The reverse Costco run

The Costco warehouse store out by the Portland Airport is a most interesting place. One thing you notice right away is all the cars in the parking lot with Washington license plates. All those people are coming over the river to beat the Washington sales tax. We don't have a sales tax here in Oregon.

Now, those 'Couverites are supposed to pay Washington use tax on the stuff they bring back with them over the bridge. The use tax is the same amount as their sales tax would have been. They're supposed to fill out a use tax return every year and file it like an income tax return. (Washington doesn't have an income tax.) But ha! Ha! It's not as though anyone is checking the people schlepping their giant vats of mayo home from Portland Costco. They can, and do, cheat with impunity.

I thought of those Costco shoppers this afternoon when I noticed a tweet from the health authorities up in the 'Couve. They were begging seniors from Oregon not to drive across the bridge to get a Covid shot. In Washington, anyone over 65 is now eligible, whereas here in Oregon, Governor Kate "Killer" Brown has let the teachers' union jump the line. Oldies here have to wait until the twenty-something private school gym teachers get inoculated. 

The Washington folks say that their vaccine is only for those who live or work in their state. Oregonians, stay home.

To have two radically different state tax systems so close to each other is odd, but to have two radically different state priority systems for a lifesaving vaccine so close to each other is downright insane. I'm waiting for the fistfights to start at the vaccination locations. People have beaten each other senseless over a parking space, and so I shudder to imagine where this may be going.