This? (PDX Airport and gov. street fees) For this? (Active and rail transport)
Portland Street Fee Would Create Big Bills for Other Local Governments
UPDATE: Mayor Charlie Hales says city won't collect fee until July 2015
Willamette Week, May 15th, 2014 By AARON MESH
Local government agencies are discovering the City of Portland plans to charge them what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars a year under MayorCharlie Hales' proposed "street fee" plan.
Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick have for months been showing citizens the structure of the fee, which would charge households up to $12 a month and businesses much more.
They've been less vocal about who else would be taxed under the proposal: other local governments.
Sources say some agencies have been blindsided by this news. A Portland Public Schools official tells WW the school district has been told it would be charged between $300,000 and $400,000 a year.
The proposal is unusual because government agencies often can't levy taxes against each other. But the Portland Bureau of Transportation confirms that it plans to charge the fee to governments.
Hard to trust a city that can't fix its potholes
The Oregonian, May 1, 2010. By Jack Hart
Portland is wrangling over its annual budget, and before the dust settles I'd like to make one simple point:
City government has some basic obligations, and first things come first. So fuss all you want about sewer money for bikes and general fund money for community college scholarships. I just want our potholes fixed.
Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick have for months been showing citizens the structure of the fee, which would charge households up to $12 a month and businesses much more.
They've been less vocal about who else would be taxed under the proposal: other local governments.
Sources say some agencies have been blindsided by this news. A Portland Public Schools official tells WW the school district has been told it would be charged between $300,000 and $400,000 a year.
The proposal is unusual because government agencies often can't levy taxes against each other. But the Portland Bureau of Transportation confirms that it plans to charge the fee to governments.
Instead of this? (Street maintenance)
Hard to trust a city that can't fix its potholes
The Oregonian, May 1, 2010. By Jack Hart
Portland is wrangling over its annual budget, and before the dust settles I'd like to make one simple point:
City government has some basic obligations, and first things come first. So fuss all you want about sewer money for bikes and general fund money for community college scholarships. I just want our potholes fixed.
This government mismanagement at it's worst steered by Leah Treat who is certainly one of those in government who thinks they know what is best for citizens. These "closed thinkers" have little regard for citizens' agenda but high regard for their own agenda.
ReplyDeleteThis street fee is a tax plain and simple. It is a way of increasing taxes without increasing the actual tax rate as required by law. Cloaking it in a safety discussion is a lie, plain and simple. It is a way to get money so that the planners and city councils can use tax money for their priorities. In reality, if Portland started with the premise that basic safety and street maintenance was the number 1 priority, the city would have to ask for extra money for such projects as the Sellwood bridge. But the problem is that staff and city council know that would not pass (and it should not).