By Vernon S. White
Why This Report?
Depending on your viewpoint, the property tax limitation passed by Oregon voters in November, 1990, Measure Five, will either devastate government services or restrain runaway government spending. Most discussion to date has been dominated by those inside government and those dependent on government spending.
The need for an outside, reliable analysis compelled Cascade Policy Institute to commission Vernon S. White, former research Director of Oregon Tax Research, to produce this alternative view of Measure Five’s impact on state and local government.
Measure Five phases in over five years, so it is important that everyone interested in its long-term effects have access to the kind of information contained in this report.
But we won’t stop here.
CASCADE continues to monitor the fiscal situation in Oregon. FOCUS ON MEASURE FIVE will be followed up with a study on the benefits of contracting out government services, scheduled for release this fall.
CASCADE welcomes comments and suggestions on our work. For more information about the Institute and how you can become a supporter, please turn to the last pages of this report.
Vernon S. White earned a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He served as an assistant to the publisher of C.C. Chapman’s Oregon Voter, a public affairs weekly which concentrated on Oregon’s budget and political affairs. For most of his professional career, White was editor of Western Timber Journal, a lumber and logging trade journal. Until his recent retirement, he was for six years Research Director for Oregon Tax Research and editor of its publication, “Your Taxes,” where he remains editor emeritus.
