TAXES

February 5, 2004

I watched you on the news this morning and you seemed almost angry that the tax bill didn’t pass.   You were threatening and defiant.   Apparently, you people don’t get it.   Let me explain.

I wrote to you a short time back concerning seat belts.   I got an answer back (a start) from someone on your staff (I can understand that) that talked to me as if I was eleven years old.   Not only that but my question was not addressed at all, merely buried in BS.   This is maddening enough but I mentioned that I was unable to send you an e-mail as you had no e-mail address only a WEB site (that still did not allow me to send you an e-mail).  So, to add insult, I was directed to your Web site.   Now tell me Gov or should I direct my letter to Amy the third grader on your staff, just what was so difficult about that question that I had to be put off, lied to and buried in BS?

So why didn’t the tax bill pass?   Because I don’t trust you.    I don’t trust your staff (imagine, third graders on staff) and I don’t trust the legislature for the exact same reason.   And you want me to send you more money???   I don’t think so!!!

The Oregon Budget Crisis

I don’t know exactly why everyone else voted ‘NO’ on the “temporary” (like there really was such a thing) tax hike, other than the fact that almost nobody wants to pay more taxes.   So, other than that small detail, why wouldn’t ‘I’ vote for a tax hike?   Several years ago I was conversing or at least trying to discuss the budget with my legislators.   One immediately stopped talking to me when I broached the subject and the second went like this.   I asked if “their” the legislators, budget had been cut.   “Slashed to the bone,” was the reply.   Being the type of person that likes proof I asked if there was somewhere I could log on and see the budget, see where the money was spent or could I get a copy of such a document.   That is where dialog with the second legislator stopped.   I have never heard a word from him since.

This isn’t the type of thing that inspires confidence.   If you were interrogating a criminal and they clammed up at this point you would figure you were hitting close to something.  So why didn’t I hear any more from my legislature?   They were either bored with me or I was getting close to uncovering something they didn’t want to talk about.   In either case they are not getting my vote next election.

What does this have to do with the budget crisis?   Everything.  I don’t believe my elected officials.   They could be spending the money on drunken orgies for all I know, they seem pretty damn secretive about where they are spending ‘our’ money.   Also, when they say they are going to cut the budget they always cut things they know the public likes, schools, police protection, libraries.   So this year we vote for more money to fund these things and next year it is re-allocated to- - - what?   That is what I want to know.   I don’t want them to tell me anything because I don’t trust them, I want proof and they have already confirmed my suspicions by not providing it.   It is public money, I think the public has the right to know where every penny went.

No, I haven’t tried to speak to ‘them’ in probably 2 years, what would be the point?