Scott Moore

By Scott Moore

The Oregonian on the Corporate Kicker Measure

Yesterday morning, supporters of the Corporate Kicker for K-12 measure (Measure 85) met with the Oregonian editorial board for the newspaper’s endorsement on the measure.

It was a lively discussion, highlighting the obvious need to start reinvesting in our K-12 schools. In an online post, the editors have said their endorsement will be in this Sunday’s paper.

It won’t be the first time they’ve opined on the need to reform the corporate kicker. Here’s what the editorial board wrote in April, just after we announced that we were gathering signatures to reform the corporate kicker:

Second, this is a step that needs to be taken. Oregon's boom-and-bust tax structure is broken, condemning the state to a destructive cycle of building up programs and institutions in good times, only to tear them down in bad. Repealing the corporate kicker should be part of the solution.

Business groups seem willing to accept the ballot proposal. "I'm not detecting from anybody in the business community that I've talked to that there is going to be any significant opposition to it," Jay Clemens, president of Associated Oregon Industries, told The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes.

By Scott Moore

Media Watch: Once Again, PolitiFact Redefines the Word "Fact"

In their relentless pursuit of the truth (so that they can run it over and call it untrue), the folks over at PolitiFact Oregon have once again redefined what a “fact” is.

This time, they’ve taken on the Democratic Party of Oregon’s statement that Republican State Senator (and candidate for Labor Commissioner) Bruce Starr cast a vote that “would have thrown 6,000 Oregonians off unemployment.”

The bill in question is House Bill 3483 from 2009, which provided a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits. It passed overwhelmingly (because, well, duh), but got a few No votes, including one from Sen. Starr.

If Starr had gotten his way and the bill died, it’s true that at least 6,000 people would have lost their unemployment benefits.

By Scott Moore

Where’s the Oregonian on Paul Ryan’s Lies?

Across the country, news outlets have spent the last 16 hours picking apart the many lies contained in Paul Ryan’s speech to the Republican National Convention.

By Scott Moore

Giving Away Tax Breaks for Nothing

SalesForce.com has announced that they’re moving to Oregon to set up a new major operation center, bringing hundreds or thousands of jobs to the state. The company chose Oregon over their second choice—Salt Lake City—because, in short, Oregon is a great place to live and run a business.

By Scott Moore

Karl Rove Thinks He Has Plans For Oregon

Just a couple of weeks after landing a big payday for a few speaking gigs in Central Oregon, Republican mastermind Karl Rove has announced he’s got big plans for our state.

Maybe.

By Scott Moore

Media Watch: That’s not what “balance” means

Under publisher N. Christian Anderson The Third, even the Oregonian’s business reporters have become partisans, whose orders are apparently to embarrass Democratic leaders at every opportunity while giving away credibility to Republicans.

The latest example comes from tech reporter Mike Rogoway. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi recently visited Portland to meet with technology startup leaders, joined by Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici. Their goal was to find ways that Congress can help tech companies thrive.

By Scott Moore

For PolitiFact Oregon, "Technically Correct” Means “Mostly False”

As it turns out, even we can still be surprised by the intellectual depths to which the Oregonian’s PolitiFact Oregon project can sink. Under the helm of publisher N. Christian Anderson III, PolitiFact has become a poorly disguised extension of his right-wing Editorial page.

The latest “ruling” from the PolitiFact team read like dispatches from Bizarro Planet, where up is down and yes means no—and “technically correct” means “mostly false.”

By Scott Moore

The Weight of One Trillion Dollars

There’s been a slew of articles and columns about the most recent figures on the crushing school debt facing America’s students. The amount of outstanding student debts has now passed $1 trillion.

That debt is a heavy burden on individual students. All their lives, they’ve been told that a college education is critical to their future prosperity. Now, they’re buried under tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and the job prospects are so dismal that they have no idea how they’ll pay it back.

This staggering news has given people an opportunity to misplace the blame—for instance, the Oregonian Editorial Board and the Sallie Mae corporation have put the blame on parents and students, who they think should do more and earlier financial planning.

While financial planning is certainly important, this focus ignores completely the two main reasons for skyrocketing student debt: Tuition increases, and far fewer grant and scholarship opportunities.

In Oregon, years of ongoing state budget cuts to our colleges and universities has led to a steep increase in tuition and other fees. According to the Oregon University System, Oregon now ranks 45th in the country in per-pupil spending on higher education. That means that only five states in the entire country invest less in their colleges than we do.

By Scott Moore

Why We Won’t Be Participating in the “Citizens Initiative Review” Process

Our Oregon and the Corporate Kicker for K-12 campaign won’t be participating in the so-called “Citizens Initiative Review” process because it’s a poor use of public resources and campaign time, and there’s no evidence that it has any impact on voters.

Since 2010, the CIR project has cost at least a half a million dollars, costing at least $210,000 just for the two upcoming panels. If the backers of the Citizens Initiative Review were serious about increasing public engagement, they could spend that money instead on voter registration. With $210,000, they could have registered some 30,000 Oregonians to vote.

The CIR is funded in large part by private organizations, but staffing has been paid for by a loan from the state. So far, no accounting has been made public about how much of that money has been paid back, if any.

While Oregon is facing ongoing cuts to schools and basic services like health care and public safety, the state shouldn’t be giving or loaning money to ineffective projects like this one. How ever much money or staff time has been given or loaned to the project is money that should have been spent in Oregon classrooms or on critical projects.

By Scott Moore

Media Watch: The Five Dumbest Things You’ll Read Today, Courtesy of the Oregonian Editorial Board

If you’ve read the Oregonian at all in the past couple of years, you know that they’ve embarked on a crusade against the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). This began when the paper was taken over by conservative publisher N. Christian Anderson III and intensified when they hired Erik Lukens to run the Editorial page. (See our series on his right-wing views here.)

They’ve spent an inordinate amount of newsprint slamming the pension system, despite the fact that it’s one of the best-run, best-funded public pension plans in the country. Today, the Editorial Board made their big play, calling on the legislature to make PERS reform a priority in the next session.

It’s no surprise that they’d continue beating this horse. But what is surprising is the extent to which the Editorial Board has decided to insult the intelligence of their readers in doing so. Here are the five dumbest things you’ll read today, all courtesy of the Oregonian Editorial Board:

SIGN UP FOR UPDATES

Scott Moore