Coburg Citizens: Pay Your Own Way

Perhaps the folks in Coburg will step up to the plate and start paying for their own services, including their police overemployment plan, by rejecting their operating levy.

Enforcement of appropriate traffic laws on their main streets, all two of them, is certainly reasonable and it may be reasonable that such an effort generates . . . → Read More: Coburg Citizens: Pay Your Own Way

Campaign Finance Reform

The Oregon legislature is working on some campaign finance reforms ($ after 14 days): Shortly after Doyle’s Jan. 31 resignation, Merkley and House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, announced that House legislation would tackle six campaign finance topics. Those included increasing the maximum penalty for personal use of campaign money, prohibiting candidates from paying . . . → Read More: Campaign Finance Reform

Tuition Increases and Tax Increases

Taxes and tax increases are just that even when mislabeled or hidden.

Take the case of the tuition increases just approved by the Washington legislature.

These increases are, compared to previous years, a tax increase targeted at a specific class of Washington residents. Those who are paying tuition to attend a public college . . . → Read More: Tuition Increases and Tax Increases

New Jobs for Whom?

The Seattle PI noted that to salvage the gas tax: The state’s most powerful business lobbyists, Gov. Christine Gregoire and leading lawmakers immediately stepped in to keep negotiations alive through yesterday. The transportation package was a top goal of the business lobby.

The PI was so busy glowing over the process that they forgot . . . → Read More: New Jobs for Whom?

Welcome to the Subduction Zone

The Subduction Zone deals with people living together in the Cascadia subduction zone and the Columbia River drainage system system regions. Our interests extend from northern California to Alaska and to northwestern Wyoming and western Montana. There is, though, nothing particularly unique about the people living in this area and the most effective way . . . → Read More: Welcome to the Subduction Zone