Roundup Review: One week, five posts

This here Oregon Roundup has been busy over the past week, including three posts between last Friday and Memorial Day.

I’m particularly proud of the range and quality of stuff we’ve put out in the past seven days, and understand you may not have been as fastidious in your email-checking over the holiday as usual, so if you want to get caught up, here’s your chance.

Quick reminder that all of this sterling content is FREE, but we rely on paid subscriptions to keep the good stuff flowing. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.

There’s just nowhere else you can get Oregon coverage like this, if I do say so myself.

Revenue forecast delivers wakeup call, Tues, May 20

The ever-observant Mark Hester wrote about the state’s dwindling budget forecast, which continues to show revenue growth, but not as much as previously projected.

The most important thing for legislators to do is to view last week’s revenue forecast as a reality check, not unwelcome news. Whether you think more money is the answer to Oregon’s problems (many Democrats do and most Republicans don’t) or not, it simply isn’t an option. That means in addition to finding ways to trim their wish lists, legislators also must commit to making sure every level of government works as efficiently and effectively as possible. And that would reassure businesses considering investing in Oregon more than just about anything else they could do.

Dems fast track land use exception for solid waste facility, Wed, May 21

Lane County desperately wants to site a huge solid waste facility, complete with a 7,000-square foot recycling “education center,” in a zone in Goshen that prohibits . . . solid waste facilities. Legislative Democrats are running to save the project from death by Oregon’s land use laws by fast-tracking a bill to exempt the project from those laws.

On May 8, Senator Floyd Prozanski (D) and Representative Lisa Fragala (D), both of whom represent portions of Lane County, introduced HB 3971, which would require Lane County to approve Lane County’s CleanLane application “notwithstanding” state and local land use laws. The bill would also exempt the required approval from appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals.

Lobbyist briefed Kotek staff on noncitizen voter registration, Friday, May 23

Public records show Governor Kotek’s staff sought and received an emergency briefing from George Soros-funded motor voter advocacy nonprofit the day after state admitted it had illegally registered illegal immigrants to vote in Oregon.

The lobbyist’s talking points, intended to guide how the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Department of Motor Vehicles’ parent agency, the Oregon Department of Transportation, spelled out steps the state was taking to address the problem, including ensuring documents intended to prove U.S. citizenship were actually U.S. documents.

Sheriff plans to leave U.S. after retiring, Sunday, May 25

Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp, on the verge of possibly losing his law enforcement credentials over alleged misrepresentations, some in sworn testimony, about his prior employment and educational attainment, told me he plans to leave the country after retiring in the next 90 days.

Van der Kamp wrote Oregon Roundup, in response to questions regarding a recent real estate listing showing him as the listing broker, “For the record, I haven't listed real estate in some time, nor is it part of my retirement plan. I focus on wrapping up my work here before accepting a consulting position outside the real estate finance sector and the US.”

The reveille of freedom, Monday, May 26

For Memorial Day, I wrote about visiting all three of Oregon’s national cemeteries and reflected on the contrast between those hallowed grounds and the state in which they’re located.

Oregon’s trajectory seems ever-diverging from the principles uniting those we memorialize today. My state views the Americans living within its borders not as self-governing but as problems to be governed. It strives for and rewards dependence, for perceived dependence is the justification for the accumulation of power, the elevation of the govenment over the governed.

Enjoy your week, and stay tuned for more good stuff from Oregon Roundup.

Jeff Eager