August 31, 2018 | Oregon Capital Insider | by Claire Withycombe
PORTLAND — Oregonians will have a chance to vote this November on how much legislative support certain state tax laws should need to pass.
Supporters and opponents made their case for and against Ballot Measure 104 Friday before an editorial board meeting of the Pamplin Media Group.
August 30, 2018 | The Argus Observer | by Larry Meyer
ONTARIO — Although there had been talk several months earlier about him running for governor of Oregon, Knute Buehler said he didn’t decide until later in the summer of 2017 to throw his hat in the ring. He won the Republican nomination in the May Primary to be on the General Election ballot in November.
Buehler visited Malheur County on Tuesday and Wednesday during a campaign swing through eastern Oregon with the message that he, if elected, would provide strong leadership in helping deal with Oregon’s challenges such as the debt in the Public Employees Retirement System, the rural and urban divide, the low ranking of the state’s K-12 school system and homelessness.
August 29, 2018 | KVAL | by The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Personal and corporate income tax collections were higher than forecast as job growth remained strong in Oregon, state economists said on Wednesday.
All industries are expected to grow this year and next, with construction, professional and business services and leisure-hospitality leading the way, state economists said Wednesday. Construction jobs grew by 9 percent in the 2018 fiscal year and were expected to grow another 4 percent in FY 2019.
August 29, 2018 | The Register-Guard | by Editorial Board
Nonprofit Priority Oregon’s TV ads slamming Gov. Kate Brown have come so fast and furious they are hard to ignore.
Priority Oregon has sought to bruise Brown over the financial morass of the state Public Employees Retirement System, neglect at daycare centers and lack of state support for veterans suffering from mental illness. Most recently, Priority Oregon’s “scary story” ad, featuring a mom reading bedtime stories to her children, ties Brown to the proliferation of homeless camps, neglect of foster children and abuse of seniors, and asserts that drugs can be sold at Oregon daycare centers.
August 31, 2017 | Bend Bulletin | by Editorial Board
“Gov. Kate Brown’s task force is weighing almost uniformly terrible ways to reduce the $24 billion unfunded liability of the state pension system.
The task force is trying to come up with $5 billion for the Public Employees Retirement System. The brainstorming includes dinging Oregonians with taxes, fees, surcharges and raids on state funds and selling off state assets. But when legislators and the governor showed an unwillingness when the Legislature was in session to pursue PERS reforms, why should Oregonians put up with any of this nonsense?”
August 29, 2017 | Eugene Register-Guard | by Saul Hubbard
“Oregon could buy down its $22 billion public pension deficit by further commercializing its state-run liquor system, raiding a variety of big public reserve funds or imposing new surcharges of up to 10 percent on all state-issued permits, licenses and registrations.”
July 16, 2017 | The Mail Tribune | by Mike McLane
“The 2017 legislative session will be remembered by many as a session of missed opportunities. It is not that good things were not accomplished — there were — but even our best successes like the transportation package were overshadowed by the unwillingness of our state leaders to make a serious effort to get our state’s financial house in order.
The weight of decades of runaway spending poses a serious risk to our ability to adequately fund our schools, health care programs and other core services. It does not take a mathematician to realize that when state spending is increasing far more rapidly than revenues are growing, eventually you are going to run into a problem.”
June 24, 2017 | Eugene Register-Guard | by Editorial Board
“Gov. Kate Brown and the Democratic leaders of the 2017 Legislature had an opportunity within their grasp. In the first weeks of the session or earlier, they needed to find out what it would take to get a few Republicans to support a plan that would give the state’s schools and universities the resources they need to make meaningful improvements. This opportunity is slipping away — indeed, Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek said Thursday that it already is lost. This isn’t a failure of leadership. It’s an absence of leadership.”
June 22, 2017 | The Oregonian | by Editorial Board
“With a projected $1.4 billion deficit and public employers facing escalating pension contributions for years to come, Oregon needed leaders this legislative session – people who would back up their soundbites of concern over the state’s 3rd worst high-school graduation rate with action to ensure that money sent to K-12 districts was making it to the classroom. That would require legislators, particularly Democrats, to summon the political courage to face down public employee unions and negotiate benefit reductions that would free up money for services.”
June 19, 2017 | The Oregonian | by Kerry McClenahan
“For far too long, Oregonians have been squabbling over Oregon’s state budget and corporate taxes. This squabbling has left our state in jeopardy: underfunded schools, high school graduation rates among the lowest in the country, critical services for seniors and children in danger of vanishing.”
