Judging by the letters in the local paper, lots of people are getting exercised about the ballot initiatives now being decided in Albany’s special election, which ends March 12. They may be right to be worried, and the measures are still unnecessary as I’ve said before. But on further reflection, if they are approved the effect is […]
On the scene in West Albany: Three houses under construction, another small indication of what the media have been reporting as a nationwide trend, namely that the demand for housing is picking up. Through January this fiscal year, the Albany Building Division had issued permits for 63 single-family residences valued at $13,291,484, up from 41 […]
President Obama is going around the country talking about draconian spending cuts that will slow down the economy unless the Republicans in the House come around and quickly approve tax increases. You would think that as the chief executive, he would be more interested in trying to make the best of a law he had […]
Mail users may not believe it, but the Postal Service’s studies showed it benefited from sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his cycling team. The U.S. Justice Department has announced it is joining a lawsuit against Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who won the Tour de France seven times but was stripped of the titles because he used […]
Our two mid-valley congressmen responded very differently on an issue of current concern. I asked Reps. Kurt Schrader in the 5th District and Peter DeFazio of the 4th what they thought of the current gun control proposals. I sent each one an email via the contact addresses provided on their congressional websites. Schrader’s office replied, […]
In Albany, a mayor’s task force has been working on lowering or removing hurdles that stand in the way of doing business and creating jobs. The group has been wrestling with, among other things, the city’s regulations affecting signs. And there the task force has set itself an almost impossible task. It has had to […]
Homeowners under tax attack
There’s no shortage of proposals in the legislature to force property owners to pay higher taxes. The Revenue Committee of the Oregon House has scheduled a public hearing on a bunch of them for Thursday, March 7. You remember Measure 5, Don McIntire’s initiative we passed in 1990, which eventually limited property taxes to $5 […]
Tags: Oregon House Revenue, property tax, tax limits