A Portland newspaper editor recently implored in print, “We need a plan, people, soon.”

Why just one plan? In Portland, for example, some want tax incentives to attract business, others want more business taxes to fund our schools. Some want Major League Baseball, others want to invest in engineering schools. To planners such disparate talk sounds like . . . Read more!

Close on the heels of Measure 28’s failure Portland and Multnomah County officials have started dreaming of more creative ways to tax people, rather than live within the means of taxpayers. Specifics about the new taxes are hard to come by. There is no consensus on whom to tax or what to tax.

Multnomah County Commissioner Lisa Naito has proposed that . . . Read more!

Since the voter defeat of Measure 28, public officials in the Portland region have proposed numerous emergency tax plans to stave off service cuts such as shortened school years. Oddly, these same elected officials are warmly embracing the joint proposal of Metro and TriMet to spend $850 million building two new light rail lines.

According to Metro’s Environmental Impact Statement, each new trip on light rail will cost . . . Read more!

Oregon education officials recently revealed what many have long known - the public schools have not addressed the persistent achievement gap between white and minority students. The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) will request a waiver from the portion of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires schools to make adequate yearly progress for all students, regardless of race or income level.

The ODE is worried that schools will miss . . . Read more!