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.

Latest Rassmussen poll:

Chris Dudley earning 47%
John Kitzhaber’s 44%.
Other 5%
Undecided 4%

Continued good news for Dudley

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

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The most fun political event of the year!
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Senator Chris Telfer, Candidate for Oregon Treasurer on her plans for reform
Candidate 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.

Taxpayers want lawmakers to understand legislation before voting on it
By 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.

By Dave Lister

The framers of Portland's city charter had a pretty clear idea of what the city was supposed to do. They wanted it to provide police, fire, sewer and water services as well as streets and parks. They needed to provide those services in order for Portland to continue to be, as Massachusetts newspaper editor Samuel Bowles wrote in the early 1870s, a city that "has the air and fact of a prosperous, energetic town with a good deal of eastern leadership and tone to business and society and morals."

Unfortunately, the framers were less clear on what the City Council shouldn't do, and for decades city leaders have focused on social engineering, planning and transit trinkets rather than their core responsibilities.

With one dissenting vote, the Portland City Council will in November ask voters to approve a $72 million bond measure to build a new fire station and acquire new fire vehicles and communications equipment. The council wants us to agree to increase our property taxes to fund a city service that has been a core responsibility of the city since its founding. At the same time, Mayor Sam Adams and city planners are busily spinning new tax-diverting urban renewal schemes to, once again, declare portions of downtown blighted and in need of redevelopment. That means fewer dollars for the core services, more dollars for the chosen developers.

Oregon SOS Kate Brown: Her "rules" vs. Oregon Constitution
Special message from Bill Post,
1430 KYKN Salem
Bill's blog here.

Petition 50, the Redistricting Initiative that backers were hoping would be on the November ballot is in serious jeopardy right now. (Here is a story from back in April from the Oregonian that does a good job of explaining the initiative)
The initiative needed 110,358 signatures and election officials say that 125,948 were gathered. Sounds good right? Wrong. As of this writing, the Secretary of State's office has "disqualified" or thrown out, 12,975 signatures for various reasons.

Now you might think that Kate Brown's office has good reason and perhaps even Oregon Constitutional law behind her to do this, right? Wrong. The Oregon Constitution mandates that signatures be verified. There is a process for that. What the Constitution does NOT mandate is throwing signatures out! It is silent on that. So, what we have here is a politician, starting with Bill Bradbury and now continued with Kate Brown, changing the game so to speak. If her office does not want an initiative to hit the ballot, she throws out signatures and that's that.

Question of the week:

This month Republican Party National Committee Chair Michael Steele made headlines over his comments on the Afghanistan War calling it "a war of Obama's choosing "and later, "This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." Steele further commented, "If he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who's tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed," Steele said. "And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan." Steele added to his remarks this week saying, "I am 1,000 percent for victory for our men and women in the service, We cannot leave them on the battlefield. This party stands with them. I stand with them. Period. No excuses. No exceptions."

Steele soon came under fire from fellow Republicans Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham and conservative columnist Bill Kristol who said it was error worthy of his removal. So it begs the question, is Michael Steele's comments a venting and bold talk on the Afghan war or did Michael Steele put his foot into his mouth.

Please comment.

I believe Oregon's future depends on an informed citizenry.

Today's newsletter focuses on Oregon's financial status. As we look forward to the 2011 Legislative Session, it is crucial to anticipate the fiscal challenges we face.

The seriousness of Oregon's financial situation becomes apparent when we consider the following:

1. Oregon Spending has grown 46% in two budgets. The "All Funds" revenues include funds from every source--general fund revenues, other taxes, fees, lottery revenue, debt, federal money, etc. In the past two budgets, Oregon's total "All Funds" budgets have increased 46%, from $41 billion to $60 billion. (Click Here.)

2. $1.6 Billion of "One-Time Money" used to balance current budget. The "General Fund" revenues include personal and corporate income taxes, tobacco, insurance, estate taxes and some revenues from liquor, fines & fees. To balance Oregon’s current 2009-11 General Fund & Lottery Fund (GF/LF) $14.4 billion, the Legislature cobbled together $1.6 billion in "one-time money," that will not be available to help balance the upcoming 2011-13 budget. (To see the source of the $1.6 billion, Click Here.)

What business is it of Oregon to do a random sampling of who has auto insurance and then suspending licenses?

We did an exploration of a rather odd practice of the Department of Motor Vehicles in Oregon. They send out 52,000 of these surveys every year. They pick them at random.

They send them out and if you don’t send them back they send out a warning. If you don’t respond they will suspend your driver’s license.

Imagine all the reasons you might not respond. Maybe you don’t look through your junk mail well enough.