Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation (OCWF) is one of many organizations in Oregon that monitor the policies that come out of the state's legislature. Of particular concern this session is the gas tax increase. The Taxpayer Association of Oregon has been monitoring the Portland street fee debate and was involved in educating Portland residents about the possible "public vote" that Mayor Charlie Hales and Councilman Steve Novick were touting. When Hales suddenly nixed that plan a

Oregon Senator, Doug Whitsett, recently published a break down of the 45 different clean energy bills introduced into Oregon's current legislative session. Read here for the extreme economic impact. He ends his piece with chilling words: "The complete cessation of emission from combustion of fossil fuels in Oregon would benefit no one while permanently crippling our economic ability to compete with other states and nations."

Welcome to Oregon where figuring out who voted for what based upon their campaign platform becomes an exercise in mind games. This week, Oregonians are slowly realizing the gut punch of the initial wave of introduced bills could cause if even half passed. The tax-mageddon has only just begun. Several bills are fuel taxes. HB2075 increases aircraft fuel taxes, HB2082 is a carbon fuel tax (cars are bad, remember), HB2086 is a fossil fuel tax, HB2092 is a green energy tax credit

When looking at the Fed's accounting of its loan programs, the impression is given that many are in fact producing a profit for taxpayers. That is untrue. In a recent article, Politico uncovered the loan debacle with the Maritime Administration (MarAd). It was headed for one of the biggest loan defaults since 2001. David Matsuda took the leadership of MarAd, and found himself in the position of "Uncle Sam's repo man" of massive ships scattered around the globe. This is alarmi