The Truth About Saint Nicholas
Do you believe in Santa Claus? By the time many people think they…
Read Blog DetailYear: 2007
A Market-Based Solution to the MAX Security Crisis
Summary While TriMet has agreed to some reforms in the wake of the…
Read Blog DetailOpportunity Inequality
Summary “Income inequality” is a central part of the debate surrounding poverty and…
Read Blog DetailThe Public Knows Something Is Wrong with Education … and It’s Not Lack of Money
Summary The polling data is trending toward school choice. As more and more…
Read Blog DetailWe Told You So
The 2007 Oregon legislature capped interest rates on payday loans, effectively putting the…
Read Blog DetailA New Day for Portland Transportation: Spending Should Match Utilization
Observers of Portland transportation have long criticized local politicians for spending billions of…
Read Blog DetailSpending to Stop Climate Change Flunks the Common Sense Test
Summary Al Gore’s recent Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change…
Read Blog DetailTriple Failure: New Report Examines the Effects of Portland’s 18-Year-Old Polystyrene Foam Ban
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John A. Charles, Jr. Tel.: 503-242-0900 Fax: 503-242-3822 E-mail:…
Read Blog DetailSustainable Failure: Why Portland's Polystyrene Foam Ban Should Be Repealed
Introduction In the summer of 1988, Portland City Commissioner Bob Koch introduced an…
Read Blog Detail“Assets” Are More Than Just “Stuff”
Poverty, economic development and fairness are words often used when speaking about income…
Read Blog DetailThe Dilemma of a Bifurcated Social Policy
Summary The root of the contemporary American dilemma about how much to spend…
Read Blog DetailGet a raise? Pay more for your latte
Oregon taxpayers soon will receive checks in the mail representing 18.6 percent of…
Read Blog DetailKicker Envy
Summary Individual Oregon income taxpayers are set to receive a record $1.1 billion…
Read Blog DetailAdvocate for Ownership
Presidential hopefuls, policy wonks and advocates from the Left have given the idea…
Read Blog DetailBroadband Blunders in the Beaver State
Summary The development of municipal wireless broadband networks has been popular with local…
Read Blog DetailPaying a High Price for "Fareless" Rides
TriMet has always taken credit for promoting economic development along light rail lines,…
Read Blog DetailCable TV Competition
Remember when the only telephone service you could get was from AT&T? From…
Read Blog DetailAsset Ownership Is Life-Changing
Summary An expansive amount of research from across the political spectrum demonstrates the…
Read Blog DetailRunning with Robbers
One of the most perplexing things about the current fight over Oregon land…
Read Blog DetailOregon Property Rights: “Vintage”
Summary Property is more than land. Eroding Oregonians’ property rights jeopardizes all the…
Read Blog DetailSchool Choice Equals Confidence and Success
In 1999 local Oregon donors pledged one million dollars to begin the Children’s…
Read Blog DetailHidden in Plain Sight: Portland’s Disappearing Street Maintenance Fund
Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams and Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler have proposed…
Read Blog DetailEnd Oregon’s Capital Gains Tax
Summary The more something is taxed, less of it is produced. The capital…
Read Blog DetailCollect signatures, go to prison
Last week the state of Oklahoma indicted national political activist Paul Jacob for…
Read Blog Detail“The Most Important Guarantee of Freedom”
Summary Milton Friedman wrote: “Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he…
Read Blog DetailAre Government Schools Safer Than Private Ones?
Last summer the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation released a study entitled…
Read Blog DetailPouring Good Money after Bad
For eighteen years we’ve heard that The Oregon Convention Center needs a headquarters…
Read Blog DetailFlexible Transit? Lessons from Bend
Summary A committee representing the three Central Oregon Counties has created a regional…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the Metro Council on Resolution No. 07-3868 authorizing creation of a finance plan for the development of a Convention Center Headquarters Hotel
President Bragdon and members of the council, for the record my name is…
Read Blog DetailThe “Perfect Logic” of Taxing Smokers
Summary Measure 50 on the November ballot would lock a tobacco tax into…
Read Blog DetailNew Pilot Study Initiative Aims to Increase the Mobility of Low-Income Workers in Portland through Auto Ownership
Cascade Policy Institute has released a report unveiling a pilot project to examine the feasibility of promoting low-income auto ownership as a transit strategy.
Cascade’s Wheels to Wealth Program is promoting the formation of a committee to discuss the feasibility of creating an auto-loan program for the low-income population in the Portland tri-county area to assist in meeting the complex transportation needs of this demographic group. This program will be funded using the savings that would come from the cancellation of the lowest performing TriMet bus routes. . . . Read more!
Read Blog DetailWhy Things Seem to Go on in One Direction
Democracy is not an excuse for tyranny. It must be more than two…
Read Blog DetailWheels to Wealth: A Pilot Project to Examine the Feasibility of Promoting Low-Income Auto Ownership as a Transit Strategy
Synopsis Wheels to Wealth is a proposal with a dual purpose: First, to…
Read Blog DetailPilot study initiative to explore the transportation needs of the low-income population in the Portland tri-county area
The population composition of the Portland area has changed in the last 5 years. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000, 8.5% of families and 13.1% of individuals in Portland were below the federal poverty level. In 2005, 11.8% of families and 17.8% of individuals in Portland were below the poverty level. The minority population also has increased, both in Portland and statewide.
The demographic group known as the working poor is also growing. Following the welfare reforms of 1996, though Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cases have gone down comparably, a significant pool of working poor are still struggling to reach family-wage jobs.
The proposed Wheels to Wealth initiative is an attempt to incorporate the working poor, and the minority population, in the regional transportation plan by giving them better access to job markets and consumer services. . . . Read more!
Read Blog DetailHow to Increase Low-Income Homeownership Without Subsidies
A recent study published by the Urban Institute discusses how the current system…
Read Blog DetailResponse to TriMet comments on Cascade’s pilot project proposal
To: TPAC We appreciated the time allocated by TPAC recently to consider our…
Read Blog DetailHow happy are we?
Economists measure all kinds of things, such as income, assets, inflation and unemployment….
Read Blog DetailOregon Wears the Union Label
Summary Private sector unionism has declined to the point of irrelevance in America,…
Read Blog DetailWho Owns Your Social Security? (hint: it’s not you)
Summary The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retirees do not have an ownership…
Read Blog DetailCarbon Grandstanding
Last week Gov. Kulongoski and the governors of five other western states signed…
Read Blog DetailNO SCHIP
Summary Congress wants to expand SCHIP to provide more uninsured children with health…
Read Blog DetailCentral Oregon private-public mobility agenda
Central Oregon Mobility Consortium, under the Central Oregon Intergovermental Council, is on the…
Read Blog DetailPortlanders See Through the “Bike vs. Car” Racket
The Wheels to Wealth program is finally communicating with an audience it always wanted to reach out to. Program Director Sreya Sarkar took part in a debate in SE Portland that attracted the biking community of Portland.
As part of their monthly Debate Club series, the Bus Project and the Portland Mercury hosted a . . . Read more!
Read Blog DetailBetter Health Care Through Less Government
Summary Many of the problems present in Oregon’s health care system associated with…
Read Blog DetailUnions undermine democracy
Oregon’s strong public employee unions may grow even stronger now that Governor Kulongoski…
Read Blog DetailTolls (not tax, spend and waste) to Fund Bridges
The collapse of the I-35 Bridge and loss of life in Minneapolis is…
Read Blog DetailConsumer Protection from What?
Summary The payday lending interest rate cap passed by the Oregon legislature has…
Read Blog DetailThe Private Sector Has More Incentive to Invest Wisely
Governor Kulongoski recently signed a series of bills that will spend a total…
Read Blog DetailWhen Renewable Energy Isn’t
Summary By defining the state’s most abundant energy resource, running water, as “non-renewable,”…
Read Blog DetailAnother Path to Insuring More Oregonians
Summary While consumer choice is a proven cost-cutter, health insurance mandates raise premiums,…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission on Qwest’s Cable Franchise Proposal
Members of the Commission, my name is Steve Buckstein. I’m Senior Policy Analyst…
Read Blog DetailPortland’s Transportation Future: Back to the Past?
In the optimistic decades of the 1950s and 60s, Americans had bold visions…
Read Blog DetailYOUR PRIVACY IS PROTECTED AT CASCADE!
Recently, Willamette Week printed a story regarding non-profit organizations utilizing the Cooler Email…
Read Blog DetailWhat the Legislature Hath Wrought
Summary The 2007 Oregon Legislative Session ended June 28. With very few exceptions,…
Read Blog DetailNew Mandates, New Costs
What do acupuncturists, drug abuse treatment, and non-custodial children have in common? Oregonians…
Read Blog DetailEmergency Price Controls: The Wrong Policy
Oregon has recently passed a new law (Senate Bill 118) in an attempt…
Read Blog DetailEconomic Fairness for Whom?
This week, four new laws went into effect making it illegal for Oregon…
Read Blog DetailSocial Security Reform: The Thrift Savings Way
Summary In just 10 years’ time, the Social Security system will begin to…
Read Blog DetailBandon Dunes Is a Private (Not Government) Success Story
Summary The implication that private business success stories are really dependent on government…
Read Blog DetailOregon schools get more money, but most isn’t for students
The Oregon Legislature recently passed a 6.2 billion dollar budget for K-12 education…
Read Blog DetailSupreme Court slaps public employee unions
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that public employee unions can’t…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the Portland City Council on The Great Duct Tape Controversy
This testimony was in response to a proposed ordinance by Portland City Commissioner…
Read Blog DetailThe Great Duct Tape Controversy
The 100th Portland Rose Festival has come and gone, but the great duct…
Read Blog DetailOpposing the Salem Zealots
The Oregonian’s front page feature on lobbyist Mark Nelson is a revealing insight…
Read Blog DetailCancel the Apocalypse: School Funding is Up (Again)
The conventional wisdom in Oregon is that we’ve been “disinvesting” in public schools…
Read Blog Detail“Workfare” Calls for Mobility of Low-Income Workers
Summary Low-income workers need access to higher-skilled jobs to increase their income and…
Read Blog DetailBe wary of funding “Mess Transit”
Testimony before the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development…
Read Blog DetailThe politics of light rail pork
Although the phrase “light rail” wasn’t even mentioned in the hearing, it seemed…
Read Blog DetailA small dinghy of sanity in a roaring sea of legislative excess
From the 1840s through the 1860s more than 80,000 pioneers walked beside their…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on SB 823 A, prohibiting development along the Oregon Trail
Good afternoon Chair Roblan and members of the Committee. My name is Steve…
Read Blog DetailOne Vote Short: House Education Committee Votes on HB 3010
Summary One third of the legislature supported the Freedom to Choose My School…
Read Blog DetailDon’t tarnish Oregon’s pioneer spirit
Oregonians sometimes forget how we got here. The Oregon Trail was an important…
Read Blog DetailOne Vote Short
House Education Committee votes on our school choice proposal On Friday, May 11,…
Read Blog DetailSchool Choice Saves Children and Money
Last week the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation released a landmark study…
Read Blog DetailClean sweep or consumer rip-off?
While waiting to testify on another bill before the House Consumer Protection Committee,…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the House Consumer Protection Committee on SB 118A, imposing price controls in a disaster
Good afternoon Chair Holvey and members of the Committee. My name is Steve…
Read Blog DetailDon’t Pork-Barrel Microenterprises
Summary Microenterprises have much to offer to the poor in this country, but…
Read Blog DetailThe Tax Burden of the Working Poor (and a way to help)
Summary Protecting the earned income of low-income families is a proven method of…
Read Blog DetailCommunity-led housing solution
Homelessness has become a pressing concern in Central Oregon. The number of people…
Read Blog DetailMicrofinance is a tool, not a poverty alleviation program
Response to “A Second Look at Microfinance: The Sequence of Growth and Credit…
Read Blog DetailSchool Choice Should Be about Students, Not Buildings
The mix of traditional school closures, charter school openings, and transfers out of…
Read Blog DetailSometimes a Little Magic Happens: Public Testimony on HB 3010
Summary Public policy advocates often find that spending extended periods at the Oregon…
Read Blog DetailSometimes Magic Happens
Thursday, April 5, 2007, was a great day for me personally. I was…
Read Blog DetailDon’t gamble on state police
Funding for the Oregon State Police has been so scarce in recent years…
Read Blog DetailTestimony on HJR 28 before the House Revenue Committee on using Lottery funding for the Oregon State Police
Good afternoon Chair Barnhart and members of the Committee. My name is Steve…
Read Blog DetailTestimony before the House Transportation Committee on bills to ban cell phone usage while driving
Good afternoon Chair Beyer and members of the Committee. My name is Steve…
Read Blog DetailPreserve the beauty and make it rich
Oregon presently has eight destination resorts that employ approximately 2,100 people. Destination resorts…
Read Blog DetailRecycling Police on Aisle Nine
The Oregon legislature is about to create a new entitlement program for consumers….
Read Blog DetailTestimony on HB 3010: Freedom to Choose My School Grant Program
My name is Kathryn Hickok, and I am director of the Children’s Scholarship…
Read Blog DetailTestimony of Matt Wingard In Support of HB 3010
My name is Matt Wingard and I appreciate the opportunity to testify in…
Read Blog DetailIs "Single Payer" a dirty word?
When Sally C. Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco gave…
Read Blog DetailTransporting Low-Income Workers to a Better Future in Rural Oregon
Summary The growing number of low-income workers in Oregon’s rural counties calls attention…
Read Blog DetailHealth Insurance for the Few: The “Lexus” Model of Benefits
Summary Government health insurance mandates intended to increase health care coverage for all,…
Read Blog DetailNo Plan(ners) Required
Summary Central economic planning suffers from the fallacy of composition: assuming that what…
Read Blog DetailInvited testimony on health care reform proposals before the House Health Care Committee
Sally C. Pipes is President and CEO of Pacific Research Institute in San…
Read Blog DetailFreedom to Choose My School Grants
Finally, low-income students and their parents will be able to see the Oregon…
Read Blog DetailSummary Testimony Regarding HB 3244
HB 3244 is similar to HB 3948, which was enacted during the 2001…
Read Blog DetailOutline of comments on HB 2626-1 Amendments
Electronic waste is a challenge, not a crisis. Disposing of e-waste in a…
Read Blog DetailTestimony of John A. Charles, Jr. on SB 838
My name is John Charles, president of Cascade Policy Institute. Cascade is a…
Read Blog DetailSelf-employment, a way out of welfare
To fit in with the latest federal requirements set by Deficit Reduction Act…
Read Blog Detail