Multnomah County Voters Buy Political Pig in a Poke

Oregon Magazine ^ | June 1, 2003 | Fred Delkin

[WaterDragon]

Congratulations, Multnomah county [Oregon] voters…you’ve just voted for lying and ineptitude on the part of your politicians by supporting tax hike measure 26-48.

A majority of you believed the school and jail doom forecasted by your elected leaders if you didn’t approve this hastily cobbled together measure that doesn’t even spell out how or who will collect your dollars.

Or how they will be spent.

I guess a voting majority sees no need to improve operations, create efficient systems, reform administrative spending, perform audits and become accountable to taxpayers. As reader Karen Kellogg wrote to the Portland Tribune, “(the) yes vote ensured that we’ll get the status quo until they need more money and ask us again.

What were people thinking?”

They weren’t, Karen, they’re the same voters who have put up with the spendthrift administration of Mayor Vera Katz (who can’t even spell ‘Capitalism’) for over a decade…....(Snip)

[WaterDragon]

Ping for the Oregon alms-givers (the needy politicians, you know. Not fair to insist on how they spend the money, now)

[bybybill]

Here`s the joke, the new tax will cut overall revenue because, its a job killer. The problem is that the fools that voted for it were "educated" in Portland schools.

[WaterDragon]

the new tax will cut overall revenue because, its a job killer.

Do you think the Democratic leaders really are so dumb they don't know this?

[rontorr]

the fools that voted for it were "educated" in Portland schools. .............

seriously now, what percentage of the population of Portland were actually born and raised there, tit is the immigrants from Calif. and other places that have destroyed the state, added to the few lib-idiots that were already here

[bruinbirdman]

Is there a tax increase Oregonians don't vote for?

Isn't that the state where there is a law that insists a gas station attendant put the gas in for you?

I see where they need a special committee to decide if a man on death row qualifies for an organ transplant so they can keep him alive long enough to kill him. Do I have the right state?

yitbos

[WaterDragon]

Sad to say, you do have the state right, bbm.

[WaterDragon]

It must be the immigrants from California, rontorr. The state wasn't so liberal before the mid-sixties.

[dixiechick2000]

Good post, WaterDragon!

He didn't mention that half of the money from the tax increase isn't going into the classroom...instead, it's going into the teacher's and administrator's pockets. I guess it's too fulfill their contracts.

I'd love to see Vera recalled, but I don't know if she's even going to run again. Fransesconi has already announced his intention to run, and he's serious about it.

I was speaking with a friend of mine today who was born and raised in this area. She's very in tune with the happenings in Portland. She told me that many people have already started packing up and are moving to Vancouver. They are trying to get out of Multnomah County before they can be assessed the new tax. If that is true, I can't say I'm surprised.

The last one out, turn off the lights...

[rontorr]

The state wasn't so liberal before the mid-sixties. .........

You got that right, you a native too? I was born and raised(beginning in 1951)in Eugene, which outside of the Campus area was conservative to moderate then. I can remember a couple of times (late 60s-early70s)when the agitators from outside this area came to stir up a protest, got put in jail, they formed a ring around the old jail, and then the main Student Body of the U of O formed a ring around them and invited them to leave while they could still walk, which they did, outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1, and wimps that they were

[dixiechick2000]

Oregon tried to pass this tax state wide in Jan. and it lost by a landslide. Multnomah County is one of two counties that voted for the increase. So, they had the bright idea to pass this increase only in their county. Sadly, but not surprisingly, it passed.

[dixiechick2000]

"...the same brilliant thinker who has proposed roofing downtown Portland’s freeways to provide more retail and residential space in Portland."

He forgot to mention that she wants to move several miles of I-5 so she can build a park on the east side of the Willamette River.

Typical Vera...

[rontorr]

this is one of the few tax increases to be passed, most are overwhelmingly turned down. Oregon is one of the few States left with no sales tax, and do you realize how many people would be put out of work in one of the states with the (if not the ) highest unemloyment rates in the country?
I agree it is silly not to get your hands smelly when you want gas, and you have to wait longer, but the welfare rolls would grow tremendously if they were to lay off all of the pump attendants, many of whom are without other job skills

[rontorr]

Multnomah County is one of two counties that voted for the increase....

so now we know which counties to not move into, as if I would even consider moving to Portland, which I have avoided all of my life so far and don't intend to change

[WaterDragon]

Not a native, no, but been here most of my life. I do remember that it was in the seventies that Californians really began to pour into the state. The Oregon governor who told Californians to come visit but to then GO HOME was long out of office by then, wasn't he?

[oceanperch]

Not all of us Cali relocates are libs.

[Mihalis]

I'm getting out of Multnomah county as soon as I can.

[rontorr]

Not all of us Cali relocates are libs......

I know, but it sounds good, and nota all in Cal. are libs. Lived there in the Saramento and Modesto for many years cause there were no jobs up here

[WaterDragon]

You're not kidding, oceanperch! Some of the very best conservative sorts are former Californians! But, we know who we're talking about. And it isn't just Californians, either.

[DoorGunner]

Typical Vera...

Yes. let's not forget the million dollar plus "Chinese garden" in the heart of skid row.

And the hugely expensive renovation of the baseball park, which coincidentally removed ALL of the available parking -- now bankrupt, of course, and being bailed out by the City? I can't remember.

I think Katz was in office when they decided the coliseum was too small, for basketball, so they built another next door-- which was significantly smaller.

Yeah, Vera is pretty dim, all right--just what is needed to be a perfect foil for the enviro-yuppy-elitists, who actually run Portland.

 

But, consider her predecessor, the warmed over bartender whose major contribution to the city was a poster, where Hizzoner was presented wearing only a raincoat. Fortunately, he was facing away from the camera, with his raincoat spread wide, in the classic "flasher" pose. The caption was: "EXPOSE YOURSELF TO PORTLAND!" Yeah, he was a real gem...

DG