ABOUT ME
Hi, I'm Dick
WHERE I COME FROM
A Veteran, born and raised a Christian farm boy in Illinois, Dick Courter began his professional career at Crown Zellerbach Corporation, first working at Tillamook followed by time in Vernonia, Oregon. Prior to his leaving CZ for the purpose of establishing his forestry consulting business he worked through the Portland Headquarters Office and was assigned to the field research branch located in Seaside, Oregon. His research assignment took him to CZ operations in Washington, Oregon and Louisiana. A work assignment also took him to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
A THRIVING CAREER
My occupation is a Professional Consulting Forester. I have a BS in Forest Management from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Dick and his wife Gayanne own three small businesses: GeneTechs, a Professional Forestry Consulting Business specializing in assisting and advising family forest land owners, Skyline U-Cut Christmas Tree Farm, and Nehalem Tree Farm, Vernonia, Columbia County, Oregon.
While Dick and his wife reside in Portland it’s apparent that “A boy can be taken off the farm but the farm cannot be taken out of the boy!”
S E R V I C E A B O V E S E L F
One Profits Most Who Serves Best
Dick has proudly been serving his community through being a member of the Rotary Club of Portland since 1983 and contributing to worldwide projects of Rotary International.
Pledging to Work for and With You
Experience Meets Opportunity
Where I stand
I respectfully ask for your Vote
I am Pro Life
I am Pro Trump
I am Conservative
I am Pro Constitution
I am Pro First Amendment
I am Pro Second Amendment
My Vision for Oregon
TAXES:
I am concerned about runaway taxes and fees.
I pledge to analyze every legislative bill before me to determine it to be constitutional, fiscally responsible and fair to all Oregon citizens.
Corporate Activity Tax (CAT)
Many of you are perhaps familiar with the CAT Tax. While it has widely been publicized as a business or corporation tax in an attempt at leading citizens to believe that it would not affect them, in fact that tax will, simply because businesses and corporations will pass taxes through to the consumer in the form of higher costs for their product. A lady recently reported that after purchasing a couch she learned of a surcharge told to her to be added because of the forthcoming CAT tax. Already as of March 30, 2020 at least one Oregon business has shuttered it's doors because it reportedly owed $10K which it did not have. At April 1, 2020 roughly one third of Oregon businesses expected to report and pay had filed while two-thirds had not. Some in the legislature implied that low income citizens would be exempt. NOT. Again, those that will be taxed will as much as the market will allow pass the tax on to the consumer. It is hard to gauge how many layers of pass through might occur. Could be different for every product making pass through estimate more difficult. It would compound at each passing. The lowest person on the supply chain will get the heaviest burden simply because they would not have the ability to pass their cost to another consumer. Maybe that is why no one could or was not willing to come to a reasonable conclusion on citizen cost. By the way I just learned on May 6, 2020 that my three small businesses are affected by the CAT tax. A vendor from which I have purchased product for nearly 40 years informed it's customers that it is necessary for them to pass their CAT tax payments on to their customers. While this is the first vendor I have heard from, I am certain others will follow suit.
Cap & Trade Tax
This tax gained extensive notoriety during the past two legislative sessions. When asked, no one from the Super Majority Party could inform citizens what the cost to them would be. Some estimated additional fuel cost increases could range from $0.50 to maybe $5.00 or more per gallon. That is unacceptable for nearly all business. It likely will shutter some family businesses for good.
PERS
The Public Employee Retirement System has effectively bankrupted our fabulous State. This Super Majority Legislature has kicked this can down the road for years to no avail. The only solution they propose is to increase taxes. As has been pointed out above, businesses and citizens are currently being taxed to extreme limits. I support a proposal that would draw a line in the sand, drop the PERS program as currently maintained and start anew. That proposal apparently would function more like a 401K retirement plan. This proposed program would not in any way affect those currently on PERS. It would only apply to new hires from the day the line was drawn. Even then as I understand this new proposal it would take at least 30 years for all current PERS participants to drop off eliminating the old program. I see no way that raising additional taxes will bail out the program, especially now that markets have tanked during Covid-19.
GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY:
I am concerned about Government transparency.
I pledge to promote transparency at all levels of Government.
Our current Governor promised more transparency in her administration. That has not happened. A perfect example is the above mentioned Cap & Trade Tax proposal. Oregonians deserve and expect an estimate of cost to them on any new legislation. During Covid-19 our Governor has been mostly out of site somewhere and only appears when more strict public rule proposals are to be stiffened.
LACK of VOTER APPROVAL:
I am concerned that Oregon citizens are not being allowed to voice their opinion.
I pledge to promote that all Oregon Citizens will have the ability to vote through the initiative petition process on any and all controversial issues.
During the 2020 and 2019 sessions most if not all Legislative Bills presented contained the "EMERGENCY CLAUSE" which effectively denied Oregon citizens the opportunity to vote. The Super Majority Party denied all Oregon citizens to voice their opinion. They denied requests from the Minority Party to eliminate emergency clauses. One Senator in the Super Majority Party stated "that the Cap & Trade bill was to complicated for citizens to understand". Thus, the reason for the Emergency Clause. The emergency clause was not intended to be used in that manner. That is total disrespect for all Oregonians.
SUPER MAJORITY LEADERSHIP:
I respectfully ask for your vote and to help balance the Oregon House.
I firmly believe that a super majority legislature, i.e., the Governorship, the Senate and the House of Representatives all being controlled by one party is not in the best interest of all Oregonians.
