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I was surprised to hear that all of the Portland's homeless shelters for families are run by faith-based organizations. My own secular charitable organization, the Humanists of Greater Portland, has donated to Transition Projects for many years. I gave them a call, and they said they serve homeless individuals, but not families. I guess it's time to ramp up secular services for the homeless to include families!

posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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Some of us involved with the Forum on Geonomics are proposing to fund a Resident’s Dividend (akin to Alaska’s Permanent Fund dividend; includes children) with a land-value lease fee of 5%. (Taxing land value gets at the idea of leasing private use of nature, rather than paying a purchase price once, forever.) At current Oregon land values, this would fund $2500/resident/year, which would provide significant cash flow for those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. Of course, a fee charged on land value (price) at this rate would cause the price to fall, so after 5 years of phasing in, land prices might be half of what they are now, so the dividend would then be around $1250/resident/year, still significant for the poor. To help provide for the future, half of children’s dividends could go to an account in the Oregon College Savings Plan. To help ensure funds are not wasted, the dividend could be dispensed through Oregon Trail Cards. Charging a fee for private land use at this rate encourages more productive use of land; price of unproductive land falls, so productive people are encouraged to buy. Sprawl is discouraged. All around, this gives Oregon residents (those who can prove they’ve lived here a year) more of a stake in society.

posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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Rather than have 2 part-time legislators (House and Senate), why not have 1 legislative body with full-time legislators for better efficiency? If the Senate were eliminated, for example, House members could get more involved with their constituents.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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