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Hello Friends,
If this is your first time receiving my newsletter then please allow me a brief introduction. I
am your Oregon State Senator from Senate District 20, which includes the towns of
Barlow, Canby, Oregon City, Gladstone, Johnson City, Estacada, Eagle Creek,
Redland, Beavercreek, Boring, Damascus and southern parts of Happy Valley. I am proud and honored to have represented you in our State's Capitol since 2010. It has been a pleasure working with many of you during my time in
the State Senate and I look forward to a continued relationship moving on. I'm committed to working hard to get Oregonian's to work with
higher paying family wages jobs and higher waged skilled labor positions. I am
also working to find long-term solutions to make our education system the
finest in the nation and also bringing accountability and transparency back
into the Oregon State Government.
In this issue of the Capital Babbler I would like to discuss
two major policy issues that will have a negative financial impact.
Ballot Measure 102 will ask
the voters to change Section 9,
Article XI of the Constitution of the
State of Oregon, to allow counties, cities, towns, or other
municipal corporations to obtain “bonded indebtedness that is payable from ad valorem taxes not
subject to limitations under section 11 and 11b of this Article to finance capital
cost of affordable housing.
What this means in laymen’s terms, is a city or county can
borrow money, using your property as collateral to build “affordable
housing.” “Affordable housing” is an important issue, but it is not
defined in this measure. The definition is left up to the borrowing
agency, hence, each different jurisdiction, County or City can have their own
definition of “affordable.”
You the voters will be able
to vote for or against the bonding, but you will not know at the time of the
vote what terms or conditions are placed on the money to be distributed by the
jurisdiction. Nor will you know how repayment of this funding will be
handled. Will it reduce the bonded indebtedness, or will it go into the
General Fund of the jurisdiction?
You must also consider that when the “affordable housing”
construction is complete the jurisdiction benefits by an increased tax
base, and by thousands of dollars that will be collected through the System
Development Charges on this “affordable housing.”
How is your housing made any more affordable when your property
taxes will increase, outside the limits of Measure 5 and Measure 50, that we the voters
passed? As a reminder Measure 5 was passed
by Oregon voters in 1990 and Measure 50 in 1997.
Do you want your city or county to become the local bank,
loaning out money that you are required to pay back so a private developer can
reap the profits?
The housing crisis is linked
to the lack of affordable building land and huge system development charges,
all created by the same governments.
Representative
Barbara Smith Warner (D-Portland) stated, “You don’t change the
Constitution without knowing what you are going to get”. How true!
Some numbers that you should know to make a reasonable decision
whether or not to support this ballot measure.
Portland
has already received a $258M bond to build affordable housing.
Their costs for this is about 250K per unit. Metro wants $652M for
their bonding and are currently building affordable housing at about $375K per
unit in the Pearl district. Not bad if you can afford it.
The State of Oregon is currently committing $120M in their LIFT program to make
housing affordable. In addition, recording fees for a document at the County
will triple from $20 to $60.00.
Over $1B for affordable housing! And now they're asking you to
allow them to borrow even more money, once again using your property as
collateral. which will increase the cost of your home or
property.
Relating Articles for Additional Reading:
Affordable housing measure debated at chamber meeting
Private sector can make housing affordable
Region's leaders split on Metro affordable housing bond
Meet affordable housing bond's biggest foe
Metro’s November Bond Measure Would Make All Housing More Costly
 Cap & Trade Policy to be Implemented in the 2019 regular Legislative Session.
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The other discussion I would like to undertake is about the State's proposed Carbon policy that might soon be implemented in 2019 to attempt lowering our overall CO2 emissions. The legislation is known as "Cap
and Trade." This legislation proposes to reduce CO2 emissions in our state so that Mother Earth does not overheat. For clarity, Oregon’s emissions are 0.7% of
the overall US emissions. That's less than 1% and we already rank as one of the Nations leaders in low Carbon output.
Let’s be clear from the start. I do believe that climate is changing. It has for eons and will continue to do
so. It is like getting old. Everything
in your body changes as you age, but it is not something that you can
stop. The Earth is the same way. Climate Change will continue to happen regardless of anything we do and that is a fact. I don't doubt, we as humans, have contributed many negative aspects to our environment and have caused a great deal of pollution during the last century but we have been making drastic improvements since the 1970's to increase our Air quality, Land Systems, Rivers and Waterways.
Those that believe man has caused an exacerbated scale of climate change think that
the the best way to stop the change from continuing is to change society in general. To force those changes, they propose to
implement a taxing scheme that will theoretically drive down CO2 emissions by putting a large
price on each ton of emissions. In other words, if you can’t afford it, you
won’t do it. We saw the same type of thinking with taxes on cigarettes. Make it so they are so expensive people will have to quit. CO2 is't something we can just completely quit, that's a problem, because CO2 emissions come from things we can't replace. We have a great need for concrete as building materials, Base-load Energy from Power Sources, Like Natural Gas, that can deliver continuous energy when renewable's can't, and tilling up land for farming, and we need to still breath, just to name a few. Their concept is to put a cost on the producers that have a high CO2 output to get them to lower their carbon output. This is
the plan and the targets are the large emitting entities or businesses. (Entities LIST) That’s right, those very same companies that
employ thousands and thousands of people and produce goods or services we need and rely on. (Oregon's Energy Sources)
By charging those companies that emit over 25K Metric tons,
to which there are many, they will drive up your prices for goods as most costs
will be passed on to the consumer. For
example, fuel for your car is expected to jump by at least $.20 per
gallon. Food costs will also increase,
as all food is delivered by trucks and the farmers need fuel to grow and
harvest food. Other additional cost increases to food will come from the enhanced price of Energy needed to run the units for refrigerated or frozen perishable food items. Refrigeration for these items will be on the meter running a tab starting from leaving the Farms in refrigerated trucks to the processing plant. Then they're shipped to the warehouses, to the distribution centers, to the Grocery stores and then, finally, the consumer. The increased cost is necessary to get the items from the farm, to retail, and then to consumer still fresh.
Just a couple of thoughts here. This scheme used to be called "Global Warming." Unfortunately, the earth did not warm for more than 18 years. Climate
change is the new catchphrase because it is works like a union roofers’ card. It covers everything. If it doesn’t rain, it must be climate change. If it is too hot, climate change. Not enough snow on the Mountains, Climate Change, If it is too cold, climate change.
You get the picture.
The consensus on climatic changes related to global warming is the average temperature of the Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the past 100 years, with 0.4 being the margin of error. Scientific Peer-reviewed Charts show contemporary warming of the 20th century “does not stand out in the 2500-year perspective” and is “of the same magnitude as the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Climate Anomaly.”
Once again, climate, not to be confused with weather, is
changing. We know this not from the models
predicting gloom and doom, but from the real world around us. We as a nation have made significant environmental improvements by lowering overall pollution and minimizing our carbon footprint over the last few decades being more environmentally conscious every year. The Earth and its Climate will undoubtedly continue to change as time moves forward. The question then
must be asked, “What can we, as mere mortals, do to reduce the impact of C02 on
the earth?"
In our State what we are planning to do is tax, and tax heavily. Between $400 and $700 Million dollars per
year. Brilliant!
It gets even better when the State Legislature will then have to create a whole new
agency to oversee this boondoggle. More
government employees are always a good thing if money is of no concern to you with the increased taxes and living expenses. The Carbon reduction will take over 30 years to reach the suggested goals being set. Do the math.
Between $12 Billion and $21 Billion Dollars will be siphoned from the
economy and out of our pockets. In addition to that there is no real definitive steps to prove that the impact suffered by an entity or in a geographical region is due to climate change. Speculation and innuendo are not proof. Unfortunately, even if we went all the way to zero for the State's carbon output the benefits made for the climate would be minuscule, ineffective, not noticeable and at an enormous expense to you with the cost of living increases.
Can we do things to help reduce CO2 without a giant price tag? Certainly! Reduce your driving, conserve electricity, replace household energy devices with newer more efficient items, continue to develop new technologies. Reductions can happen without the huge sums
of money just waiting to be taken by the government, to be spent by the
government.
Considering there's no guarantee to any environmental benefits resulting from "Cap & Trade" and looking over the enormous expense the policy generates, the cost benefit analysis looks very dim.
Most people are unaware and would be surprised to know that the the United States has been reducing its overall Energy CO2 output and has been on a downward trend since 2009, Oregon is already back to it's 1998 levels without a Cap & Trade Program. Moreover, as we continue to shift from the Coal Fired Power Plants and over to the Natural Gas facilities, its lower carbon intensive generation is much cleaner and has contributed to making 2017 a record setting year for Carbon reduction in the U.S.
 Watch me give my expressed comments of concern regarding the direction our State Carbon Policy is headed legislatively.
at the Salem Capitol on 7/24/18
Video Link:
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Oregon City Town Hall Meeting
Wednesday, September 19th. 2018
5:30pm to 8:00pm
104 Tumwater Dr, Oregon City, OR 97045
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Boring, Oregon
Vietnam
Memorial Dedication Ceremony.
Friday, September 21st. 2018
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Boring Station Trailhead Park
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Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on these
two very important issues. I look
forward to keeping you up to date on the happenings at the Capital and I hope to see you at one of the local events.
Don’t forget to vote.
It is important!
Yours truly,
Senator Alan Olsen
Senate District 20
Email: Sen.AlanOlsen@oregonlegislature.gov
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1720
District Phone: 503-266-4599
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-425, Salem, OR 97301
District Address: 675 Northwest 2nd St., Canby, OR 97013
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/olsen
Senator Olsen's Committees:
Vice Chair of Senate Committee Environment & Natural Resources
Joint Interim Committee On Carbon Reduction
Senate Committee on Veterans & Emergency Preparedness
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