Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Portland Msa Economic & Population Outlook (October 2019), Thomas Potiowsky, Portland State University, Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

A new entry for the record books: Portland MSA employment expansion is the longest on record, having surpassed the 1990’s expansion last September. And we now sit in October and are one month shy of a decade of job growth. While the length of this expansion is impressive, if we compare the same length of time (9 years and 9 months) of this expansion with that of the 1990s, jobs increased by 33.6% in the 1990s while increasing 24.4% in the 2010s.

The Portland MSA recorded the 4th fastest percentage gains in household income in the country from 2007 to …

Rogue Transfer & Recycling Transfer Station Index: Synopsis, Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Rogue Transfer and Recycling, LLC (“RTR”) is a solid waste and recycling facility that collects and transfers solid waste and recycling materials from the Southern Oregon region. Currently RTR’s revenue and expenses are reviewed by Jackson County, Oregon in periodic rate reviews, with rates being adjusted in interim years by applying the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). RTR requested that Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) conduct detailed research and develop a new indicator – based on independent, reliable, and timely data – that more closely tracks RTR’s changes in total expenses per ton than the CPI. …

The Portland Adu Market: Conditions, Costs, Drivers, Incentives, Northwest Economic Research Center, Institute For Sustainable Solutions

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report was researched and written by the Northwest Economic Research Center of Portland State University (PSU) in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Solutions (also at PSU) in order to explore the potential for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to increase housing affordability in the Portland metropolitan region. Additionally, this report seeks to broadly assess the efficacy of the City’s SDC fee waiver for increasing affordability by increasing the rental housing supply.

In October and November of 2017, ISS conducted an online survey of ADU owners and occupants, the results of which constitute the most exhaustive collection of data regarding …

Odot Highway Cost Allocation Study Review: Challenges In Including Regional Revenues, Northwest Economic Research Center, Thomas Potiowsky, Emma Willingham, Katelyn Kelley, Devin Bales

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report, written for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) by Portland State University’s Northwest Economic Research Center, outlines the challenges that regional revenue collection poses for ODOT’s biennial Highway Cost Allocation Study (HCAS). The HCAS assesses the relative burdens of light and heavy vehicle classes on state infrastructure, in relation to the amount of revenue that said vehicle classes generate. In other words, it ensures that light vehicles and heavy vehicles are “paying their share” of state transportation expenditures.

Differences in vehicle traffic or differential impacts to vehicle classes are the root cause of most of the problems that …

Healthcare Spending Mandate Modeling Report, Northwest Economic Research Center, Peter Hulseman, Adam Rovang, Devin Bales, Nicholas Chun

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Governor Brown’s health care financing package, which was released with the 2019-21 recommended budget included several revenue components which provide broad-based, sustainable revenue for health care coverage in Oregon for the next six years. One component of that package is the Subsidized Employer Participation Program, which would be similar to the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO). The new requirement would compel employers of a certain size who otherwise do not qualify for any exemption to contribute to their employees’ health care costs. An employer’s contribution could be in one of three ways: (1) in the form of directly …