RAPS club reports —3— from earlier in the decade, with drops particularly sharp in Washington and Deschutes counties. They’ll continue their downward trend in 2007, with a modest turnaround predicted for 2008. Tom discussed the controversial Oregon “kicker” law, which returns to taxpayers monies that exceed 2 percent of the revenue forecast. There is an effort in the Oregon Legislature to keep the kicker and use it to fund a “Rainy Day Fund.” The corporate kicker would put $200 million into a Rainy Day Fund. The 2006 kicker liability for personal income tax is 21.4 percent, which translates into a median return of $272 and an average return of per tax filer of $636. The long-term outlook for the national economy, Tom said, offers some good, some bad, and some ugly. The good: the job outlook is promising, the stock market is humming, natural gas supply is strong, and nonresidential construction looks good. The bad: residential construction is down sharply and the household debt burden is up sharply. And the “25-year uglies”: health spending, retiree-to-worker ratio, federal debt growth that restricts economic policy options, and 50 percent of privately held public debt is foreign-owned. For graphophiles, visit the Oregon Office of Economic Development at www.oea.das.state.or.us. Housing heading south in ’07 . . . continued from page 1 Book Club reads Memory Keeper’s Daughter A No. 1 New York Times best seller, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards, will be discussed at the next gathering of the RAPS Book Club. The meeting will be on Tuesday, March 20, at the home of Mary Brannan, Oregon Yacht Club #13, 6901 SE Oaks Park Way. Please contact her to RSVP and for directions by e-mail at brannanmg@comcast.net or by phone at 503239-1077. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is described on the back cover: This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love. We selected The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason for our April meeting. Come join us! We’ve been reading lots of good books. —Mary Brannan Hikers hike Hoyt Our next Fourth Friday hike will be on March 23, when we will hike several of the small loop trails in the Hoyt Arboretum. Total distance will be no more than five miles with minor elevation changes. Meet at the upper end of the zoo parking lot near the Forestry Center at 9:30 a.m. Lunch will be at Big Red’s at Highway 26 on Scholls Ferry Road. At the RAPS Sheet deadline, the February hike on the Banks-to-Vernonia old railway right of way had not yet occurred. Confirm your participation with Larry Sawyer at 503-771-1616 or larry_sawyer@comcast.net by Thursday, March 22. —Larry Sawyer Bridge Group packs ’em in We broke recent participation records at the February meeting of the Bridge Group! Irene Place hosted the group and all 16 regular members played. We will be at Irene’s again for our next meeting at our new time of 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13. We play on the second Tuesday of each month. Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the Bridge Group may call or e-mail Colin Dunkeld at 503-292-0838 or colipat@easystreet.com. —Colin Dunkeld
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