Originally published in The Oregonian, May 2, 2013 – Oregon needs a transactional politician to solve PERS and taxes — “I’m not a transactional politician,” Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek told reporters April 22, even as she was predicting victory for both the Democrats’ PERS reform bill and their tax increase on high-income earners. Two [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, April 18, 2013 – With suspicion all around, it’s a frustrating war over gun control – The fight over gun control, across the country and here in Oregon, is both heart-rending and frustrating. The personal tragedies that cause family and friends of victims to rally for tougher gun laws are [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, March 21, 2013 – Driving bills distract Legislature from the big issues — Nearly two months into the legislative session, the struggle to get government out of our bedrooms and into our cars continues apace. The 2009 ban on using cellphones while driving, having failed to eliminate the practice (the [...]
Originally published in the Portland Tribune, March 14, 2013 – Anti-gun legislation would create more problems than it solves – Even though state Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), the chief sponsor of the Ceasefire Oregon-inspired gun control measure known as House Bill 3200, has admitted the proposal is dead on arrival, law-abiding Oregon gun owners have [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, March 7, 2013 – Needing to catch up on immigration reform – Once upon a time, Oregonians expected to be leaders. The beach bill, the bottle bill, the aerosol spray ban, the initiative and referendum, even the gas tax — all were Oregon innovations. But now that we are about [...]
Originally published in Northwest Connection, March, 2013 Vulcan First Officer Spock of the Starship Enterprise had a great repertoire of pronouncements, but none more famous than the words he uttered with his dying breath in The Wrath of Kahn: “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” That’s exactly the Star Trek spin [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, February 15, 2013 – Oregon must cap the growth of spending with a constitutional limit – Oregon desperately needs to establish a constitutional limit on the growth of state spending. That’s clear when you compare what the growth of state budgets would have been with a spending cap over the [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, February 8, 2013 – Coping with rising PERS costs and sagging tax revenues – by Dennis Richardson Oregon’s public retirement system and the legislators who must oversee it face a tough dilemma. The system is being squeezed from both sides — spiraling costs and falling revenues. Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement [...]
Two weeks ago, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana made news by telling the Republican National Committee it was time for the GOP to “stop being the stupid party.” He urged Republicans to “stop insulting the intelligence of voters” and pointed out that “we had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive [...]
Originally published in February edition of The Northwest Connection – Fiscal Conservatives Take Office Across Clackamas County – Election 2012 was considered a disaster by Americans hoping to reverse the trend of unprecedented deficits, unaccountable spending, and runaway debt. But if you’d been living in a bunker since the 2010 midterm and stumbled into the [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, January 24, 2013 — Barack Obama and John Kitzhaber present different visions – President Barack Obama’s inaugural address on Monday managed to rouse Democrats and Republicans alike, the former to grab their hymnals, the latter their pitchforks. As a Republican, what concerned me wasn’t so much what the president said [...]
Originally published in the Hillsboro Tribune, January 11, 2013 – by Representative Shawn Lindsay – Remember when presidential candidates actually campaigned in Oregon? Now they simply treat Oregon as an ATM. In 2004, both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry drew huge crowds for public campaign rallies. But in 2012, both President Obama [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, December 19, 2012 – How to reverse the state GOP’s slide into irrelevance – After a month of personal reflection, well-intended advice from many and reading commentary by political insiders, I am compelled to share my insight as to why Oregon has become such a reliably Democratic state. It is [...]
Last Friday, Governor John Kitzhaber called a special session of the Oregon Legislative Assembly to enact a single new law. House Bill 4200 authorizes our Governor to enact a contract with an Oregon company that assures the company that its current single sales tax factor will not be changed for thirty years. The bill does [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, December 13, 2012 – Nike gives Oregon an early Christmas present — Christmas came early for the state of Oregon this year with news that Nike is planning a major expansion in jobs and investment right here in its home state. Before diving into any of the details, we should [...]
Originally published in The Statesman Journal, December 13, 2012 — Nike pact might not be binding – Gov. John Kitzhaber has called the Oregon Legislature into special session tomorrow to pass the Qualifying Investment Incentive and Safe Harbor Act. If enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor, the bill will be an expression [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, November 29, 2012 – Both state and federal leaders have ‘fiscal cliffs’ to manage – Now that the elections are behind us, the attention of the winners must turn to the job at hand — nationally and in Oregon. Curiously enough, the challenges facing the country and the state are [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, November 17, 2012 – Oregon schools: Are we putting money into staff at student expense? Writing in Sunday’s Oregonian, Susan Nielsen says that Governor Kitzhaber and the Legislature face a parent rebellion if they don’t figure out how to reduce class sizes pronto. (“As Kitzhaber plans for later, parents ask [...]
