Scott Bruun: Oregon’s Public Pension Catastrophe
Wednesday, May 06, 2015
What’s most startling about the Lusitania story is that the risks were so well-known. Passengers knew that German submarines were indiscriminately attacking shipping, including passenger liners. They knew that submarines hunted the waters that the Lusitania would cross. Passengers were even warned by the German government via ads placed in the New York Times. And yet they still sailed.
As Larson describes, one of the more chilling details of the story is how passengers watched from the side-rail and the ship’s café, transfixed, as the deadly torpedo propelled across the water toward them. A brief time to watch and to ponder before the pending explosion. A front-row view of their pending doom.
Perhaps fitting for the anniversary, all of Oregon now stands at the rail watching. Safe for a brief time, but now able to see and ponder the slowly-approaching torpedo of PERS.
The Supreme Court ruling last week, which reversed moderate PERS reform from 2013, was not unexpected. A bad contract was written, and now a bad contract will be enforced.
The question is, ‘what do we do now?’ How does the State of Oregon ensure that it can deliver the services that it promised and that the people of Oregon pay for? In light of a giant step backward with PERS, how do we keep the lights on at schools?
Democrats will couch this as a “necessary sacrifice,” perhaps even an “investment.” And because Democrats need a super-majority to raise taxes in Oregon, they’ll use every trick in the book to get it done. Watch for legislative efforts to link tax increases with like-kind reductions in tax credits, therefore dancing around the super-majority rule and obviating any need for Republican support.
The right way to address PERS, on the other hand, is to first acknowledge that we cannot tax our way out of this crisis. Oregon is already over-taxed, with among the highest personal and business income tax rates in the country. Oregon’s middle-class, already falling further behind, cannot afford to bail the state out of its bad contracts.
Nor is cutting services a viable option. As it stands today, our roads are bad; our colleges are underfunded; and our school days, weeks and years are already too short. We are also well behind-the-curve in mental healthcare services, support for foster children, and in adequately addressing hunger.
The only way for Oregon to manage the PERS problem is to grow our way out of the problem. Oregon needs more tax revenue, but not through higher taxes. Instead, Oregon needs more tax revenue from more businesses doing business; from existing businesses doing more business; from newly created private-sector jobs; and from wage growth within existing jobs.
Oregon needs something we haven’t had in decades: A pro-growth agenda. An agenda where growth in tax revenue comes from growing the economic pie. Not from bigger chunks of a shrinking pie.
Imagine the growth in jobs and small businesses we might see if we only had a competitive tax structure. Imagine the growth we might see if businesses and workers in Oregon were not hamstrung by politically-motivated regulations, like the new “clean fuels” tax, or European-style workplace mandates. Imagine the growth we would see if Oregon’s political ‘powers-that-be’ finally voiced some genuine appreciation for the load the private-sector shoulders, year-in and year-out.
Choose growth, or face decline. Choose growth, or watch as PERS eats-away at Oregon’s future. Watch as Oregon’s public-schools continue to under-perform. Watch as the school years continue to get shorter, our roads get worse, and our colleges struggle to compete.
Choose growth, or stand by the rail and watch as the slow torpedo of PERS sinks our ship of state.
Related Slideshow: The Eight Political Types
What political type are you? The Pew Research Center says most Americans fall into eight groups. Can you find your match?
Related Articles
- Scott Bruun: A School Week and Its Discontents
- Scott Bruun: Could Marco Rubio Win Oregon?
- Scott Bruun: Death and Taxes in Oregon
- Scott Bruun: Does Portland Really Want Your Business?
- Scott Bruun: Dorchester Conference - Oregon’s Unique Brand of Activism
- Scott Bruun: Education, Priorities, and the Governor’s Budget
- Scott Bruun: Federal Budget Politics Put Oregon Fishermen At Risk
- Scott Bruun: Give Us Our Kicker, For Now
- Scott Bruun: Hate Crimes and the Big Red O
- Scott Bruun: How Ron Wyden Can Lead The U.S. Senate
- Scott Bruun: Oregon Needs a Pacific Rim Trade Pact
- Scott Bruun: Oregon Should Not Limit Campaign Contributions
- Scott Bruun: Oregon Should Say No to Open Primary
- Scott Bruun: Our Kitzhaber Conundrum
- Scott Bruun: Portland’s Uber-Control Over Free Markets
- Scott Bruun: Recalling Forward – Peace, Joy and Goodwill
- Scott Bruun: Recalling the Recall of Three State Legislators
- Scott Bruun: Ted Wheeler’s Wheel of Big Government Solutions
- Scott Bruun: The Beaver State’s Lame Duck
- Scott Bruun: The Challenges Legislative Democrats Face in 2015
- Scott Bruun: The Future As Seen In Seaside
- Scott Bruun: The Importance of Winston Churchill in Portland
- Scott Bruun: The Problem With Congress’s Work Schedule
- Scott Bruun: The Problems With Portland’s City Government
- Scott Bruun: There’s No More Political Giants in Oregon
- Scott Bruun: Time for a Spring Cleaning in Salem
- Scott Bruun: To Boldly Go Where No Ad Has Gone Before
- Scott Bruun: Why Choosing Lynne Saxton Is A Smart Move for Kitzhaber
- Scott Bruun: Why I’m Thankful For Former Portland Attorney, Kelly Clark
- Scott Bruun: Why the GOP Should Look to Portland’s Urban Conservatives
- Scott Bruun: Why The Oregon Zoo is Awesome
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It