Gov. Nesbitt taps Leonard, Sten to represent Portland
Iran TV reports that the Cuban May Day Celebration will host 900 union leaders from 52 countries. "May Day" refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to the traditional celebrations to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally. The latter event is an important holiday in Communist countries and Waldorf Schools.
The list is narrowed down so far to 26 Latin American and Caribbean nations, 16 European countries, four Asian states, six African nations and Oregon, each sending 483, 394, 16, 16, 11 and 3 unionists respectively. The celebrants will be bringing a total of 247 reporters, including from Si Newhouse's The Oregonian and Portfolio magazine.
World Federation of Trade Union president George Mavrikos was reported to have arrived Sunday, according to the state newspaper Granma. An important group of leaders will also attend the International Meeting of Solidarity, scheduled to be held at Havana's Conference Center the following day and the 6th Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle against Free Trade Agreements and for the Peoples' Integration on May 3-5.
Iran Press TV, Apr. 30
Monday, April 30, 2007
Oregon labor leaders in Cuba for May Day
Sunday, April 29, 2007
GOP regulars look at dark horses
Congressman Ron Paul: Hope for America
Many Americans have become disillusioned with our political system. Year after year, election after election we hear all the same promises: Lower taxes, balanced budget, smaller federal government, responsible foreign policy, etc.
But we are always left with higher taxes, ever increasing federal deficits, ever-expanding federal bureaucracy, a foreign policy based on deceit, and a domestic policy that continually restricts our freedom.
The answer to restoring our great nation – respected throughout the world – is to reinstate the Constitution. Our republic can be saved if our politicians return to the doctrine that created it. Ron Paul 2008.
Barry Goldwater, Jr., introduces Ron Paul
While serving in Congress during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dr. Ron Paul's limited-government ideals were not popular in Washington. In 1976, he was one of only four Republican congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president.
During that time, Congressman Paul served on the House Banking committee, where he was a strong advocate for sound monetary policy and an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve's inflationary measures. He was an unwavering advocate of pro-life and pro-family values. Dr. Paul consistently voted to lower or abolish federal taxes, spending and regulation, and used his House seat to actively promote the return of government to its proper constitutional levels. In 1984, he voluntarily relinquished his House seat and returned to his medical practice.
Dr. Paul returned to Congress in 1997 to represent the 14th congressional district of Texas. He presently serves on the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He continues to advocate a dramatic reduction in the size of the federal government and a return to constitutional principles.
Congressman Paul’s consistent voting record prompted one of his congressional colleagues to say, “Ron Paul personifies the Founding Fathers' ideal of the citizen-statesman. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are." Another colleague observed, "There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles. Ron Paul is one of those few."
Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Nation's leaders assess Oregon
Big Labor pleased with their lab experiment
Most Oregonians don't know much about The Oregonian's billionaire out-of-state owner, Si Newhouse. The Manhattan media mogul has deep ties with organized labor. And he's been making sure that national union bosses in Washington, D.C. are giving a long, hard look at what's going on here.
Last year, Oregon voters handed unchecked political power to a government union coalition already considered the 800-lb. gorilla of state politics. Now Oregonians want to know, from the nation's leading collective bargainers - "How are we doing?"
Here's what our nation's leaders had to say:
AFL-CIO president John Sweeney
"Labor has always supported democratic rights and we will continue to pour money into Oregon from out-of-state. The whole gang there is doing a bang-up job. Tim Nesbitt in particular has earned a seat at the national union table. It was well worth sending him out there when we did."
SEIU president Andy Stern
"So we had a little setback at Kaiser Permanente last year. Look, that NLRB card-check ruling against us is only a wrist-slap, a six month penalty. Even Right To Work called it a symbolic victory. We have no problems with what's going on in Oregon. Any other questions?"
NEA president Reg Weaver
"Our Oregon was very efficient with the out-of-state money we sent to Oregon to oppose signature-gathering. Patty Wentz deserves recognition for always digging. Finding that underemployed pornographer in Eugene to spoon-feed the national media was genius. They ate it up."
AFT president Eddie McElroy
"That NEA early money into Oregon last year was mainly a laundering operation. From there it went to signature-blockers in Oklahoma, Nevada, everywhere. AFT doesn't play that hard in Oregon, it's a turf thing, a long story, some other time. Irregardless, we're very pleased with the Oregon Legislature right now."
Friday, April 27, 2007
Newhouse promises $30 million against M37
Money talks in property rights war
All it took was for out-of-state billionaire owner of The Oregonian, Si Newhouse, to step up with his cash. He did, and majority Democrat legislators decided Thursday that they'll ask Oregon voters to dramatically scale back rural development under Measure 37, rewriting the property rights law that has already been approved twice by voters, in 2000 and 2004.
Freshman Senator and property-rights backer Larry George blasted The Oregonian and the Labor-Democrat legislative majority. "The public has been given a false impression about the impacts of Measure 37," said George, who wants lawmakers to allow M37 to take effect.
Government union lobbyists still haven't decided whether the ballot title will ask for a yes or no vote. "We'll give the voters the opportunity to say, 'Yes, this is what we meant,' or 'No, it wasn't,'" said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, co-chairman of the committee. "It will all depend on the polling."
"The only conclusion I have is that the effort behind this is to repeal ballot Measure 37. It saddens me and I think it's an unfortunate turn and one of the worst efforts to overturn the will of the voters." - Sen. Larry George, R-SherwoodThe campaign against property rights will again be financed by The Oregonian and the state AFL-CIO. It will return Oregon to the atmosphere of 2004, when Newhouse's millions against Measure 37 inspired passionate debate about how to restore property rights that were dismantled by 1970's draconian land-use planning scheme.
Measure 37, which passed with a 61 percent yes vote, restored Oregonians' right to use their property however they could have when they bought it. The 7,500 claims filed under the measure so far would expand a property tax base that has been starved for 37 years by an effective ban on rural residential housing growth.
Lawmakers still must decide whether to put the issue on the ballot in September or November. The earlier date would be more favorable to a highly-organized, low-turnout election that favors government unions with an established, well-honed, 24/7 campaign capability. Ordinary voters would be at a disadvantage.Hundreds of Oregonians seeking to restore their property rights have appeared at meetings the past few months, making heartfelt speeches and wearing stickers to represent their support for M37. Some of them already are bemoaning the election or mapping strategy for it.
Landowners have invested too much in Measure 37 to have it undone by the Legislature, said David Hunnicutt of Oregonians in Action, the group that wrote the original ballot measure. "If that's the best they can do, I think it's a black mark on how they've handled the whole thing," he said. "But it isn't surprising."
The Oregonian, Apr. 27, By LAURA OPPENHEIMER
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Local stunt draws national ridicule
Jarred Georgeson, Tavern Owner: "Hopefully someone tipped him off to that deli in Portland that will totally let you use them to buy forties and scratch-offs.Darren Butler, Crop Duster: "Sounds wonderful! According to my pioneering guide, there is more than enough food in Oregon for the worthy adventurer, from plentiful beavers to succulent ducks!
Kristen Stewart, Focus Puller: "I'd hate to be an Oregonian when it's Transvestite Awareness Week."
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
You sure about this?
Labor union lock on Oregon government goes too far
The Oregon House passed legislation on Monday that would deprive workers of secret ballot elections in public sector union organizing campaigns. Instead of an election, the union would be certified based on a certain number of so-called "cards" signed by employees.
Just yesterday, the NLRB ruled against the Portland-area SEIU, banning the union from using the anti-democratic "card check" practice in the Pacific Northwest for 6 months on account of repeated, widespread, rampant abuses.
Making secret balloting illegal in organizing elections is a legislative priority for Big Labor in the states, like Oregon, and in Washington, D.C., where it is gaining ground in the Democrat-controlled Congress. This 30-second video explains the way the new system would work.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Newspaper deposit still alive
The Oregonian fights valiantly against bottle bill creep
Oregonians would have to plunk down a nickel for every bottle of water they buy under a bill that passed the state Senate Monday. And a proposed first-in-the-nation deposit on recyclable newsprint, that would be dedicated to financing Oregon's carbon-footprint reduction, is still alive.
By a 23-7 vote and without much debate, the Senate endorsed what would be the first update to Oregon's landmark law in 36 years. Senate Bill 707 proposes to add bottled water and bottles containing flavored water to the list of containers requiring a deposit.
The bill now moves to the House, where it may be expanded further. Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, chairwoman of the Energy and Environment Committee, said Monday that she's willing to consider adding a novel, non-refundable deposit for daily newspapers to the bottle bill, which was the first deposit law in the nation.
Interviewed minutes after the Senate vote, Dingfelder said she's also willing to talk about adding the new deposit for subscription magazines, when her committee holds hearings early next month. "I absolutely support updating the Bottle Bill," said Dingfelder, D-Portland. "The question is: Are the changes made in the Senate enough? I think the House can and should do more. We can be the first Legislature to specifically reduce the size of a state's newsprint carbon footprint."
House Speaker Jeff Merkley, D-Portland, had also wanted a Bottle Bill update that included more than water bottles, his spokesman said Monday. But ultimately, Dingfelder said, the politics of Si Newhouse - out-of-state billionaire owner of The Oregonian - will decide how far legislators go in updating the Bottle Bill this session.
Two powerful groups - newsprint manufacturers and publishers - oppose the much-needed addition of newsprint. Si Newhouse and Fred Stickel have organized a persuasive coalition that includes the state's most senior lobbyists, to fight against the expansion.
Recycling advocates had started the 2007 session hoping to expand the Bottle Bill to include not only beer and pop but all drink containers, and, for the first time, newsprint. They also hoped to persuade lawmakers to raise the amount of the deposit, which took effect in 1972 and would be 4 times greater if it had been adjusted for inflation.
But strong industry opposition led supporters to scale back their ambitions. Under the bill passed Monday by the Senate, only water bottles would be added as of Jan. 1, 2009. Future increases in the deposit amount and other issues would be settled by a task force that would report back before the 2009 Legislature begins.
Click here to review The Oregonion's award-winning coverage on the historic efforts to expand Oregon's bottle bill to include newspapers and magazines.
The Oregonian, Apr. 24 By MICHELLE COLE
Monday, April 23, 2007
Ideology, profit join Big Labor, The Oregonian
Measure 37 opposition donations revealed
Wentz: "Why would it surprise me?"
People who paid hard cash to oppose Measure 37's restoration of property rights keep on paying, even though Oregon voters have approved the measure twice.
Donors - including an out-of-state billionaire - who lost two statewide ballot elections are continuing to prosecute a political campaign against M37, according to a study by the Money in Politics Research Action project. Si Newhouse's The Oregonian and Tim Nesbitt's Oregon AFL-CIO are putting up all the dough. There are no smaller individual donors.M37's cash-heavy opponents have created a war in which there will be "two sides" forever, no matter how many times Oregonians vote to protect and restore property rights. All sides can agree on this: it's no surprise to see The Oregonian and Big Labor working hand-in-glove. Long ago, The Oregonian sold its soul to avoid a re-unionization campaign among its own workers. The legendary story is known as "Striking it Rich."
Money in Politics is a labor-backed organization. A darling of the MSM, the large one-person "group" usually avoids any critique of Big Labor's political agenda. But they say that the fight to preserve Oregon's draconian land-use rules has generated $637 million of political spending by M37 opponents and they can no long stand silent.
"I think there are people out there who ideologically feel that property rights are evil," says Janice Thompson, the group's director, as she tears open a fresh bag of Doritos. "Others say I've got mine, but you can't have yours. Either way, it's clear that government unions have the wherewithal to make very large political contributions - and have a huge economic stake in the outcome."Profit is the only philosophy that matters, according to Patty Wentz, the spokesperson for Our Oregon, the consortium of the Oregon Education Association teachers union and the SEIU government workers' union. Our Oregon is known as the 800-lb. gorilla of Oregon politics.
The Portland-based political campaign organization contributed $300,000 against M37 because unions believe that the restoration of property rights in Oregon is causing taxpayers to realize they are being ripped-off by government unions, Wentz said. Wanting to protect their turf, they filed a $269 million lawsuit against Oregonians in Action, the sponsor of Measure 37. The legal matter is working its way through the courts.
As to the dearth of other contributors against M37, except for unions and The Oregonian, Wentz said, "Why would it surprise me?"
The Oregonian, Apr. 23, By LAURA OPPENHEIMER
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Governor gets giddy
Inside the Capitol
Campaigning during session is effective for Democrats
Tim Nesbitt engineered the 2006 Democrat takeover of the Oregon Legislature that ended 16 years of GOP neglect. When he was AFL-CIO president, few dared cross him. Now, he's become the successful boss of Gov. Kulongoski's office with an ability to chat up Republicans while retaining his Democrat and 'fusionist' Working Families Party street cred.But a recent letter Nesbitt sent to his trial lawyer pals and corporate socialists in the regulated monopoly sector has provoked some Republicans and even some fellow unionists to wonder if he's flexed his political muscle a bit too hard.
In the March 26 letter, obtained by The Oregonion, Nesbitt boasts of "the tremendous power of the public employee unions" this session. He then suggests it's time not only to relish past victories, but also to use little-noticed legislation to cement power at the Democrat-controlled Legislature. "The make-up of the Legislature generally doesn't bode well for our opposition," Nesbitt writes.
On its face, the letter appears to be a fairly routine political communique. It's written on letterhead of Our Oregon, the OEA - SEIU political campaign group known as the 800-lb. gorilla of Oregon politics.
But overt campaign activity is considered bad form when the Legislature is in session. The focus is supposed to be on passing laws and making policy, not on setting the stage for a partisan coup.
That's been Nesbitt's vocation his entire career. At the moment, Nesbitt is an embedded lobbyist whose job is to persuade the gavel-wielding Democrats to pass bills that benefit organized labor, such as government unions who collect forced dues from teachers and staff at our kids' schools.
Then he only has to get those bills to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat who, yes, has deep union ties.
"It's not that unusual to see a lobbyist attack the minority, especially since there are no labor bills that the Republicans have the numbers to stop," said Kulongoski's spokeswoman, Anna Richter Taylor. "To be as explicit as this? Such a sharp partisan appeal right in the middle of a session can be very productive for the party treasury."
Asked about the letter, Nesbitt smiles his signature Cheshire cat grin. It's clear it wasn't meant for general consumption, but now that it's out there - OK. "I sent it to 40 of my closest friends," he says. "All it is, is sharing some information with folks that I deal with."
The letter included a sheet of information from the National Education Association, an out-of-state union that has pumped millions of dollars into Nesbitt's political takeover of Oregon. The information included a chart highlighting shrewdly-coordinated in-kind campaign contributions to Our Oregon's "44 and No More" 2006 program by Si Newhouse, out-of-state owner of The Oregonian.
"I feel it important for me to share with you some of the news regarding The Oregonian as the Legislature progresses through the process," Nesbitt writes. And he goes on, "If you are interested in receiving this type of information, please send me your e-mail address."
Nesbitt said he wrote the letter after reading articles in The Oregonion about organized labor's influence at the Legislature. It wasn't intended as a fundraising letter, he says, adding that it accurately reflects what's happening in Salem.
But to some Republicans, and even some less partisan interests at the Capitol, it appears as though Nesbitt is getting a head start on the next election. House Minority Leader Wayne Scott, a major factor in giving GOP control away to the government unions, says it's no surprise that Nesbitt is pimping for Democrats. "That's what he does," said Scott.
"We're all aware of people's extracurricular activities," Scott says. "But he might want to work on his timing. We try to limit these activities during the session - to keep the legislative process as pure as possible," he says. "We're always hopeful the unions will do the same."
The Oregonian, Apr. 20, By HARRY ESTEVE
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Measure 37 Agonistes
Oregon's epic battle against the will of the people
Agreement eludes lawmakers, Big Labor turns up the heat
Si Newhouse, out-of-state billionaire owner of The Oregonian and ardent opponent of others' property rights, has a message for Oregon legislators: you are running out of time to overturn Oregon's twice-approved property rights restoration initiative, Measure 37. No-growth advocates like newspaper editors dismiss ordinary Oregonians as 'greedy', and their will as 'wrong-minded.'Six-month deadlines are coming due for county action on applications filed in December that open the door to investment and local tax-base growth that has been stunted by 37 years of stifling land-use regulation.
Landowners who have properly filed claims that have already been approved by counties have been left hanging, since the Legislature threatens to take away their opportunity to build - even though they have obeyed the letter of the law. With hope for a bipartisan repeal effort fading, government union leaders now say that Newhouse will have to ante up even more 'political cover' with increasingly strident anti-M37 news and opinion 'coverage' before they can coddle together a repeal majority.
"We're running out of time," said Rep. Greg Macpherson, D-Lake Oswego. "We need to put something together that will attract a sufficient number of votes."
Individual rights - like property rights - have been this session's most contentious issues, with competing calls to socialize, or collectivize, most individual rights that Oregonians have come to take for granted.
Voters ousted Republicans in 2006, giving Oregon the most bright-line Labor governments in the nation. Labor gives people two options: join the union or go away. Officials in eight counties say they welcome M37 and tax-base growth. All the other Oregon counties, like the state Legislature itself, are locked up by Labor and are lobbying the legislature for M37 repeal.
M37 claimants have invested too much time and energy to be strung along, said land-use attorney Jim Zupancic, who founded Measure 37 Claimants for Fairness. "People who are in the process right now are wondering," he said. "It's difficult to decide what you should be doing when the rules might change."
Legislators say that violating property-rights restoration has been tricky. Democrats had to create and stack a 10-member Land Use Un-Fairness Committee and bar expert Republicans from participating.Early proposals to freeze claims during negotiations crumbled. More recently, a nominally-bipartisan work group led by ex-AFL-CIO president Tim Nesbitt, who now runs Gov. Kulongoski's office. Nesbitt claims they got close to agreement after weeks of private debate, but in fact, members clashed over details. And they grew even farther apart last week, when Democrats rolled out their own proposal with even more differences.
Committee members will formally debate for the first time tonight. Discussions are likely to be tense, judging by recent barbs traded everywhere from news releases to the Senate floor. One committee member, Sen. Larry George, R-Sherwood, said the panel should have given negotiated changes as a group. "There's no need to have a crisis here," said George, a longtime property rights advocate. "Yet, for some reason, we're sitting here with this deadline coming up."
The committee's Democratic co-chairmen, Macpherson and Sen. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, said they prefer a wholesale Measure 37 repeal to a piecemeal approach. They anticipate voting on something to send to the full Legislature next week. "The sooner Labor gets its way, the better," Prozanski said. "It will give certainty for everyone."
The Oregonian, Apr. 19, By LAURA OPPENHEIMER
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Bill Clinton does Oregon
"Democrats must build more bridges."
Growing voter distrust to require massive public investment
Oregon needs to put more Democrats first and rebuild its aging political infrastructure, ex-President Bill Clinton told a partisan Portland audience Tuesday night.
"Hillary and I don't want to lift ourselves up by keeping other Democrats down," Clinton said. "We'll still have our differences and arguments, but when Hillary is President people will think we're a beacon of hope again. That's what I want to have happen."
Clinton spoke to an adoring audience in the sold-out Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as the first speaker in the Socialist World Affairs Council of Oregon's 2007 International Speaker Series. The series has established a reputation in recent years for drawing high-profile collectivist leaders, including heads of state and Nobel laureates.
In a discussion intended to cover the challenges facing Oregon in a globalizing world, Clinton urged the Oregon Legislature and the Portland City Commission to tackle a broad sweep of the Labor agenda from health care reforms to biodiesel to Middle East peace.
Speaking without notes, he quoted statistics on union membership and explained how strikes are used to further "legitimate collective bargaining objectives." He offered his own proposal for stability - criminalizing more employment practices and increasing union organizing in both the private sector and public sector.
The crowd included Oregon's elite elected officials, labor bosses, and trial lawyers. They gave Clinton a standing ovation when he walked on stage after being introduced about 20 minutes late. His wife and her presidential campaign were technically absent from his road show, but clearly on everyone's mind.
Clinton challenged the Portland audience members to show America the vaunted "third way" between capitalism and communism. "This is an outward-looking city, and the whole Northwest has on balance benefited from Democratic majorities," he said.
"It's an unequal world, an insecure world - and so it shall be - until Hillary and I get back in," Clinton said. Already looking toward a second Hillary term, Clinton said, "Re-election is always, always, always cheaper than going to war."
The Oregonian, Apr. 18., By DYLAN RIVERA
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Pulitzers missing
The Oregonian cannot find two prizes
Three nominations, but only one award to "staff"
In a nod to Oregon's emerging collectivism under the leadership of out-of-state billionaire Oregonian owner Si Newhouse, a Pulitzer Prize was awarded yesterday to the staff of the statewide monopoly daily. The Pulitzer committee failed to cite an individual reporter in recognizing the paper's criticism of Oregon's public safety system in the breaking news category.
Cheers and whistles erupted on the fourth floor of The Oregonian as word of the prize flashed on a screen at noon. But the self-congratulation and bonhomie quickly turned to into a frantic search when publisher Fred Stickel and editors realized they had lost two awards to competitors.
Editor Sandy Rowe, speaking after the pop of champagne corks had faded, said the missing awards reflect a big mistake by the Pulitzer committee and vowed to contest the results. "The truth is that many of you in the newsroom, and some people who are not here today, have been ripped off," Rowe said. "This will not stand."
The Oregonian was a finalist in two other categories in the 2007 Pulitzers - national reporting and feature writing. The Boston Globe won in national reporting for detailing President Bush's use of signing statements to bypass provisions of new laws. And the feature writing prize went to The New York Times.
The Oregonian's executive editor, Peter Bhatia, called out the Globe and Times as unworthy winners. "Si Newhouse allows us to lobby. But these two papers took the Pulitzer Committee to places where even Si wouldn't let us go," Bhatia said, referring to the spendy red light districts in the larger cities of Boston and New York. "The results were truly spectacular."
Rowe glumly pointed out that many other staff members were involved on the nominating committees, increasing the chances that the beleaguered monopoly daily would receive at least one prize. "Not winning three prizes is a huge tragedy for us," she said.
An official investigation funded by Newhouse will be conducted by the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association into the competing papers' lobbying efforts, but experts say it is unlikely to turn up hard evidence of wrongdoing.
"A high purpose of journalism is to reveal systemic problems in our own procedures," Rowe said. "That's what we did since the Tom Hallman-Andrew Wiederhorn bribery scandal. I'm sorry the Pulitzer committee did not recognize our work that has helped spur improvements at The Oregonian."
The Oregonian, Apr. 17, By STEPHEN CARTER
Monday, April 16, 2007
Unions' building boom
'Nesbitt dividend' rolls in for OEA, SEIU
Political contributions will be boosted, too
When constructions companies break ground on six new teacher and school service workers union halls in the Portland area this summer, the money used to build them is coming right out of taxpayers' pockets. Voters in six districts passed construction bond measures in November 2006 totaling nearly $700 million.
At the time, they thought the money was going for schools and classrooms. Now voters are finding out that those millions will, in addition, provide a comfortable atmosphere for government union organizers to relax and recharge, as well as state-of-the-art 'war rooms' for labor's political election campaigns.
Adding union dues from quick-growing school districts will help the economy as teachers become "more productive Oregonians," said Patty Wentz, spokesperson for Our Oregon, the coalition of government unions known as the 800-lb. gorilla of Oregon politics.
"Of all the places where the public sector could spend its money, teacher unions are likely to pay the highest dividends," Wentz said. "Investments in union labor, which is what Oregon's students will become, has historically resulted in higher wages and better benefits like PERS. It's an easy call to make. A no-brainer."
According to Oregon labor's economic experts, unions, especially in the public sector, contribute to a good public infrastructure, which attracts more people to the state, further bolstering the economy.
Not all the construction is coming from bonds. David Douglas High School is using $7 million of its reserves for a new teacher union hall after voters there rejected a $45 million bond measure.
As districts spend millions, Wentz said, the money will produce many more millions as political and media consultants get in the food chain. The multiplier effect for the bonds will probably be .8, she said, meaning one new dollar of construction spending would trigger $.80 in spending on consultants.
Many corporations are involved in the new projects, making them likely suspects for huge political donations when the labor election machine springs into action, according to Wentz. These companies include two that have already disclosed giving thousands of dollars for campaigns to approve the bonds - Mahlum Architects ($2,500) and Skanska Building USA ($12,500).
The Oregonian, Apr. 16, By CASEY PARKS (not available online)
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Portland has five mayors
Needed: a legitimate form of government
How many mayors are enough? Voters to decide May 15.
Portland's Five-Mayor form of government is a municipal curiosity, worthy of a sideshow. Stuff it and put it in a museum, by all means. But this is no way to run a big city.
A group of citizens who studied our peculiar system concluded we really need only one mayor. The group recommended a package of reforms on the May 15 ballot that would create a City Council, giving the four city commissioners a legislative and ombudsman role.
You may think they have this already, but when you're one of five mayors, you have government unions to mollify. So instead, they each focus, narrowly, on labor's election campaign politics, while completely looking the other way at what's wrong with each other's bureaus.
When Commissioner Randy Leonard dug deeply into the park bureau's budget, for instance, both he and Commissioner Dan Saltzman were sharply criticized for breaking the unwritten rule at City Hall: "Mind Your Own Business." Leonard had dared to question another commissioner's department, and that commissioner, Saltzman, had failed to rise in defense of "his" bureau.
This is nutty, and routine. It works to stifle scrutiny of our $2.1 billion city government. Under the new form of government, voters would replace MYOB with new marching orders for the city commissioners: Mind Our City.
A chief administrative officer, reporting to one mayor, would run the city bureaus. The mayor would be stronger, too. OK, so Grampy isn't that strong of a personality. But theoretically, the mayor but wouldn't have veto power and would still need the council's consent for key appointments.
This change is so logical that many voters will wonder why it didn't happen decades ago. Every other big city in America, after all, has dropped the Multi-Mayor form of government.
But here, our city commissioners love mixing executive and legislative functions. For them, being a politician unlimited by the separation of powers doctrine is a blast - an instant power base, laboratory, playground and stage. Imagine if other cities, states and even the nation followed Portland's lead and dispensed with one of the most important legal underpinnings in our libertarian-leaning Constitutions - horrors!
Just consider the near-quadrupling in price of the aerial tram - although we still don't know the actual final cost. So-called 'management responsibility' for the tram was deliberately dispersed among bureaus. As a result, no one in the city was dogging it to ensure construction contracts were written to yield the best deal for the city. So they were written in favor of the labor trade unions, and taxpayers got another raw deal.
Putting a chief administrative officer in charge of all bureaus wouldn't guarantee success, but it would minimize blind spots, blunders and financial failures. The change would adjust the bureaus' default position from "do-your-politics-thing and let the taxpayer beware" to "let's work on this government union problem and save money."
There'd still be plenty of thrills under the Portland bigtop. But if voters approve the new government structure, Portland would no longer be run like a circus. For a change, our city would actually be run like a city that works.
But don't count on it. City voters are almost totally checked-out ... blissin' in the first 100 days of the new collectivism after the 2006 elections. The government unions are the only ones stepping up to the plate. Clearly, they have enough organized political power and campaign cash to preserve the Five-Mayor form of government and defeat the other reform measures on the May ballot.
The Oregonian, Apr. 15, OPINION By THE EDITORS
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Pulitzer awards eagerly awaited
Print journalism's ugly standards on display
The Oregonian expects at least one of three nominees to win
If Tom Hallman - The Oregonian's Pulitzer-prize winning reporter - didn't immediately see the line that he crossed by accepting bribes from Oregon's own nationally notorious union pension fraud criminal, that was nobody's fault but that of longtime publisher Fred Stickel. Hot-shot reporters in one-paper, news-monopoly cities have always danced on that line.
Hallman is the whitewasher who helped put a smiley face on the Andrew Wiederhorn story, leaving a lot of obvious places unexplored due to the abundance of union/mob connections. He is the paper's original Pulitzer-winner, suddenly disgraced on the eve of this year's award selections. The Oregonian has three nominations, thanks to over-representation on nominating committees.
It is hard to remember now what a powerful force Pulitzer prizes once were in the nation's newsrooms. Winners were named among of the 25 Most Influential People in America. They were inducted into the National Reporters Hall of Fame. You don't have to read very much in any American city before you can grasp the Pulitzers' importance. It goes far beyond hypocrisy, double standards, and the crude treatment of wealthy Republicans, conservative Democrats and manly-men.
Remember The New York Times award-winning reporter who, it turns out, made it all up? And the same with a reporter from The Washington Post? Both were pushing make-believe, bleeding-heart, union-planted stories and angles.The Oregonians' defenders will cry that it's unfair to tar them with any of those outrageous journalistic stunts, which played out back east under the nose of its out-of-state owner, the Manhattan media magnate billionaire, Si Newhouse. Maybe it is, but it was his father Sam Newhouse and the other original one-paper monopolists who have so gleefully extracted hundreds of millions in profits from "unregulated tollbooths" in communities far from their own homes, unconcerned about what was acceptable, and what was not.
Over 50 years, Newhouse has shrewdly created a media empire of low humor and high-brow talk, usually with politicians looking for exposure, of any kind, and media celebrities who seemed to think it makes them look cool to talk trash with high-fashion celebs. Lately, his glitz-and glamor magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ aren't as edgy, smart and popular with audiences and advertisers as they used to be. If they were, what difference would Pulitzer prizes make to him now?
We can only hope the Pulitzer award committee doesn't go too far and reward The Oregonian for its string of ethical lapses, circulation declines, and nauseating editorial stridency. American culture has changed, and Tom Hallman and The Oregonian couldn't resist reaching back in time, to a pre-internet era of under-the-table journalism. Hallman got away with journalistic 'murder' by accepting bribes from his subject, and escaped censure except for a couple of sensitivity sessions with Therese Bottomly.
Now that Hallman has been kicked off the company softball team, the Pulitzer award committee must realize that it's serious. However, Newhouse will be stunned if his profitable jewel of the west is denied at least one Pulitzer to crow over amidst its devastating troubles. He doesn't realize that people don't want to hear that kind of stuff anymore. But alert Oregonians know not to bet against Si Newhouse. So now it's our turn to be shocked. We'd better get used to it.
The Oregonian, Apr. 14, OPINION By THE EDITORS
Friday, April 13, 2007
MultCo, City join business taxes
Oregon's new collectivism at the local level
"You'd better get used to it."
Thursday, MultCo commissioners voted unanimously to raise business taxes to whatever the City of Portland levies. Beginning in 2008, the County will also institute a $100 minimum tax payment, capturing millions of dollars in revenue from mom-and-pop businesses. There is no minimum now.
The move, said Portland Commissioner Sam Adams, who testified before the board about the City's tax increases, will "shut down political donations to conservative candidates and causes from GOP-leaning entrepreneurs." He noted that 20,000 more tax returns will be filed in MultCo than previously.
"They used to call Multnomah County 'anti-business'," said new county Commissioner Jeff Cogen, who spearheaded the latest effort to increase taxes. "Now we're going to do whatever the City does."
Support for the first stage of business tax increases was broad. A work group led MultCo's largest government union, and including socialist representatives of chambers of commerce, community groups, and service organizations drafted the resolution after focusing like a laser for six weeks.
Their recommendations were based on the City's in-depth efforts to increase fees and taxes after 18 months of public hearings, political research, and outreach.
MultCo anticipates $20 million in new revenue from the tax increase, leaving plenty of money for the Labor majority to enact the ambitious government union agenda. "There will probably be some businesses that didn't pay any taxes that will pay now," Cogen admitted.
Only one opponent spoke against the measure, saying it won't ease the burden on small business. Chairman Ted Wheeler assured the stranger that the change process isn't over. "This is just the start of the new collectivism that Oregon businesses will fail to embrace at their own peril," he said. "This is not the final solution."
The Oregonian, Apr. 13, By KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON (not available online)
Progressive economy
Portland winning in war against automobile
Oregon's socialist-collectivist 'can do' spirit reduces CO2 emissions
Thursday, April 12, 2007
State bans Murphy
Entertainer may not perform in Oregon
Authorities cite insensitivity to racial, gender stereotyping
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Portland labor battle looms
Sten foe flees, resurfaces to fight for control of City
A prominent opponent of charismatic Portland city commissioner Erik Sten who broke out of prison eight months ago appeared in a video televised Monday, saying his struggle against the left-leaning city government is far from finished.
Former top labor boss Carlos Ortega escaped from a maximum-security prison in August while serving a 16-year sentence. He was convicted on civil rebellion charges for leading a city-wide strike in 2002-2003 aimed at ousting Sten.
"We do not ask for, nor do we offer, a truce," Ortega said in the video shown on the new government union channel U1TV (see below). It was unclear when or where the video was recorded.
Ortega also urged Oregonians to participate in an upcoming signature drive that would allow the opposition Working Families Party to place candidates on the ballot in 2008.
He said Working Families would collect "hundreds of thousands of signatures showing the state and the world our strong, democratic will to take Oregon out of the corporate-subsidy darkness that Sten and his regime have forced upon us during these eleven years of backwardness, poverty, hate, persecution and political terrorism."
Associated Press, Apr. 10
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Co-opting corporations
Oregon's Labor governments prepare for '08
Low-cost ads dangled now to strangle GOP donations later
The Legislature has already raised corporate taxes. Now, it's the familiar Swoosh stamped on the basketball courts at 35 Portland playgrounds. The ads are either the best or the worst thing to happen in Oregon for a long time.
To Oregon's labor government leaders like Gov. Tim Nesbitt and powerful City Commissioner Erik Sten, they're an example of private sponsorship done right, a tasteful and appropriate reminder of a $2.2 million gift from Nike.
To Oregon's dwindling Republicans, however, the logos represent the latest and most obvious move toward politicizing Oregon's public spaces in the name of allowing the new socialist regimes to cement their power beyond last year's GOP wipeout.Either way, more displays honoring private largesse are coming. Labor leaders are increasingly dependent on 'protection' money to maintain soccer fields, gymnasiums, swimming pools and nature trails. They are going to the state Legislature, County Commissions, and City Councils with new sponsorship and naming policies designed to guide them as they court private support.
"We want and need to increase our sponsorship opportunities," said Patty Wentz, spokesperson for Our Oregon, the government union campaign group known as the 800-lb. gorilla of state politics. "Sometimes when you work with a corporate partner, they expect something back from you."
Today, less than half of government union budgets come from in-state workers' dues. Each year, unions must find other sources of cash from out-of-state or cut costs by shutting facilities or reducing their hours.
For example, Portland has increased some entrance and use fees, and voters approved a special property tax levy for parks in 2002. But the fees - often used for political organizing in election campaigns - can only go so high before attendance lags. And the levy expires next year.
The private sector, on the other hand, is a vast, virtually untapped source of money thanks to wealth accumulation by Republican-leaning entrepreneurs. Many business owners can be lured by the collectivist concept of "social responsibility", and all like to get credit for doing good. What could look better in progressive, park-crazy Portland than to have your company's name adorn a picnic shelter or trailside bench?
Although sponsorships and donations have long been a part of the parks system, government union leaders have gotten more serious about wooing private support to enrich their political dominion. They established a private foundation to raise money for expansion six years ago, and they recently created a new marketing and business development office within city government.
The work is starting to show results: Nike gave $2.2 million to resurface every outdoor basketball court in the city using recycled shoes. Columbia Sportswear agreed to spend $1 million over 10 years maintaining and improving Sellwood Park, and got three memorial plaques in its honor. Freightliner has spent $375,000 adding its name to the front of the city's summer park concert series.
Sponsorships, parks managers acknowledge, amount to a form of below-market cost advertising on valuable real estate. That troubles Republican activists, who fear the door has been opened for intimidation against corporations' support for future GOP candidates and causes.
"We're not going to name something Lars Larson Park," said Wentz, the government union spokesperson, "But we may sit down with a tobacco company or drug company and make a deal, because they have traditionally opposed the government-union political agenda, and they have a lot of money."
But Republicans are concerned about who gets to decide what's legal and what's illegal. At public hearings and community meetings, GOP activists argue for a clause calling on labor governments to give the parks system the money they need. The clauses never make the final draft.
"I just disagree with the underlying philosophy," said Wayne Scott, a GOP state representative. "It's corporate branding. Nike put its brand on shoes. Now it's putting its brand on our basketball courts. But what is the mission of the parks, and what is Nike's mission? I think I can probably find all kinds of people who have problems with Nike, how it makes its shoes, where it makes its shoes, who makes the shoes. Who gets to decide what's appropriate?"
Even if they could find logic in that statement, parks managers said, they have no choice. Like much of labor governments around Oregon, bureaus have a long list of overdue repairs and updates. There are neighborhoods in Portland - most of them poor - with no parks at all. Let's not even get into the street paving situation.
Wentz said the city is just following the lead of art museums that rely on corporate support - allowing, for example, individuals or institutions to put their names on rooms in a gallery. Sponsorships won't, she said, detract from the enjoyment Portlanders take in their parks. If anything, they'll add to it, as more parks get needed improvements and a guarantee of staying open. "There is a way to balance all this," she said. "The parks belong to the people. We're not going to dishonor that."
The Oregonian, Apr. 10, By ANNA GRIFFIN
Monday, April 9, 2007
Too much unpredictability
State seeks to rig Oregon elections
Primary changes would deny challengers, newcomers
Does anyone really believe the Oregon Law Commission that spent all last year 'studying' Oregon's Legislature is something other than an unelected, shadow government? The commission's No. 1 recommendation to lock power down in Salem is to create a so-called "open primary system."
The Establishment is hell-bent on ending competition in Oregon elections. Already, the root cause of the state's problem with political legitimacy is plain to see. Oregon's fastest growing segment of voters are those who are not affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties.
Last year more than 450,000 of Oregon's 2 million registered voters were forced to pay for "official party" candidate coronations and then participate in a general election in which no true independent lawmakers were elected and only 3 incumbent regulars were defeated.
We actually need a primary election system that encourages diverse qualifications among our elected officials - not just political hackery. And we need a system in which all parties pay their own cost of selecting their candidates. There is no reason the public should be forced to foot the bill for these choices.
But new proposed rules would shut the system to such diversity, by building-in an insurmountable advantage with new subsidies for major party candidates, especially incumbents.
The change would do zilch to actually open the system. Instead, it would force disenfranchised voters to participate in sham elections in which no "alternative" candidates could break through. The public commission strongly endorsed open primaries for a simple reason: It believes a competitive, accountable political system encourages too much unpredictability. They want to wreck Oregon's citizen Legislature.
So does The Oregonian, of course. The state's dominant news organ and statewide monopoly paper wants politicians prostrated at their feet for approval. That explains why this session is becoming a disaster. The influence peddling is often felt, but rarely seen.
No election system is perfect. But the so-called "open primary" would disenfranchise the most voters and would encourage fewer candidates outside the party mainstream to advance. Regrettably, this deform will likely pass the Legislature, along with many other political power plays that are all the vogue these days.
This session is about clarity of purpose if nothing else. Oregon's political establishment is taking our state in a direction charted by government-union collectivists who hold all the cards, cheered on by Si Newhouse, the out-of-state media-mogul owner of The Oregonian whose family has monopolized Oregon news and wrung billions of dollars from our local economy over 57 years, since 1950.
The Oregonian, Apr. 9, OPINION By THE EDITORS
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Delays perturb Si Newhouse
Efforts to repeal M37 hit 'impasse'
The Oregonian editorialists prepare weekend thundering
Oregonians who support property rights can breathe a little easier for now. Oregon legislators' "kumbaya moment" over destroying Measure 37 lasted less than a week.Lawmakers who announced a union-backed, bipartisan plan to repeal Oregon's twice-approved property rights law say they're just clashing over details, but actually - they don't have the votes. Meanwhile, one Republican proposed an alternative, looking for positive press and to calm the The Oregonian's billionaire, out-of-state owner.
Participants in a private work group of three D's and two R's say they still agree on labor's political concept: divide property-rights believers by allowing small developments and killing big ones. They want to prioritize claims for just over 50% of the folks and stiff the rest of us.
But the group ended a meeting Wednesday in what Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, calls an "impasse." He declined to give details but said he still hopes to draft a bipartisan bill and forward it the the Land Use Unfairness Committee, as planned. Gov. Tim Nesbitt, D-AFL-CIO, has supported the group's work. His staff does not view the discord as a collapse, spokeswoman Patty Wentz said, adding "these meetings aren't easy."
Rep. Bill Garrard, R-Klamath Falls, said he and fellow Republican Rep. Patti Smith of Corbett won't support the overall plan until several issues are resolved. "Every path we go down with this thing keeps getting more and more cluttered," he said. Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, said the conflict prompted him to release a list of ideas he's been working on. He serves on the land-use committee but is barred from the private work group. "They were concentrating on changing Measure 37," Beyer said. "This is more implementing Measure 37."
However, his plan would do six things that actually change, rather than implement Measure 37. So either Gov. Nesbitt will be looking to take advantage of the latest GOP concession and turn it against them during the next round of "negotiations" - or Sen. Beyer's clever tactic may help terminate the dogged effort by Si Newhouse to destroy the will of the people.
The Oregonian, Apr. 6, By LAURA OPPENHEIMER
Thursday, April 5, 2007
U. of O. planner sues newspapers
Ad caps would create artificial news shortages
Real issue is industry's record of environmental degradation
A government union member in Eugene has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $5 billion that accuses six major newspaper publishers of cheating readers by serving mostly ads and overly warmed-over news.
Shonna S. Butler, a 50-year-old Univ. of Oregon budget and fiscal analyst with a masters degree in Planning, Public Policy and Management, has taken on the "MSM" for allowing editors to print recycled news and ads, or "hot gas", which she alleges takes up more volume in newsprint but delivers less information for readers.
Butler accuses the companies - The Oregonian/Advance Communications, Gannett/USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post - of unlawful trade practices, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and breach of covenant of good faith.
Her suit, filed last Friday and styled as a class-action complaint, is intended to represent Oregonians who read the newspapers. Butler's complaint explains that ad volume expands as they get more profitable, offering less news information per issue. "For example," the suit notes, "one copy of The Oregonian on Thursdays contains and excess of Macy's ads" while "the same quantity of newsprint from Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays has more actual news."
The Kansas City Star reported last August that major newspapers often contained less news than ads. The Star estimated that consumers were overcharged more than $2 billion a year. Complaints about the cost of warmed-over news have prompted lawsuits in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, according to published reports.
Officials in the news media industry have voiced skepticism about the effects that variances in ad content have on consumers. "The thumbnail is, we think this is a tempest in a teapot," said Jay McKeeman, vice president of government relations for the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, based in Salem. "There is no current, statistically reliable, accurate information about the news being ... pimped at retail."
"What's really needed," he said, "is a cost-benefit analysis on whether newspaper customers are currently being well served or adversely served by the massive environmental damage from paper-stream waste, deforestation, and global warming that is directly related to newsprint consumption. And if ad content is part of that analysis, then so be it."
Various trade groups and government agencies - including the U.S. Department of Communications, Federal Trade Commission and American Newspaper Association - have set 15% as the industry standard for news content, according to Butler's suit.
Her allegation seeks to create a class-action lawsuit that represents many newspaper readers in Oregon, said Portland attorney John S. Stone, who represents her. The suit seeks to require MSM companies to install ad-content correcting equipment on presses and post notices in print that tell customers the ad content of the newspaper they read.
The Oregonian, Apr. 5, By BRIAN DENSON
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Parody email circulates in Salem
Here is the notorious email that circulated around the capitol. Please enjoy.
STATE OF WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON ECONOMIC GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY TASK UNIT
Olympia, Washington 98504-0002
April 1, 2007
Dear Oregon Senator or Representative:
The Washington Economic Growth and Opportunity Task Unit (WEGOTU) wishes to thank you for your recent vote on HB 2707.
Washington and Oregon have long had a rivalry, but we are happy to see your state continuing to reach out to help your neighbor to the north.
Your recent vote to take away the corporate 'kicker' from successful Oregon corporations has further encouraged your business community to relocate and invest in our great state.
Please continue to listen to the 'business' lobby when it comes to taking money out of your state's economy to subsidize your growing state programs. Your recent vote to increase taxes, and subvert the spirit of Oregon's unique 'kicker' spending limit, will do much good for our economy here in Washington.
Your help in bringing us more jobs, increasing our tax base, and moving capital here to further strengthen our economy in Washington, is very much appreciated at WEGOTU. Rest assured, your businesses are finding here a welcoming atmosphere and are doing quite well. Some, nevertheless, will remain in Oregon.
However, the good news here at WEGOTU is that many Oregon businesses will choose to reorganize as S-Corporations which get taxed through your high personal income tax rate. Historically, this will mean that Oregonians will continue their anger at 'corporations' for not paying their 'fair share,' and that you politicians will find even more ways to promote the great State of Washington! Every week your state government continues to make Washington look more and more attractive to hard-working Oregonians, for which we thank you profusely.
WEGOTU is also grateful for your enduring refusal to lower Oregon's capital gains tax.
We benefit greatly from those in your state wishing to sell their businesses - they move here before they sell so they don't have to pay Oregon’s high capital gains tax! Thus, we get a small percentage of their gain, and you get none!
Perhaps you could work on a sales tax next so as to close the loop on any tax advantage to be found in Oregon.
With Much Thanks,
Silence Dogood II
Director, Washington Growth and Opportunity Task Unit
360-WEGOTU2
thanks to: oregoncatalyst.com, Apr. 4
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Driving the union agenda
Labor boss calls the shots
Many in Salem call him "Governor"
He's the slickest talker in Oregon's Capitol, and he's both a silver-tongued lobbyist and a seasoned politician. He is former Oregon AFL-CIO president Tim Nesbitt, so-called "deputy" chief of staff for Gov. Kulongoski. And boy, can he talk. Aloud. To lawmakers and other public officials.Check the clock. Nesbitt delivers 44 clearly enunciated decrees in just 10 seconds. Professors at PSU's Department of Applied Linguistics kicked that around and decided Nesbitt bosses folks around roughly twice as fast as average people. Forget the political debates. Most days, Tim Nesbitt simply orders politicians how to behave.
"House Bill 2069, relating to a corporate tax increase; House Bill 2258 making it easier to form unions and harder to decertify unions; House Bill 2437 watering down ethics rules; House Bill 2593 to increase PERS medical benefits ..." Try legislating that fast. Now consider: Nesbitt did it in the first half of the session and hardly took a breath.
Always dressed "business-casual", Nesbitt sits away from the Senate and House chamber action that goes according to his exact direction.
He takes pride in his role and its place in history. In Oregon, Nesbitt is the first deputy chief of staff who actually runs the Governor's office. The earliest reference to a "labor boss" in the Oxford English Dictionary dates back to 1788.
"I'm not a public speaker by any means," Nesbitt says. "I did a lot of that earlier in my career. Now it's time for me to sit back and move the chess pieces around on the board outside of the limelight. I'm comfortable in my role. I feel an obligation to get every statute on the books changed to favor unions and to hobble management and corporations. Better yet, to put it all in the constitution," he says. "I feel responsible to that."
The Oregonian, Apr. 3, By MICHELLE COLE
Monday, April 2, 2007
Too much union clout in Salem
An end-run around The Oregonian
Despite a rebuke from Oregonian publisher Fred Stickel, state Senators have decided to spend another $3 million a year on medical guarantees for Portland's disabled police officers and firefighters. The threat of unexplainable fires springing up in the Portland metro area was more potent than The Oregonian's "we buy ink by-the-barrel" barbs.
Buried in the fine print of Senate Bill 560, which is ostensibly about expanding the occupational diseases for firefighters, is a clause that requires Portland taxpayers to pay lifetime medical coverage for disabled police and firefighters' job-related injuries and illnesses. It would double the annual medical disability costs covered by the Portland Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund to an estimated $6 million a year.
It was only last November that Portland voters approved a series of significant reforms. The PFPDRF had actually been completely unfunded since its inception, drawing on property taxes instead of reserves. Stickel now insists that "any further reform to the public safety fund come through the front door, with full consideration and approval by city taxpayers, not sneaked in through the back way of state legislation." Such hypocrisy - coming from the newspaper that was Big Labor's mouthpiece in the Nov. election and has alternately cheered and covered-up every other union-driven, collectivist, anti-taxpayer backroom deal this session.
To his credit, Stickel points out the mendacity. The proposed legislation would require "certain cities" to provide the same medical coverage to officers and firefighters as that provided under Oregon workers' compensation statutes. That's aimed directly at Portland; its police and firefighters are the only ones in the state not part of the workers' compensation system.
It's worth remembering that just last year the city police and firefighter unions strongly resisted proposals at City Hall to move them into the state workers' compensation system. Now the unions want it both ways: the benefits of their own unique, taxpayer-funded disability system and the most appealing features of the state workers' comp system ... accompanied by backhanded talk about arson on the rise if they don't get what they want.
Last fall, after voters put Democrats in control of the House and Senate, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski chose two prominent union leaders to lead his staff in his second term, some folks knew that unions would have too much clout in Salem. Now that lawmakers and the governor are making this end-run around The Oregonian, maybe even billionaire, out-of-state owner Si Newhouse and publisher Fred Stickel are finally beginning to get it.
The Oregonian, Apr. 2, OPINION By THE EDITORS
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Destroying Oregon's property rights
Newhouse-Union putsch corrodes public trust
The Oregonion, government unions run roughshod over the voters' will
The good news is that most Oregon legislators are hearing from their constituents that allowing implementation of Measure 37 to proceed is, in fact, a way to avert the legal and economic train wreck that property rights opponents threaten to create in the next month or so.
The bad news is that Fred Stickel still rules The Oregonian for Si Newhouse, and continues to work hand-in-glove with Tim Nesbitt, ex-president of the state AFL-CIO who now runs the Governor's office.
A so-called Measure 37 'work group' led by Nesbitt announced last week they had come up with a compromise that they bill as the "Framework for a Better Measure 37." Legislative leaders have been working feverishly on this project almost since this session opened in January, desperately pimping for kind words about themselves to appear in print.Land-use law approved by voters in both 2000 and 2004 gives state and local governments six months to process claims from landowners who believe they've been harmed by land-use regulations and deserve compensation. The deadline for filing such claims was Dec. 4. Some 7,500 were filed. The claims represent 37 years of locked-up land values and restricted local tax base growth under Oregon draconian anti-property rights land-use laws and rules.
Opposition to Measure 37 is based on adherence to Soviet-style principles that eliminate the right of the voters to initiate laws by petitioning. Opponents hold the dubious idea that the will of the people only matters when it goes their way, and that regulations on land do not amount to a "taking" of value for which landowners should be compensated.Under M37, local governments can pay landowners or allow their responsible development proposals to go forward. Claims must be processed in 180 days, ending June 2. That is driving M37 opponents nuts. As state Rep. Greg MacPherson, D-Lake Oswego, who's leading the legislative effort to wreck the twice-voter-approved law, puts it, the deadline "concentrates the mind."
Last week MacPherson and Nesbitt's work group proposed to divide the opposition - an old union political trick. They say that most of the claims can be resolved by allowing most claimants to develop their property to the level allowed when they bought it. They have to have bought it before March 1, 1994, and have owned it continuously since. This "express lane" could allow some of the affected landowners to build up to three homes on a single piece of farm property. There would be stricter limits for higher value farmland and in areas where groundwater is threatened by developments.
Claimants who don't take that approach would be offered the chance to retrieve their property rights but would face a higher bar - including rigorous evaluation of their claims by government union lawyers in a highly bureaucratic and legalistic process that would mean resolutions will take years.
All of this would create a property rights fiasco, and add plenty of citizen distrust to a dangerous experiment in "democratic" socialism being conducted by Si Newhouse and his government union pals. This runaway regime rushing to replace individual rights with collectivism across the board is a real danger, threatening to cause real damage.
With ballot measures, Oregon voters are already facing all-out, slick put-down campaigns orchestrated by The Oregonian and Tim Nesbitt's gang of government union bosses. So when property rights restoration passes, twice, the voters really mean it. As legislators and others consider the scheme to destroy Measure 37 in the next couple of weeks, those who don't like it need to ask - what happens to Oregon if we can do no better than this?
The Oregonian, Apr. 1, OPINION By THE EDITORS
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