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They Said It Best:
Highlights from 2017 Q & A
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon - January
"Even the most ardent supporter of the Affordable Care Act would say there are things that could be improved. The law has benefited millions of Americans, but there are some who could be helped by further changes."
"The approach to tax reform I described was the one Congress used successfully in 1986 when it lowered rates and broadened the base by cleaning out special interest tax breaks. And a cornerstone of that reform was treating wages and wealth the same. So the cop or the nurse who has their taxes taken out of each paycheck isn't paying a higher rate than a Wall Street financier. In the two years after the 1986 reform, the economy soared, creating millions of news jobs. I still think the 1986 approach is a good model."
Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks.com - February
"Citizens understand that you 'follow the money.' The money trails tell you a lot. In Oregon, there is a lot of money at stake and the patterns are very troubling. These donations were morally wrong. There is no legitimate public purpose for the solicitation of $800,000 in campaign cash from state contractors."
"The CEO of Marquis companies gave a $5,000 donation to Brown in the closing days of her general election campaign. Brown was far ahead in the polls, did not need the money, and did not even file the donation until after the election. Why make a donation that wasn't going to affect the outcome? The donation suggests the intent was to curry favor. Over the next two years, hundreds of millions of dollars in existing state/Marquis contracts are up for renewal, extension, or amendment."
Phil Knight, Co-founder of NIKE- March
"Left unchecked, PERS will just, very simply, sink the whole state."
"I ask myself, why is Oregon so much worse off fiscally than Arizona or Indiana? Indiana certainly does not have more natural resources, more educated populace. I conclude it is due to political leadership. Mitch Daniels simply got Indiana straightened out, giving the capability to have a good educational system."
"I think NAFTA and free trade in general have been huge economic pluses for the U.S. and the world. The problem gets to be in the growth there comes dissolution as well. A guy loses his job in the steel mill and says it is due to the trade agreement. He gets a job at NIKE and says, 'I got a job in the accounting department.'"
Erik Lukens, Editor of The Bulletin -- April
"I think survival for all of us will depend on our ability to remind readers why we matter and are, therefore, worth reading and buying. That, to me, means providing something that others are not: credible journalism that addresses the needs and interests of readers. I hope that will be enough. If we need an unending succession of kitten and puppy photo galleries to keep the doors open, we're doomed."
"I've seen no evidence that Gov. Brown has the leadership skills needed to solve the PERS crisis, but that's irrelevant. Leadership matters only if you intend to do something about the problem, and so far she's shown no interest in that."
Allen Alley, The Alley Group -- May
"Democrat leadership has lavished benefits on their largest donors, the public employee unions, without regard to cost for 60-plus years. The result is a massive liability of a scale that is so large it is just about impossible to comprehend and does, in fact, have the potential to, as Mr. Knight said, 'sink the whole state.'"
"To put it in perspective, the current PERS cash payments to only the existing retirees is over $4.5 billion a year and will rise to $8 billion a year within 20 years. Remember, the $4.5 billion is cash payments today made only to people who have already retired. It does not include saving anything to offset our future liabilities. Put another way, the current payroll of all of the state, county, city, police, fire and schools covered by PERS is about $10 billion a year. Our current cash payments only to existing retirees, is already 45 percent of our payroll and is rising. That is an outstandingly high number and already isn't sustainable."
Joaquin Lippincott, CEO of Metal Toad -- June
"Due to the financial structure of most tech start-ups, they have almost zero incentive to invest in anything other than their own company. They don't require infrastructure investment, and they generally live in a bubble where everyone they know is well compensated and loves their job. Layer on top of that, they generally come from out of state and have large buckets of money and investors who require progress on a one-two- or three-year horizon, and you have a recipe for almost no economic or civic engagement. I find this incredibly ironic given the progressive politics of the tech industry, but there is almost no interest in things that are not directly related to tech."
State Senator Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose -- July
"Rep. Parrish brings a definite spirit to the House. She enlivens the debate. It's a different matter though, when elected legislators engage in the referendum process because they don't like a bill their colleagues passed. What is the point in having legislative sessions? What is the point in having legislators?"
"House Speaker Tina Kotek dominated in this legislative session more than Gov. Brown. The governor is pleasant and has enthusiasm, but she has yet to rise to the challenge of acting independently of the unions or, for that matter, her party politics."
State Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend -- August
"Frankly, with few exceptions, I felt the response by my Republicans colleagues to the Kitzhaber scandal was too timid. This scandal was about more than just the governor and his girlfriend; it represents a culture of arrogance, intimidation, and entitlement by the entire Salem ruling class."
"There is no worse example of the consequences of one-party dominance of state government than the failures in Oregon's education system. For nearly a decade, Oregon schools have ranked near the bottom in education quality despite increased spending by the state. Our graduation and drop-out rates are a disgrace. Yet, Kate Brown and Democrat leaders just shrug their shoulders in resignation. Or worse, claim that hiring a new staff person, creating another work group, or commissioning a report will solve the problems they've either created or have ignored."
Tim Boyle, CEO of Columbia Sportswear -- September
"Entrepreneurs have lots of options in where to place their bets. We were incredibly lucky that Mike found and fell in love with Bandon, Oregon. His investment in the southern Oregon Coast has literally changed the face of that part of the state."
"While the U.S. tax policy and rates need to be globally competitive, we prefer surety of future tax policies so we can plan our business investments."
State Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn -- October
"The Medicaid budget was created using faulty data. We learned after passage of HB 2391 about the 55,000 people who were ineligible to be receiving benefits who had been -- hundreds of millions in overpayments all for the state's incompetence. That's roughly $567 million in state and federal resources we didn't need to raise in the tax package."
"If voters say no to a health care sales tax after having just said no to Measure 97, I hope it sends a strong message to pro-tax Republicans that Oregonians want cost reforms -- in the areas of PERS, health care, and all the non-essential spending. Democratic lawmakers are addicted to new tax-raising measure."
Randal O'Toole, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute -- November
"The most important reason city and transit officials support light rail is that the federal government is willing to fund half the costs of constructing it, and no local politician wants to turn down 'free' federal money. The good news is the Trump administration wants to kill the federal program supporting new rail transit construction; the bad news is that Congress is not eager to support that because it sees rail as a form of pork barrel."
"Looking around the country, there is a practically a one to one relationship between urban areas with high housing costs and urban areas with growth boundaries or similar land-use restrictions ... median housing prices in the nation's fastest-growing urban areas, Houston and Dallas-Ft.Worth, are about 2.5 times median family incomes, whereas in Portland and Seattle they are more than four times family incomes."
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