solar and wind aren’t producing power, California has increased its reliance on importing power from neighboring states. This risky tactic left California vulnerable when its own resources failed to produce sufficient power.

Oregon isn’t immune to threats of blackouts: Officials warn we may face a capacity deficit of thousands of megawatts due to planned coal plant closures, which may result in both extreme price volatility and blackouts by the mid-2020s. To avoid California’s fate, our region needs to continue utilizing reliable baseload resources such as natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower. Otherwise, officials may risk keeping Oregonians in the dark.

Metro tried to predict the future of the tri-county region in 1995. Now, 20 years into the 40-year plan, Cooper Conway explains how this prediction has affected Oregonians today. 

Contact Cooper for questions at [email protected] or email [email protected]. 

Oregon guidelines for the 2020 fall semester have been remarkably inconsistent, causing confusion and mayhem for faculty, parents, and students alike. The Oregon Department of Education recently released new guidelines that allow students with special needs to have limited in-person instruction but with reduced hours and class size. This includes students with disabilities, English language learners, and those enrolled in career technical education (CTE) programs.

But even these guidelines are dependent on the absence of Covid-19 cases among staff and students for two weeks.This doesn’t guarantee a stable learning environment for students that need stability the most.

The guidelines also fail to explicitly address those affected by the decision to continue virtual learning in the fall. What happens to the student experiencing homelessness who has no access to a hotspot? What about the single mother who has to choose between keeping a job and staying at home with her child?

It’s time to face the reality that Oregon’s public school system cannot guarantee a “one-size fits all” solution for students this fall. A money-back guarantee for K-12 education would go a long way in empowering parents to find the stability they need in uncertain times.

Every parent and every child find themselves uniquely affected by the pandemic. They deserve unique solutions too. Let’s put the money in the hands of the parents, not the system.

I’m Helen Doran, program assistant for external affairs at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free-market think tank.