Congress Video: Wild, Provocative Floor Speech
How you can help the Hatfield Project
Representative Kim Thatcher: Thoughts on Special Session, cuts
State Representative Kim Thatcher,This has been a busy summer for state agencies -- trying to figure out how to cut 9% from their budgets under orders from the Governor to fill a nearly $600 million hole in the current state budget. These agencies are also concerned about a nearly $3 billion shortfall projected for the next budget cycle. Something’s got to give.
As you may recall in my last newsletter we talked about the Governor's across-the-board reductions to state programs. Legislative leaders refused to call a special session to avoid cuts in critical programs so now we’re left with political posturing. Here’s just the first of many examples to come. The Department of Human Services sent out letters to thousands of seniors and people with disabilities, who rely on caregivers for help with everything from grocery shopping to bathing, telling them they will no longer get services. Many, instead would have to go into more expensive state-subsidized facilities. Then the Legislative Leadership calls the Emergency Board into session to restore some of these cuts for a few months – at least until, you guessed it, after the November election is over.
RedState Interview: Congressional candidate Scott Bruun
Paying a toll on a freeway we already own
I know the idea sounds kind of absurd, and in fact it is absurd. You’ve already paid for Interstate 5. You pay for it every time you drive up to the gas pumps and diesel pumps.That freeway is already paid for. Yet, Tim Leavitt, the Mayor of Vancouver, a man I voted for, is now talking about what they call a “corridor toll”.
They can’t stomach the idea of just putting tolls on the I-205 and I-5 bridges. Now they want to charge everyone who wants to drive on the freeways. The problem is the people who drive on those freeways shouldn’t have to pay a toll. They’d be renting space on a freeway they already own and that’s just not right.
2010 Lazy Fair Sunday August 1th
2010 Lazy Fair!The annual free-market celelbration B.B.Q. in the Park.
Sun., Aug. 1th
11:00am - 4:00pm
Eagle Fern Park
(Eagle Fern Park is near Estacada)
Sponsored by:
Executive Club
Cascade Policy Institute
Taxpayer Association of Oregon
.
The most fun political event of the year!
.
.
Governor Poll: Dudley at 47%, Kitzhaber 44%
The Reality of Oregon’s Budget Crises: Cause and Cure
You can’t make an omellete without breaking eggs
The Oregonian began a self-described “occasional series” regarding Oregon’s state budget deficit. The Oregonian ignored this problem for two decades but now feels compelled to write in support of Gov. Kulongoski who, having contributed significantly to the problem, has now on the eleventh hour of the three hundred sixty-fifth day “discovered” that things just cannot continue this way – what a guy.
However, you don’t need an “occasional series” to discover either the cause of the problem or the solution.
State Treasurer candidate Sen. Telfer lays out vision
Senator Chris Telfer, Candidate for Oregon Treasurer on her plans for reformCandidate Profile Series,
With Oregon’s debt and deficits looming large, financial solutions and experience are in high demand. Chris Telfer, an entrepreneur, Certified Public Accountant, former Bend Councilwoman, and current State Senator, thinks she has both. She’s running for State Treasurer because she wants to use her expertise to help solve Oregon’s financial problems through flexible long term planning, and encouraging instate bond investment. She also believes financial transparency would increase accountability and proper financial management.
According to the State Treasurer website, the treasurer, “serves as the chief financial officer for the State and is responsible for the prudent financial management of billions of taxpayer dollars.” Senator Chris Telfer’s vision for the office of Treasurer is one word: transparency. The Treasurer is supposed to act as the Chief Financial Officer for the entire state, but that is not something that is being done. “I would organize one repository in the state to which all the units of governments, the agencies, report, and make that information available online all in the same place. Right now agencies report in different formats and not comprehensively, so no one really knows what the financial status of the state is on any given day. I once asked the Legislative Fiscal Office how the state was doing financially that day, and they said, 'We don’t really know—if there were a problem presumably we would hear it from an agency.'" Senator Telfer wants what she calls “true fiscal oversight” for the state. She says the problem with the treasury is that it doesn’t do cash flow analysis and thus doesn’t have any input in the budgetary process.
Children Take Backseat to Union Dues
By Olivia WolcottThis summer, education funding and program cuts have had parents, teachers and voters clamoring for more money to pour into Oregon’s struggling public education system. The Oregon Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, claims that school budget cuts show voters and politicians don’t understand that educational reform and innovation come at a high price. However, the OEA has steadfastly opposed the educational innovation of cost-saving virtual charter schools. In fact, the union has called the crippling regulation of these online schools its “top priority.”
Virtual public charter schools offer stable and successful education options to children who best thrive away from a traditional public school environment, or whose rural location gives them few educational options. But they also threaten union power, since their teachers are not required to become union members.
Congressman Walden renews push for ‘Read the Bill’ law
Taxpayers want lawmakers to understand legislation before voting on itBy Congressman Greg Walden
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the day Gallup reported that the American people’s confidence in Congress has fallen to a record low, House Republicans launched a renewed push to highlight and enact “read the bill” reforms demanded by the American people.“Everywhere I go, taxpayers want to know why they don’t give Congress and the public enough time to read and understand these enormously costly bills, ” U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said. “This is a no-brainer. It’s time to let the sun shine in and change how the House operates.” House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has posted on America Speaking Out an idea that Rep. Walden a bipartisan coalition of members have been promoting to prohibit the House from considering any bill that has not been publicly available via the Internet for three days. This is the first idea Leader Boehner has posted on America Speaking Out, which was launched by House Republicans in May to engage the American people in building a more responsive government and a better country.
