Cascade CounterPoint

Metro promised voters affordable housing. Instead, its 2018 housing bond has produced some of the least affordable subsidized units in Oregon history. Why? Metro insisted on funding almost exclusively three to six story buildings—projects that require elevators, oversized common areas, and far more concrete and steel than low rise construction. Those choices alone drove costs up by 50 percent per...

Hunting, fishing, farming, and ranching have been a way of life in Oregon for thousands of years — from Native American stewardship to the 35,000 farms and ranches operating here today. But a small group of initiative petitioners is now gathering signatures for IP28, a measure that would criminalize that way of life — and the economic activity it supports — solely in Oregon. Hunting is legal in al...

PPS briefly revisited its Racial Educational Equity Policy — and once again, the contradictions are hard to ignore. As Cascade president John Charles noted in his letter to the board, the District’s Equity Funding Policy has been in place for more than ten years, yet PPS has never shown whether it improves student achievement. Despite that, the Board continues to insist on “equal outcomes” for all...

Portland Public Schools threw itself a party last week to celebrate breaking ground on the new $460 million dollar Jefferson High School. And The Oregonian dutifully repeated the talking point that the building would be “all electric powered.” Sounds impressive… until you look at the details. Because PPS quietly admitted—right before the ceremony—that the school won’t be all electric. Science labs...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced her intent this month to opt into the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit—also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit. That makes her the 30th governor to signal support, and the second Democrat to do so, after Jared Polis of Colorado. Congress created this tax credit last year as the first federal program designed to expand K–12 educational choice nation...

It’s election time! And the Oregonian editorial board sent a bouquet of sorts to our friends at “No Tax Oregon” when they recommended a “no” vote on Measure 120—Oregon’s $4 billion transportation tax. “The O” urged voters to “drive a stake through the heart of this cursed transportation package.” Which was music to the ears of a quarter-million volunteers who signed the “No Gas Tax” petition in a...

Metro is rolling out new strategies and transit plans in what looks more and more like a war on cars — and Cascade is calling out the baseless evidence they’ve leaned on for thirty five years. At an April council meeting, Cascade President John Charles delivered pointed testimony against two major actions designed to prioritize transit while punishing people who rely on their cars. At that meeting...

Portland Public Schools has a $60 million question on its hands: What happened to the Center for Black Student Excellence voters approved in 2020? That project was written directly into the bond language. Voters were told their money would build a dedicated center focused on Black student achievement. But today, that center has effectively disappeared. In testimony to the Bond Accountability Commi...

At last count, more than  one and a half million children  now benefit from school choice programs across the Unites States. With 75 programs in 34 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, more than half of America’s K-12 students are eligible to participate in an educational choice program if they choose. That number is set to rise. Last week, the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) pr...

In 2011, Portland Public Schools adopted a dual-enrollment policy allowing students in Jefferson High School boundaries to choose from one of three area high schools. Of the twenty-four hundred high schoolers inside its boundaries, about two-thousand have opted for alternatives, leaving Jefferson with only 391 students this year. The Portland school board is pouring enormous amounts of money into...

On December 30th, Chief Petitioners plunked down the last pile of signatures on the Secretary of State’s desk. It was a slam dunk for the Oregon System. In a record-breaking 40-ish days, a quarter-million Oregon voters lined up in every county to sign the “Stop the Gas Tax” petition and refer Governor Kotek’s $4.3 billion transportation tax to the November ballot. These voters participated in the...

At TriMet’s December board meeting, director Tyler Frisbee lectured attendees on how 82nd Avenue business owners and motorists should embrace TriMet’s takeover of auto lanes for exclusive busways. TriMet refers to these as Business Access Transit or BAT lanes—which is Orwell’s doublespeak for the opposite effect—reducing business access for people in cars. Portland Bureau of Transportation’s alleg...

In early December, Governor Kotek unveiled “Oregon’s Prosperity Roadmap ” and laid out “three broad goals” to grow business, jobs, and the economy. While acknowledging Oregon’s economic decline, her roadmap is only an updated cover for the same GPS coordinates: driving prosperity via state programs. Oregon’s latest “prosperity roadmap” promises growth through new programs and administrative soluti...

How much money does it take to “fully fund” Oregon’s public schools? Last month a Joint Committee of the Oregon legislature released a “Report on the Adequacy of Public Education Appropriations.” Oregon’s Fiscal and Policy Research offices examined the level of funding provided by the Legislature and other sources for public schools. They concluded that public schools today receive the full $13.5...

On December 2, Portland Public Schools board voted unanimously to purchase the One North commercial building for $16 million to house the Center for Black Student Excellence , but the building’s purchase price is only the beginning. The building needs another $20 to $25 million in renovations and two to three years of construction. For the next three years PPS will own an expensive, mostly empty s...

The Oregon Department of Energy, or ODOE, recently published its Oregon Energy Strategy which centers on “decarbonization” by eliminating the generation of fossil fuels in Oregon. ODOE director Janine Benner told the legislature, “It’s not a matter of when the energy transition from fossil fuels will occur; It’s already happening.” If so, It’s proceeding at glacial speed. ODOE’s webpage on Oregon’...

Cascade recently participated in U of O’s Inspire Oregon summit on Rural Housing Policy, where policymakers, administrators, and leaders met to discuss policy and draft recommendations for Oregon’s next legislative session. Discussions centered on a theme: that of navigating state regulations so rural citizens can have local control in Oregon’s housing crisis. Since 1973 Oregon’s Land Conservation...

TriMet has a Board Retreat this week. Looking at their agenda, the first thing you’d notice is what’s missing. You won’t find any urgency to address their financial decline—or touch on operating losses of $850 million in 2024. The only agenda items to mention money are the “Financial Scorecard Update” and “Federal Grants Update.” But TriMet’s problems go far beyond keeping score of revenue and exp...

Since 1965, Congress has been subsidizing transit and taxpayers have spent well over $2 trillion dollars on transit. That’s in the same territory as the U.S. deficit. In these 60 years, transit operating costs have increased 500 percent while fare revenues have ticked up a modest 10 percent. Total ridership – in actual numbers – has decreased by 10 percent, and riders per capita for urban resident...

This week, Cascade’s president, John Charles, testified at Portland Public Schools’ Bond Accountability Committee. He commended BAC’s work reviewing this year’s $2 billion Portland school bond and agreed with their assessment that building three large high schools when enrollment is declining is a mistake. He asked BAC to “Speak directly to the taxpayers who will have to pay hundreds of millions i...

The Portland Bureau of Transportation--or PBOT--is spending tens of millions to convert miles of a four-lane state highway, known as 82nd avenue, into a two-lane neighborhood street and busway. TriMet is headed for a contentious decision November 7th to put 82nd Ave on a major “Road Diet,” cut motorist capacity in half, and replace car lanes with BAT lanes for bikes and transit. It all started thr...

Last week, Cascade's President, John Charles, emailed a Memo to the Portland Public School Board urging them to consider the Bond Accountability Committee’s concerns about overbuilding high schools. Their report concluded by stating that, “…the district should not be building such large high schools when there is not the student body to justify it. Given declining enrollment and decreasing bir...

The Portland Public Schools Board is considering the purchase of an 80,000 square foot building to house the “Center for Black Student Excellence.” This triggered a 90-day due diligence review with a final vote in December on whether to purchase the commercial building. While the committee so far has reviewed the building’s merits, they haven’t asked the hard questions. First is the fact that the...

Last week KGW news reported that Portland area rents are up 22 percent since pre-pandemic levels. We see it everywhere: so-called “affordable housing” costs have risen so quickly that even though cities and states now spend more money than ever, fewer housing units are being built. In April 2024, the  Cascade Policy Institute  published a  report  asking why this is the case. Unfortunately, the st...

The National Association of Education Progress (NAEP) annually releases a representative study of students’ academic performance. Known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP scores are an indicator of how much children are learning. This fall’s report shows only 24 percent of Oregon eighth graders are “at or above proficient” in math, and 27 percent are proficient in reading. Of Oregon fourth grader...