Does planning have to work to be successful?

We Oregonians believe many myths about ourselves that just don’t happen to be true. As a visioning group created by the Governor put it not too long ago: We Love Dreamers!

For instance, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently came to town and congratulated Portland on reducing its carbon emissions to 1990 levels. Portland has asked for and received world-wide recognition for . . . Read more!

Summary

Why has Governor Ted Kulongoski left at-risk and abused kids waiting during six years of his administration? His rallying cry is “Kids can’t wait,” but a close look at Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) Child Welfare programs uncovers the troubling fact that his administration certainly has allowed many children to wait. . . . Read more!

Summary

Ask even reasonably knowledgeable people how big the Oregon state budget is this biennium, and they likely will tell you that it’s around $15 billion, which is actually just the General Fund. The All Funds Budget is $48 billion—$6,376 per year for every man, woman and child in Oregon. Taxpayers deserve to know exactly how much their government is spending. . . . Read more!

Those who advocate using the federal Medicare program as a model for “universal health care” in America claim that it only spends two percent of its budget on administrative functions.

But that pales in comparison to what Harvard professor Malcolm Sparrow believes may be the 20 percent eaten up in fraud and mismanagement. Parade magazine recently reported that Sparrow sees $70 billion of Medicare’s 400 billion dollar budget going toward . . . Read more!

Last year the Oregon legislature passed three bills (HB 2210, 2211 and 2212) to subsidize and to provide incentives to Oregonians to produce biofuels. Promotion of homegrown ethanol and similar biofuels was seen as an answer to high global oil prices and supply worries. The Oregon Environmental Council predicted 100 million gallons would be produced annually by the year 2010.

Now, a brewing world food crisis has hit the headlines. World food prices have . . . Read more!

Summary

Calculating the true per-student cost of public education in Oregon is complicated, but taxpayers have a right to expect government to be transparent about spending and to provide honest figures — calculated from a taxpayer’s perspective. . . . Read more!

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency tightened the standard for ground-level ozone by 11 percent. Ozone is formed by the mixing of certain pollutants such as car exhaust in the presence of sunlight, and can irritate lungs and damage crops.

Predictably, local environmentalists immediately complained that the reduction didn’t . . . Read more!

Summary

Journalist Andrew Gumble recently wrote in The Independent (UK): “Poverty deepens when the wealthy don’t care. Poverty deepens when the super wealthy simply get greedy. No other explanation is possible.” In fact, many other explanations are possible. . . . Read more!

A recent analysis by two prominent economists pegs the eventual cost of our war in Iraq at a mind-boggling three trillion dollars. Only World War II topped that, at a current dollar cost of $3.2 trillion. For comparison, the Vietnam War cost us only $650 billion, less than one-third as much.

Opponents of the war argue that there are more important things to . . . Read more!

Summary

Oregon’s economy will create an estimated 250,000 new jobs over the next decade, and 20,000 jobs are currently unfilled in the Portland area. But employers are having a tough time finding qualified candidates to replace retirees and to fill new positions. The private and nonprofit sectors can help. . . . Read more!

Starting with the beginnings of life on earth, change has been a constant and mysterious catalyst for growth. We humans would not exist if it weren’t for change. The comforts we are privileged to enjoy are results of the quest to make a change for the better. Science and the study of historical patterns can benefit the well-being of humans in myriad ways. The science of agriculture allowed our early ancestors to feed more people without the necessity of a nomadic lifestyle; change that encouraged the growth of culture and community.

We humans embrace the idea of . . . Read more!

The Portland City Council, in its collective wisdom, imposed a system of public campaign financing in 2005. The goal was to reduce the impact of large special interest dollars on campaigns for city offices. So how’s that working out?

First, in 2006, Emily Boyles received $145,000 in . . . Read more!

Summary

The governor’s Task Force on Comprehensive Revenue Restructuring recently discussed imposing a tax on commercial parking spaces to raise revenue for Oregon’s highway transportation system. The argument was made that businesses, not consumers, would pay; but ultimately this is yet another hidden tax that likely will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. If we want to tax shoppers, then we should tax them openly and not make business our hidden tax collector. . . . Read more!

Recently, the Oregon Board of Education took up the issue of whether and how to regulate online or “virtual” charter schools. A state law, passed in 2005 at the request of the teachers union, places severe restrictions on virtual charter schools that would essentially prevent them from operating without a waiver from the Board. The law gives the Board the power to set the conditions under which any online charter school can operate.

After much deliberation, the Board decided last week to . . . Read more!

Summary

As if helping kids weren’t hard enough, Oregon foster parents may one day be forced to join the powerful public-sector unions. Oregon’s legislature passed a bill to unionize home health care workers last year, and a bill in Washington State already has been introduced to treat foster parents like state employees. . . . Read more!

In the early 1980s federal investment in research and development of agricultural machines was suspended because of a political campaign by the prominent United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez to protect farm workers’ jobs and the technological challenges of that time.

Today the situation has changed. Now American farms are seriously disturbed about . . . Read more!

Summary

A Portland delegation saw what real education reform looks like on a recent visit to the Big Easy. . . . Read more!

William F. Buckley, Jr. died last week at his home in Connecticut. He was 82.

Known as a founder of the modern conservative movement, Buckley had a great impact on many people over the years, both through his books, articles, National Review magazine and Firing Line television show that ran for 33 years, the longest-running public affairs show in TV history with a single host. . . . Read more!

A recent study suggested that nearly half of the cost of a home in the Seattle area is due to land-use regulations.

The study, by University of Washington Economics professor Theo Eicher, was highlighted in a recent article in the Seattle Times.

Professor Eicher’s research shows that the . . . Read more!

Summary

For over 25 years, an increasing number of other countries have established some form of personally held accounts in response to their own social security and pension crises. Following their lead is a smart and sustainable way to reform our own Social Security system before it is too late. . . . Read more!