Foul Smell From NW Natural Gas
Northwest Natural Gas contributed $25,000 to the PPS tax raising scheme. Are ratepayers and the Public Utility Commission OK with this? I'm a rate payer and I'm not OK with it at all.
Massachusetts Shoemaker Pays For Tax Lift In Portland
Adidas America, Inc. contributed $10,000 to the PPS tax raising scheme. Are we comfortable with out of state based corporations interfering with local Portland politics, especially when it involves raising taxes? NO.
Legacy Health System - Great Care, Invasive Politics
Legacy Health System contributed $5,000 to the PPS tax raising scheme. I'm first in line to sing the praises of the Legacy Emanuel Hospital staff. But, I'm sure that the health care professionals and the patients of Legacy Health Systems were NOT asked about using medical money for highly controversial political purposes. If you're a Legacy staffer or patient speak up.
Property Taxpayers Can Fight Back Starting With A Demonstration At City Hall On February 16th
Most Portland taxpayers cannot match the huge amounts contributed by the corporations above. However, what we can do is publicly demonstrate our opposition and encourage Portlanders to vote against the PPS tax hikes in May. Public displays get attention. They matter and they can be very effective. A successful demonstration can energize participants as well as sympathetic and undecided observers.
The Portland city council just pulled off a scam on Portland taxpayers. After years of adult mismanagement of public funds the city council cried, "for public safety" and bamboozled just enough voters to pay for their fiscal sleight of hand and budgetary cowardice. Public monies that should have been regularly budgeted for Fire Bureau maintenance and capital replacement were suspiciously diverted to other expenditures until the bill finally came do. As it always does. PPS, seeing success at covering up the Fire Bureau Financial Failure saw a winning strategy. All their scheme needed was a change of slogan to, "for the kids."
This issue has nothing to do with kids. It's about adult mismanagement of public funds. Every argument against this PPS tax increase is based upon this fundamental fact.
A demonstration in front to Portland city hall will send several messages.
1. The Portland Public Schools, the city of Portland, Multnomah county and Portland's legislative delegation in Salem are put on notice that adult mismanagement of public funds includes:
A. Failure to include in the annual public budget true maintenance and capital replacement costs.
B. Diverting any monies allocated for maintenance and capital replacement costs to any other expenditures.
C. Failure to include in the annual PPS public budget accurate and comprehensive maintenance and capital replacement costs that affect the true assessment of cost per pupil.
D. Failure to include in the annual PPS public budget the accurate and comprehensive costs of all unfunded liabilities, such as PERS, that affect the true assessment of cost per pupil.
2. Raising new taxes in Portland, recognized as being one of the hardest hit cities in the world by this recession, with the highest property taxes in Oregon, a state with more than 10% unemployment, is a very, very, very bad idea.
3. The heaviest economic burden, as always, will fall on the poor and low-income. A group the PPS board has denied exemption proving PPS's institutional opposition to progressive taxation.
Democracy is NOT a spectator sport
We can defeat the outrageous and insulting PPS proposed tax increase but we need to take organized public action to do it. Letters to the editor, anonymous comments in oregonlive.com and rants to your spouse and family at dinner time are not enough.
Please email me at stopppstax@goodgrowthnw.org . Just say, "I'm In" as the subject. Include contact information and, if you like, a short note. Tell your friends, relatives and neighbors to contact me too. Use whatever social media you like to spread the word.
Find your property tax statement. Divide your assessed value by 1000 then multiply the result by $2.65. That's the additional tax you're going to pay for years if both the capital and operational PPS taxes pass in May. If you're a renter multiply $25-$45 per month increase. Consider a voluntary pledge of your potential annual increase to help stop it before you are forced to pay it year after year.
Join Me At Portland City Hall On Wednesday, February 16, 2011 From 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Bring a sign. Bring your lunch. Bring your sense of good humor. Satisfy your need to do something to stop those who have mismanaged our public funds and now want us to pay for it - again.
Richard Ellmyer
Thirty-Five years of political activism. Leader of two successful efforts in 1999-2000 to stop proposed neighborhood destroying outdoor amphitheaters at PIR and the Expo Center.
Former progressive, socially liberal, fiscally conservative candidate for the North Portland House seat in the May 2010 primary. Defeated by establishment Democrat Tina Kotek, who supports the PPS property tax increases as she has every other tax bill in Salem.