Phil Keisling served as Oregon Secretary of State from 1991 to 1999 and is most famous for having championed the state’s vote-by-mail system. Now, he is turning his attention to the impending crisis in Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System, known as PERS. His 54-page memo is called [...]
The Pew Center on the States examined nine states, in addition to California, that are particularly affected by the recession (pdf). Pew notes that all of California’s neighbors—Arizona, Nevada and Oregon—were severely hit by the bursting housing bubble, landing them on Pew’s list of states facing fiscal difficulties [...]
The following is based on and excerpted from the Bend Bulletin.
A number of Oregon companies, nonprofits and government agencies in Oregon have benefited from the Business Energy Tax Credit, known as BETC, or “Betsy.”
Critics of the BETC say that program is too generous and that it [...]
Over the next four years, Oregonians will face $2.6 billion in new taxes. That’s an average of $1,750 in additional state taxes per household.
In January 2010, Oregonians will vote on ballot measures that will raise personal income taxes' [...]
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is an impending train wreck. We can delay the wreck and we can move some passengers to the back of the train. Nevertheless, the PERS train will wreck and taxpayers are going to pay [...]
The Judicial Conference of the United States approved an amendment to Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. If adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court, the amendment would expand the scope of the work product privilege regarding communications between attorneys and expert witnesses.
As recommended, Rule 26 would include [...]
In August, the White House projected that unemployment would peak at 10 percent sometime in the middle of next year. The BLS’s October labor report shows that unemployment passed the 10 percent level in October.
U.S. unemployment in October [...]
The Oregonian reports that Oregon state officials deliberately underestimated the cost the governor’s tax credit scheme to attract “green” companies and to encourage “green” projects. The Business Energy Tax Credits (BETC) are huge give-aways: Enterprises that don’t pay taxes (like nonprofits and government entities) can sell [...]
The business press exploded with joy at the new GDP numbers hinting that the recession may be over. Last quarter was the first time that GDP had increased in a year. Most economists treat this as a signal that an economic recovery [...]
Portland politicians love their streetcars. Earlier this month, the city council unanimously approved a streetcar concept plan (PDF) that calls for a massive expansion of the streetcar system throughout Portland.
Streetcar systems have substantial construction costs. On top of that, Portland’s system has huge operating [...]
While other portions of the state budget are facing the axe, Oregon’s tax subsidies for alternative energy and energy conservation a going through the roof.
The state estimates that the subsidies will cost the state $167 million in 2009-11. That’s [...]
The White House budget office has released its latest economic and fiscal projections. It predicts the largest deficits since World War II and increasing unemployment.
The White House unemployment prediction highlights the impotence of the [...]
Vice President Joe Biden says “everyone guessed wrong” on the impact of the $800 billion economic stimulus. What he meant was that everyone in the Administration guessed wrong. That point is made clear by the latest Recovery Report Card. May unemployment was 1.6 percentage points higher [...]
In January, Administration economists Romer & Bernstein predicted that stimulus spending would mean that unemployment at the end of this year would be 7.6 percent.
Now, Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, [...]
April’s unemployment figures show that the number of people unemployed was 13.7 million, or 8.9 percent of the labor force.
Administration economists Romer & Bernstein predicted that the stimulus/recovery program [...]
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes measure the residential housing market, tracking changes in the value of the residential real estate market in 20 metropolitan regions across the United States. The most recent data covers home sales through February 2009.
In Portland, prices are down 14 percent [...]
Minimum wage increases are a hot-button issue in many states. As such, minimum wage increases are politically challenging to implement. To avoid the knock-down/drag-out fights associated with minimum wage increase, several states—including Oregon and Washington—have introduced minimum wage indexing. [...]
In January 2009, then President-elect Obama published an analysis by his economic advisers, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein. The analysis estimated that a $775 billion stimulus/recovery plan would create 3.5 million jobs [...]
USA Today ran a front page story on the the impacts of early stimulus projects. While the story focused on the businesses and families that hope to benefit from the stimulus spending, there was one dissenting skeptic:
Eric Fruits of [...]
I am compiling a list of economists on Twitter. Please send a Twitter DM to @ericfruits if you have any more to add.
Tyler Cowen: @tylercowen Brad DeLong: @delong, @braddelong Patrick Emerson: @patrick_emerson Richard Florida: @Richard_Florida Eric Fruits: @ericfruits Mike Gessner: @calbears96 Paul [...]I received an email from the State of Oregon the other day regarding small business vendor outreach for Oregon’s stimulus spending program. For some reason, there is no other information regarding the outreach available on the State’s websites. What follows is a cut-and-paste from the email with some hyperlinks.
You are [...]
I have been asked by several people for my thoughts on the proposed stimulus package. At the national level, the Wall Street Journal’s coverage is unsurpassed. At the state-level, the Oregonian editorial board best sums up the challenges of the stimulus package:
But it’s folly to use bond money [...]
Stimulus skeptics note that very little of the proposed stimulus package will trickle through the economy when it is needed most. In fact, they argue, most of the money will be spent after the economy is well on its way [...]
Oregon’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the country and is heading toward double digits. Eric Fruits notes in his recent Oregon Business column that Oregon is different, though. It’s different because it [...]
A panel of economics experts surveyed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that estimates of the costs of climate change programs is more useful to policy [...]
Oregon’s personal exemption tax credit is the most widely claimed state income tax credit. The most recent information from the state indicates that 93 percent of taxpayers claim the credit.
The average taxpayer has a $308 personal exemption tax credit.
Without [...]
An earlier post noted that Obama’s chief economist, Christina Romer, co-authored an analysis of the President-elect’s stimulus proposal.
The analysis was little more that applying some “rules of thumb” to come up with a conclusion that increasing government spending created more jobs (even in the long run) [...]
President-elect Barack Obama made public Saturday an analysis (PDF) by his economic advisers, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein. The analysis estimates that a $775 billion plan of tax [...]
In February 2008, the Oregonian’s website had a posting with the title: “Business energy tax credits going bonkers.” What was meant by “bonkers” was Oregon’s Legislative Revenue Office projections that tax breaks under the Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) program would cost the state $80 million [...]
The Oregonian reports that the company TriMet hired to make the cars for Portland’s newest commuter rail line is now out of business. Colorado Railcar Manufacturing went out of business last week, unable to attract new financing.
In response to an earlier post, I received information [...]
The Oregonian recenty reported that Portland’s newest commuter rail project, known as WES, will be about $34 million (25 percent) over budget.
The latest estimates put construction costs at $166 million.
The newspaper also reports that the rail project is designed to carry 4,000 passengers a day.
Assuming a [...]
Oregon’s unemployment just spiked past 8 percent. That means one out of every 12 members of the labor force is looking for a job. Some economists predict that Oregon’s unemployment rate could hit 9.5 percent in the next year.
Over the 32 years between 1976 and 2007, Oregon [...]
Several states are considering a real estate transfer tax to help boost state and local budgets. During the booming real estate market, such taxes were considered to be relatively low-cost: When a market is hot, everyone can get warm. Now that housing is cooling down, the transfer [...]
In the upcoming 2009 session, the Oregon Legislature will consider plans to meet the state’s mandated greenhouse gas reduction goals. The goals were enacted in hopes that reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions would help halt global warming. Participation in the [...]
Portland housing prices dropped another 1.3 percent in September, marking the fourth straight month of declining home prices. Nationwide, the Case-Shiller composite index continued 27 months of declines. While Portland’s market has not seen the same declines as the composite, the graph [...]
Eric Fruits co-authored an article for the Municipal Finance Journal on the costs of issuing municipal bonds.
A municipal bond issuer has a choice in how its debt is issued. With negotiated issuance, one or more underwriting firms acting together purchase the bonds from [...]
As the economy heads toward recession, state government budgets are projecting much lower revenues than in the past. In an Oregonian op-ed, Eric Fruits suggests first applying some smart spending principles before heading down the tax hike route.
This isn’t a good time [...]
Eric Fruits was on the Jeff Kropf show (KUIK 1360), discussing the State of Oregon’s revenue projections. Dr. Fruits advised that raising taxes would not sufficiently increase revenues. More importantly, during this economic downturn tax increases will only deepen the recession. Instead of [...]
The BBC reports that the European Commission has scrapped rules that prevent oddly-sized or misshapen fruit and vegetables being sold in Europe. The EU’s agriculture commissioner called it “a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot.”
Proponents of the scrapped rules [...]
