Why Do Transit Officials Lie About Light Rail?
The transit agency for Vancouver (C-TRAN) is reconsidering its support for the Columbia…
Read Blog DetailSalem Report: Why the Legislature Can’t Face Reality
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic, led by Cascade President and CEO John A….
Read Blog DetailThree Years Later, ObamaCare Remains a Troubled Law
By Roger Stark, MD, FACS President Obama signed the federal health care bill,…
Read Blog DetailBeaverton Wants More Affordable Housing
By Doug DeFilipps The Beaverton City Council is considering exempting non-profit organizations that…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony Against Local Tobacco Tax Proposal
John A. Charles, Jr. submitted testimony on Monday to the Senate Committee on…
Read Blog DetailWES at 4: Still a Financial Train Wreck
February marked the four-year anniversary of the Westside Express Service (WES), the 14.7-mile…
Read Blog DetailSchool Choice Results Trend Positive in New Study
School choice programs empower parents to choose the schools their children attend―public or…
Read Blog DetailMetro’s Open Space Levy: A Bait and Switch for Taxpayers
Since 1995, Metro has been steadily buying up thousands of acres of undeveloped…
Read Blog DetailShould Oregon Replace the Income Tax with a Sales Tax?
In 2007 Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed me to represent taxpayers on the legislatively…
Read Blog DetailThe Marketplace Fairness Act: Taxation Without Representation?
Congress is poised to raise taxes again, this time by allowing states to…
Read Blog DetailEarth Day Exposes the Ironies of the Left’s Trendy Environmentalism
By Todd Myers On April 22, in cities across America, some environmental activists…
Read Blog Detail"After the Welfare State" Book Forum
Join Cascade Policy Institute and Atlas Economic Research Foundation as we welcome world-renowned speaker…
Read Blog DetailEven in Portland, Bike Share Can’t Get Private Investors
By Doug DeFilipps Bike share is a rental system in which bicycles are…
Read Blog DetailTime to Reset Oregon’s Budget and Recharge Our Economy: Facing Reality 2013
The Oregon legislature is struggling to balance the state budget while meeting the…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony on proposed Oregon sales tax
Testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue regarding sales tax bills…
Read Blog Detail“Housing Fairness” Bill Is Unfair to Landlords
By Doug DeFilipps Ending “housing discrimination” against holders of Section 8 rent assistance…
Read Blog DetailIndiana Court Upholds School Choice Program, Invites Hope for Oregon’s Kids
On March 26, the Indiana Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion holding that…
Read Blog DetailCoalition Releases New ‘Facing Reality’ Budget Report
For Immediate Release April 8, 2013 PORTLAND, Ore. – Americans for Prosperity-Oregon and…
Read Blog DetailBuying Off Discontent: The Economic Wreckage of Disability Benefits in America
By Elise Hilton You lose the factory job you’ve had since high school…
Read Blog DetailFacing Reality 2013: Ideas to Reset Oregon’s Budget and Recharge Its Economy
By Karla Kay Edwards Steve Buckstein Americans for Prosperity-Oregon and Cascade Policy Institute…
Read Blog DetailSaving Transit by Shrinking TriMet
In the past eight years, the all-funds budget for TriMet has gone up…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony in Favor of Decriminalizing Marijuana
Testimony before the House Committee on Judiciary in Favor of HB 3371 by…
Read Blog DetailProtecting Public Safety and Reducing Correctional Costs in Oregon
By Vikrant P. Reddy and Marc A. Levin Oregon’s Corrections Challenges Oregon has…
Read Blog DetailIndiana Supreme Court Says Vouchers Directly Benefit Families, Not Institutions
On Tuesday the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Indiana’s school voucher…
Read Blog DetailTo Fluoridate or Not to Fluoridate?
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic, led by Dr. Char Glenn, on Wednesday, April 17,…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony in favor of deregulating the natural hair care industry
The Oregonian published a great article about this hearing, pointing out Cascade’s long-held…
Read Blog DetailLegislative Leadership Forum Series 2013
Couldn’t make it to our Legislative Leadership Forum Series in Salem? Watch the…
Read Blog DetailTeen Entrepreneurs Week Instills Business Knowledge and Personal Confidence
Your average high school students may not be able to explain a fictional…
Read Blog DetailAn Alternative Analysis of Measure Five’s Impact on State and Local Government
Cascade’s first major research report after its founding in 1991 dealt with the…
Read Blog DetailProtecting Public Safety and Reducing Correctional Costs in Oregon
Can Oregon’s criminal justice system fight crime, prioritize victims and protect taxpayers all…
Read Blog DetailDon’t End Tax Increase Warnings
In the late 1990s Oregon voters approved measures that require envelopes containing certain…
Read Blog DetailTobacco Cessation or Just Increasing General Fund Revenue?
The Oregon legislature is once again trying to raise the cigarette tax, this…
Read Blog DetailKilled by Cost Cutting
By Sally C. Pipes British officials confirmed in January that as many as…
Read Blog DetailSupreme Court Should Reject Federal Regulation of Forest-Road Rainwater
By Daniel A. Himebaugh Is rain in the woods the equivalent of hazardous…
Read Blog DetailWhere’s the Secret Tax for the I-5 Bridge Proposal?
On Monday, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill 2800, the new Interstate 5…
Read Blog DetailPrivate Charity and Public Choice: How States’ Tax Credit Programs Give Voluntary Education Funding a Boost
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic led by Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland’s Director, Kathryn Hickok, on…
Read Blog DetailWanted: More Life with Parents, Not Government Preschool
In his February 12 State of the Union address, President Obama called for…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony on benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit and harm done by the minimum wage
Testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue Regarding SB 326 and…
Read Blog DetailEmployer Mandate a Recipe for Unemployment
By Sally C. Pipes Walmart recently announced that it will not offer health…
Read Blog DetailThe Wages of Sin Taxes
In a misguided attempt to save us from ourselves, Oregon legislators have become…
Read Blog DetailMandatory Sick Leave Hurts the Working Poor
By Marc Kilmer On March 6 the Portland City Council may vote on…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony in favor of a School Choice Tax Credit
Testimony before the Senate Committee on Education and Workforce Development in Favor of…
Read Blog DetailLife, Liberty, and Obama’s Pursuit of Free Birth Control
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released the long-awaited “accommodation”…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Testimony in Opposition to More Subsidies of Student Higher Education Costs
State Treasurer Ted Wheeler has proposed that the state obligate its citizens to repay hundreds…
Read Blog DetailCascade in the Capitol: Light Rail to Vancouver vs. CTRAN Express Buses – Testimony on HB 2800
Cascade President John Charles testified today before the Joint Committee on Interstate-5 Bridge…
Read Blog DetailCharity’s Unseen Benefit: Protecting Civil Society from the State
By Benjamin Zycher Charities and other nonprofit institutions perform a vast array of…
Read Blog DetailPress Release: Whistleblower Lawsuit Claims Oregon DHS Falsely Inflated "Healthy Kids Connect" Enrollment
February 8, 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Steve Buckstein …
Read Blog DetailIn 2013, Millions of Americans Face ObamaCare Tax Hikes
By Sally C. Pipes As part of the negotiations over the fiscal cliff,…
Read Blog DetailSick of Government Sick Leave Policies
On March 6 the Portland City Council may vote on whether to require…
Read Blog DetailKathryn Hickok Discusses School Choice Week and Children’s Scholarship Fund
We sat down with Kathryn Hickok to talk about National School Choice Week…
Read Blog DetailSchool Choice Respects Parents, Promotes Kids’ Best Interests
Sometimes you miss the trees for the forest. Education reform debates tend to…
Read Blog DetailOregon Legislature Should End Its General Fund Lottery Addiction
A state legislator from Milwaukie, Carolyn Tomei, has introduced a package of bills…
Read Blog DetailBring Oregon into the School Choice Age
What makes Oregon special? The slogan “Oregon. We Love Dreamers” invokes images of…
Read Blog DetailFreedom and Opportunity Are the Future of Education
Next week is National School Choice Week. Every January, National School Choice Week…
Read Blog DetailEmpowering Parents Gives Low-Income Children a High-Quality Education
Fourteen years ago, the late philanthropists Ted Forstmann and John Walton challenged local…
Read Blog DetailNational School Choice Week
Please join us for Cascade’s second Policy Picnic theme for the month of…
Read Blog DetailMaking College Even More Expensive
Governor Kitzhaber has decreed that by 2025, 40 percent of Oregonians should have…
Read Blog DetailDoes Obama’s HHS Mandate Make “Religious Freedom Day” an Empty Proclamation?
Every year, the President declares January 16 “Religious Freedom Day.” On that day…
Read Blog DetailFederal Relief Aid Is the New Entitlement
Recently, the governors of New York and New Jersey sent a joint letter…
Read Blog DetailUnderstanding Why Oregon’s Wind Energy Mandate Won’t Work
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic on Wednesday, January 16, at noon. Cascade President…
Read Blog DetailAmerica’s Bloated School Bureaucracies
By Benjamin Scafidi, Ph.D. America’s public schools are bloated with bureaucracy and skinny…
Read Blog DetailAmerica’s Bloated School Bureaucracies
By Benjamin Scafidi, Ph.D. America’s public schools are bloated with bureaucracy and skinny…
Read Blog DetailSocrates and the Fiscal Cliff
Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” 2013 begins with national…
Read Blog DetailMOODY AVENUE RETROFIT: How Portland Spent $52 Million to Make Traffic Worse in the South Waterfront
By Nathan Stecker and John A. Charles, Jr. Introduction In June 2012 the…
Read Blog DetailImagine a World…
Imagine a world where we buy our groceries in government stores. We can…
Read Blog DetailHoliday Trees and Winter Candelabra
Calling a Christmas tree a “holiday tree” is like calling a Hanukkah menorah…
Read Blog DetailMoney for Nothing
On December 18 Metro referred a five-year local option levy of 9.6 cents…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Middle-Earth: A Hobbit’s Eye View
By Lauren Hickok The first installment of director Peter Jackson’s long-awaited film adaptation…
Read Blog DetailTestimony on the Nike Tax Bill (Economic Impact Investment Act of 2012)
Good morning, Co-Chair Burdick, other co-chairs and members of the committee. I’m Steve…
Read Blog Detail“Streetcar Drives Development”―Portland’s Urban Legend
For much of human history, mass transit has had the utilitarian goal of…
Read Blog DetailTax Certainty for Nike? “Just Do It” for All
Governor Kitzhaber has called a special session of the Oregon legislature to enact…
Read Blog DetailSailing Competitive Seas
By William B. Conerly, Ph.D. I picked up my beer at the yacht…
Read Blog DetailRaising Taxes Won’t Reduce the Deficit
With just weeks to go before America slides off the so-called Fiscal Cliff,…
Read Blog DetailHow Many Feet Should Sellwood’s Sidewalk Be?
If we build a new bridge over the Willamette River, how much space…
Read Blog Detail“Pacific Coast Collaborative” Sends Kitzhaber Back to the Future
Last week Governor John Kitzhaber joined with other political leaders in the Pacific…
Read Blog DetailWhy Washington’s Parents Will Love Charter Schools
By Liv Finne Many parents are pleased voters have passed Initiative 1240, the…
Read Blog DetailWhy Washington’s Teachers Will Love Charter Schools
By Liv Finne Mr. Bob Dean is a public school teacher and a…
Read Blog DetailWhat Governor Bradford Learned at Plymouth’s First Thanksgiving
The quintessential American holiday, Thanksgiving evolved from the Pilgrims’ celebrations to thank God…
Read Blog DetailWhy Has Non-Teaching Staff Surged in Oregon Public Schools?
By James L. Huffman, JD Associate editor of The Oregonian Susan Nielsen says…
Read Blog DetailHow to End Poverty
President Johnson declared a “war on poverty” back in 1964 when the poverty…
Read Blog DetailWhat Is Food Freedom?
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic Thursday, November 15 at noon. Cascade Board…
Read Blog DetailPortland’s Moody Avenue Project: Subtraction by Addition
Portland Mayor Sam Adams announced Monday that the reconstruction of Moody Avenue in…
Read Blog DetailIs Driving Less a Good Thing?
Recently, the Metro Council received the results of a four-county household travel survey…
Read Blog DetailThree Oregon Tax Measures: What They Would Do
With less than a week to go in this election cycle, Oregonians are…
Read Blog DetailWomen’s 2012 “Pocketbook Issue”—Free Contraception?
Common sense should intuit that suppressing the healthy operations of a normal human…
Read Blog DetailSteve Buckstein debates the merits of Measure 85
Steve Buckstein spoke to the Washington County Public Affairs Forum in September where…
Read Blog DetailMeasure 81 Would Take Salmon off the Table
By Thomas Dulcich and Michael Barton Oregonians are most fortunate to border the…
Read Blog DetailTaxpayers Should Be ReVolted by Green Business Subsidies
Last week another publicly subsidized “green business” company filed for bankruptcy in Portland….
Read Blog DetailTaxpayers Pay the Difference for ODOT’s Solar Power “Champagne”
By Chris Barton Imagine heading out to your favorite bar one evening to…
Read Blog DetailLike Moths to the Flame
Recently, The Oregonian published a feature story about the Portland Seed Fund. This…
Read Blog DetailWind Energy Can’t Stand Alone
A new Cascade Policy Institute–Reason Foundation study finds that wind energy is not…
Read Blog DetailCascade Update
Want to know the latest happenings at Cascade Policy Institute? Click here to…
Read Blog DetailWhy we Left the Left
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic Wednesday, October 17 at noon. Cascade CEO…
Read Blog DetailWhy We Left the Left
Please join us for Cascade’s monthly Policy Picnic. Cascade CEO John A. Charles will discuss…
Read Blog DetailStatement on Oregon’s Measure 80 Ballot Initiative
PORTLAND, Ore- The eight members of Cascade Policy Institute’s Board of Directors have released the…
Read Blog DetailKathryn Hickok discusses the merits of the proposed Multnomah County Library taxing district measure
The League of Women Voters of Portland hosted a debate on local ballot…
Read Blog DetailSustainability Center Finally Euthanized
Reckless spending is such a way of life in Oregon politics that it…
Read Blog DetailCharters Can Expand Children’s Options in the Evergreen State
By Paul Guppy The school bell rings, and rows of eager young faces…
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