OREGON'S DISAPPEARING AMERICAN DREAM

     For a state which has regained only 50% of the jobs lost and about 60% of the wages lost in the Great Recession one can hardly make the case that Oregon is on the comeback trail despite the rosy revenue forecast which came out of the Puzzle Palace on Thursday. 

     As I said in my most recent blog "it's the best of times" for higher income Oregonians and corporate Oregon, but "the worst of times" for the increasingly marginalized middle class, the working poor and those on the edge of homelessness. 

     Fellow political scientist, Melody Rose, currently the interim Chancellor of Higher Education in Oregon points out in an op ed piece in the unOregonian that funding for higher ed for the current biennium, 2011-2013, is $668 million compared to $755 million back in 1999-2001. 

     It's a not so shining example of Governor Kitzhaber's mantra "doing more with less." 

     Rose also points out that Oregon students attending public universities are paying for 70% of the cost of going to college while ten years ago this figure was "flipped."  Oregon is 44th in supporting higher ed students at places like Quack Attack U and Beaver Nation.  But hey we're top of the heap in NCAA football and baseball!     

     Rose praises Governor Kitzhaber, the business community and donors for their support of higher education.  She also talks about how to cut costs by encouraging students to take AP courses in high school and taking community college courses before transferring to a 4 year college which will enable students to "skip" semesters. 

     I disagree with Rose who is a top notch scholar but the idea of "downsizing" the 4 year college experience will cheapen the ultimate reward of a college degree.  My experience is that high school AP courses are not equivalent to college courses and attending a community college is not the qualitatively the same as attending a 4 year college.  

     On a personal note I was an adjunct professor at PSU from 2005-2009.  I enjoyed my PSU experience but was "riffed" because of budget cuts. 

     Rose as an "educational bureaucrat" embraces "collaboration" - a euphemism for gradualism.  Her "incremental" reforms will do little to address the fundamental problem - Oregonians have less disposable income to devote to everyday necessities to say nothing of the "luxury" of paying for a college education in the public system. 

• Let's collaborate to promote college affordability
  

     The reality is that it takes 6 years not 4 years to graduate from college.  The idea of saving money by taking AP or community college courses is a false saving in quality and also in time since transferring from one college to another one often loses credits and has to make them up. 

     Frankly an alternative investment strategy for families is to look at what Oregon's private independent colleges offer in more robust financial aid packages compared to their public sector counterparts.  The cost/benefit analysis of a liberal arts college in terms of faculty advising, class size, study abroad and internships is worth a look.

     One can get an excellent education at a mega-university.  But the student has to know how to navigate the system.  If not they can easily get lost in the shuffle by poor advising, large classes and bureaucratic indifference.  

     It comes down to the fact that Oregonians, like most Americans, make 60% less today than in the past if they are among the "lucky" 50% who have a job.  That's the "new normal" which Oregon families and would be college students face.  Until that changes, more and more Oregonians will be denied entre to college and the "American Dream." 

     Back in the 1950s the federal government funded the GI Bill which allowed returning vets to get a college degree and transition from a fighting force to the work force.   As long as Oregon and national leaders adhere to the illusion that the marketplace will raise all boats, more and more people will be lost at sea and the future generation will be imperiled. 

     Oregon can't get from 44th place to the top 10 by nickle and dime approaches.  We've got to invest in our future and an investment strategy doesn't mean more tax giveaways for the likes of Nike, Intel et al.  Corporate Oregon complains our educational system from K-12 to higher ed is broken.  Well who's divested in the system - eh?

     The last 20 years have proved we can't get from here to there!  It's time to invest not in tax free equipment from the traded sector but in Oregonians and not Californians who pay out of state tuition! 

    

 

    

SMOKE & MIRRORS IN OREGON'S PUZZLE PALACE?

     Now that the May revenue forecast is out of the closet in the Puzzle Palace everyone in Salem is playing a "what if" numbers game with partisan talking points. 

    

     The trouble is that a game of "what if" like my golf game may turn into game of "if only" when the Ds, Rs and Governor can't reconcile their differences as we head into the final days of the current session.  What or who will be left on the cutting room floor after sine die? 

     That we have $271 million more to play with for 2013-2015 is good news but it hardly means the clouds have parted and sunny days are in sight.  The PERS albatross still looms and the courts could declare a "foul" on any PERS fix.  And the Ds and Rs fight over an ending budget fix offers no clear end game.  Only the "Shadow knows" and he's not talking! 

     Here's where our general fund money goes, money which the legislature controls: 

2011-13 General Fund and Lottery Funds

Budgeted Expenditures

Source: Department of Administrative Services, Budget and Management Division

     Notice that only 38.6% of general fund & lottery money goes to K-12 education.  When Measure 5 passed in 1991 general fund support was at 50%.  So since 1991 Oregon has decreased support of our schools by a whopping 11.4%!  No wonder we have fewer teachers, larger class sizes, a reduced school year and the achievement gap keeps growing!

     What Oregon needs to implement is a genuinely progressive corporate income tax not a nickel and dime behind the scenes scheme negotiated by the powers that be in the Puzzle Palace the final days of the session.  We don't need trickle down we need a hand up for the "real" Oregon not the so-called "traded" sector! 

      Here's who finances the general fund - mostly you and me not corporate Oregon and heaven forbid Nike!  

2011-2013 General Fund Revenue Forecast - By Source

Source: Department of Administrative Services, Budget and Management Division    

     The chance the corporate kicker might rebate money back to big business is another indicator of "corporate friendly" policy in the Puzzle Palace.  It's all about pimping for illusory jobs no matter the impact on the general fund budget.  Getting GOP super majority votes to use kicker money as an "add on" for K-12 requires one to believe in the Tooth Fairy.

     At best the extra cash gives legislators a "slush fund" to fund a pet project or please their favorite interest group, it does nothing to deal with the long-term problem of tax reform. 

     In the politics of the budgeting process one needs to read the fine print.

     While Oregon’s economy is in “acceleration” mode with more private spending and hiring we are not out of the woods. The state has regained about 50% the jobs lost and about 60% of the wages lost in the Great Recession.  Did the 50% move south?  How can families live on 40% less of MFI? 

     A rim of counties in Southern Oregon and along the Coast are on the edge of bankruptcy.  And while Washington County is thriving with a 7% unemployment rate, the rest of the state lives in the economic doldrums created by the property tax revolt of the early '90s.  When 1 in 5 Oregonians are hungry - we've got no reason to say our job is done! 

     So while some feel “happy times are here again” I see a state poised where for the well healed in the metro area, it’s the best of times while for the “other Oregon” it’s still the worst of times. 

     And when the Governor reaches out to Nike to give them a "no new taxes" care package for 30 years and metro area suburban Democrats want to give business all kinds of treats, I can’t help feeling all the rest of us are getting is a pre-Halloween “trick.”

     If you don't believe me that we're on a wrong glide path "back to the future" - check out these "white papers" from the Oregon Center for Public Policy: 

• No Correlation: Economic Growth & Tax Rates 

• Oregon's Tax System: Poor & Middle Pay More than Rich

• Keep Your Eye on the Jobs-to-Worker Ratio 

• The place for Oregon to start on tax reform

 

GLOBAL CAPITALISM/DEATH IN BANGLDESH...

What Your T-Shirt Label Doesn’t Reveal 

     If you’re feeling squeamish about that “Made in Bangladesh” label on your shirt, following a factory accident in the country that left more than 1,100 dead, Dara O’Rourke can help.

    

Thanks to Here & Now on PBS:  

   Dara O’Rourke, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, explains what we know about how our clothing is made.

     O’Rourke is co-founder of the Good Guide, a website and smartphone app that provides consumers with consumer product evaluations based on health, environmental and social impacts.

• Gap Inc. statement on Bangladesh

• Walmart statement on Bangladesh

• H&M statements and initiatives on Bangladesh

     What's the Oregon connection to this tragedy?  You guessed it - Uncle Phil, Quack Attack U's boss - NIKE...   Tell NIKE to stop exploiting foreign workers!  Ask them to join in supporting the Bangladesh Accord (see below).  Boycotting is not the answer.  Bringing all the stakeholders to the table is - workers, unions, global corps, merchandisers, government et al.  Bangladesh is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Eight top fashion retailers fail to sign Bangladesh safety accord  

     As global multi-nationals like The GAP, JCPenny, The Children's Place & Walmart et al engage in a "race to the bottom" moving production to low wage nations like Bangladesh it reminds me of a famous quote by Marx in the Communist Manifesto: 

     "...The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe..."

     "...as the repulsiveness of work increases, the wage decreases..."

     Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, wrote a famous book in 1844 - The Condition of the Working Class...  It's as relevant today as then!   It is a study of the working class in Victorian England echoed and popularized by Dickens searing novels on the class system of Victorian England.  It was Engels' first book, written during his stay in Manchester from 1842 to 1844.

     Manchester was then at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution, and Engels compiled his study from his own observations and detailed contemporary reports. Engels argues that the Industrial Revolution made workers worse off. He shows, for example, that in large industrial cities mortality from disease, as well as death-rates for workers were higher than in the countryside. 

     The more things change, the more they stay the same! 

IRS/TEA PARTY "HARDBALL"

     Individuals and groups of all stripes are free to express political opinions, but the public is not supposed to be subsidizing their advocacy of candidates through tax exemptions.

     I'm amazed by the mainstream media's feeding frenzy over IRS monitoring Tea Party groups to see if they are breaking the law by mixing highly partisan political organizing under the auspices of being a non-profit social welfare organization. 

     This isn't Watergate folks, sorry - its just civil servants doing their job but now getting caught in the political crossfire. 

     The story gives Obama a major PR headache and Congressmen Darrell Issa, this generation's Joe McCarthy, a reason to foam at the mouth.  This is just GOP politics of shock and awe 24/7.  At the end of the day it's a pile of doggy poo! 

• The Scandals Are Falling Apart - Ezra Klein, Washington Post

     The reason Tea Party groups came under IRS scrutiny has nothing to do with partisan politics, the IRS is shielded from interference from the Oval Office as a result of Watergate era reforms.  The question is - are such groups eligible for non profit 501(c)(4) "tax exempt" status or are they using Citizens United as a cover to pursue a partisan political agenda?  One doesn't have to be a lawyer to know the answer! 

     The IG "report did not find evidence that the actions were motivated by partisan interests. IRS officials told investigators they did not consult anyone outside the agency about the screening."  Washington Post

     According to the Washington Post, the "exempt-organizations division struggled to determine which nonprofits should receive “social welfare” status after the 2010 Citizens United... ruling. That decision...  allowed corporations and unions to raise and spend un­limited amounts of money on elections [opening] the door for groups to accept undisclosed contributions as long as their “primary purpose” was not politics.

• The Real I.R.S. Scandal - NYTimes.com

     The IRS has "flagged" 300 organization, one-third of them being Tea Party or related groups.  Every tax payer is subject to an IRS audit.  So why should Tea Party affiliates be exempt from routine scrutiny?  The Tea Party groups are bending the law just as other right wing groups do such as Crossroads GPS (Karl Rove et al).  There is no social welfare or education objective, they are engaged in "pure punk politics" as Garrison Keillor calls it. 

     Yeah, the Tea Party is not "political" they are just a bunch of right wing God fearing, gun hugging NRA do-gooders! 

     The facts are obvious to anyone with a brain - the Tea Party and their right wing copy cats across the nation are not giving books to kids or food baskets to families in need.  That's bogus as Click and Clack might say!  They are simply ideologues and propagandists for the most extreme right wing fanaticism imaginable, an echo of the KKK, White Citizen's Councils and the John Birch Society back in the day. 

     I still remember the huge "Impeach Earl Warren" billboard sign in front of the Red Barn restaurant as we drove up the North Umpqua River to fish. 

     Local Tea Party entities have no right to claim to be an education or social service organization.  They don't educate they are into "big lie" propaganda!  In the 1950s the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover spied on all kinds of left wing organizations - the American Communist Party, the ACLU, labor unions, civil right organizations and even members of Congress plus JFK, RFK and MLK. 

     The IRS is not spying, not wiretapping just doing its job!  You don't hear the other 200 groups, probably left wingers crying foul, yet...  

     The 300 groups that were flagged by the IRS were not denied tax exempt status, which they have no right to given their real purpose, but were required to answer questions about their mission and purposes, produce membership lists and donor information.  In an era of political transparency, this auditing process is hardly a form of harassment.  It's called accountability! 

     Again being audited is not the same thing as being spied on...   Anyone who was an activist in the '60s knows the difference! 

     Now anyone politically active in the '60s was spied on by a myriad of federal and state agencies as well as PIs hired by corporate America.  It was the name of the game and everyone who played in that sandbox knew the game.  For those who went beyond their first amendment right into "actionable" behavior they knew the risks and groups like the Black Panthers, the Weathermen paid the price. 

     But again, this is not the IRS game.  The pointy heads are simply doing their job!  Thanks to the Supremes and Citizens United their auditing job is tough. 

     Do I like the idea that "big brother" spying on us?  No.  But as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said years ago when one crosses the line and risks becoming a "clear and present danger" - like the Boston Bombers, the KKK, neo-Nazis you have given the government a reason to check into what you are up to - sorry folks that's just the way it is.  Ultimately if the government over-reaches, it will be settled in court.

     But again, the IRS is not morphing into the FBI nor CIA.  They are a bunch of accountants not good cops/bad cops. 

     So what is the Tea Party afraid of?  We know what the media's game is - a feeding fenzy of gotcha politics to capture audience share.  As Edward R. Morrow said back in the '50s "good night and good luck."  If you wanna play in the political big leagues there is a price.  I'm OK with the "government" monitoring "extremists" whatever their ilk to make sure they aren't up to something beyond being ideologically stupid. 

     If you want play in the "big leagues" you got to be willing to "man up" by taking a 90/m/h fast ball coming at your head.  If not don't get in the batter box!  

SB 246 TESTIMONY/TALKING POINTS

Ways & Means Transportation & Economic Development subcommittee

  

From:  Russ Dondero, WC-CAN/IFCH, May 14, 2013

[I've added links from OCPP to extend my argument to tax reform & job creation]

Rep. Jenson, Sen. Johnson, Sen. Shields, Rep. McKeown, Rep. Read, Sen. Hansell

Chair Jenson and committee members:   

SB 246A

     I think Senator Johnson asked the most important question at Monday’s hearing: 

“Why is it the job of the public to aggregate property” for private development? 

     I would respectfully add another question –

“Why should local jurisdictions take the risk of developing parcels of property as opposed to private “traded” sector business?” 

     In my discipline of political science the term “mobilization of bias” captures or frames SB 246 quite well. This bill is designed to incentivize “traded sector” businesses, such as Nike and Intel which in effect privileges the metro area over the rest of Oregon.  The argument that such "privileges" benefit Oregon's economy is a myth perpetrated by the business lobby in Salem:  

     As an Oregonian who grew up in Roseburg, I think the “other” Oregon needs our attention not the metro area and certainly not Washington County which weathered the storm of the Great Recession and is in full comeback mode unlike southern Oregon, the coast or eastern Oregon.

     The supporters of this bill in their presentation on Monday never addressed an obvious question:    

Why do such global companies need such help?  I feel that SB 246 is a “solution in need of a problem? 

     We’ve seen in recent weeks that Nike had a choice between expanding its campus on land adjacent to it or to locate in Portand’s South Waterfront Park area.  Nike made its decision without the benefit of HB 246.  And so has Intel made similar choices.    

     This bill given the development climate in eastern Washington County will privilege Hillsboro and Beaverton which frankly need no such help while leaving cities like Forest Grove on the western edge of the Metro area and the rest of Oregon high and dry. 

     By contrast SB 241 offer you an alternative vision of development: 

     By supporting collaboration between the University of Oregon, Oregon State plus local jurisdictions in Lane, Benton and Linn counties will accelerate start-ups under the auspices of RAIN. 

     My only concern with that bill is nothing is mentioned of private universities in Oregon which educate over one-third of college grads in Oregon.   

     Let me give you an example of collaboration from the private independent college sector.  Years ago Pacific’s school of Optometry developed a sports vision clinic program with which Nike collaborates. 

     Imagine the possibilities if Oregon private independent colleges were joint partners in RAIN along with our public sector universities?  But also what about RAIN’s application to Southern Oregon, OIT and OSU’s Cascade Campus in Bend? 

     Where would the Ashland and Medford area be without the vision of those faculty and community members who started the Ashland Shakespearian Festival decades ago?  We’ve got to get beyond our fixation with traded sector industry. 

I think the concept of SB 241 has merit while SB 246 accelerates the uneven economic development and disconnect in Oregon between urban and rural Oregon. 

     As the gentleman who testified on Monday coming from his experience as a start up investor “micro start ups” are the key point of development in business.  Start up business runs the gamut from the sciences to the arts.  Why limit ourselves to technology support? 

      If the legislature wants to support economic development the key is helping small firms who employ between 20-50 employees not multi-national corporations who have benefitted for decades from Measure 5 and now from Oregon Strategic Investment Program.

     Other issues which were not allayed by the proponent’s testimony on Monday: 

1.   This bill transfers land use planning power to Business Oregon instead of keeping it within LCDC. When one reads the bill the proponent’s assurances to the contrary are not all that clear in the language of the bill as written. 

     Ever since the Nike deal went down in the special session I've been concerned that we are ceding way too much power to the Governor, Business Oregon and local officials willing to sign those ubiquitous "non-disclosure" agreements. 

2.   In looking at the map of the sites proposed, those in Washington County are on the boundary of urban/rural  reserve areas.  We've already lost too much prime farmland to developers especially in Washington County north of the Sunset highway. 

     As the spokesman for the Audubon Society said we shouldn't push the costs of mitigation onto the public.  This should be the responsibility of the original landowners and/or those who propose to develop such land.  I concur.   

      This bill could lead to endless legal challenges since such land is a dual federal/state responsibility if I understand the federal precedents/law here correctly.   I think this may open a Pandora's box of endless litigation which does nobody any good except lawyers... 

      We need to craft an economic development strategy which ends the mobilization of bias which privileges the Metro area or I-5 corridor and instead focuses on the rest of Oregon.  

     Here's a post from Blue Oregon with an e-mail petition you can sign to oppose the corporate give away. 

• Jobs another giveaway to big business 

Russ Dondero,
Senior Policy Adviser,

WC-CAN (Washington County Citizens Action Network)

IFCH (Interfaith Committee on Homelessness, Washington County

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Please e-mail the members of the committee if you share my concerns.  Feel free to borrow any of my ideas put in your own words.  Make it brief.  You can find legislator's e-mail addresses on the Oregon Legislature website, just Google it.  It's very easy.  Don't bother Sen. Betsy Johnson, she's in OHSU recovering from surgery as a result of an auto accident two weeks ago.