New frontiers in gouging

A couple of proposed changes to Portland's obscene state and local taxes are in the news. The adults at the Weed are sticking the needle in pretty hard on the clowns who want to impose yet another thinly disguised sales tax, this one statewide, in exchange for handing out to every individual $750 a year in cash. As the THC-infused weekly points out, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are being spent to push this misguided ballot measure on Oregonians are coming, in typical fashion, from bazillionaires in California.

This is an Oregon ballot measure making policy in Oregon. It feels a little colonial, like Californians are imposing their desire to try this out on Oregon rather than their own state.

“Colonial” is a super-strong word. This initiative was drafted at a coffee shop in Eugene by a group of community folks. This is not language that was adopted in California and dropped into Oregon.

I've written about the proposed ballot measure previously, here. Haven't changed my mind at all in the month since. It's the height of stupidity – in other words, it stands a good chance of passage at the polls. Let's hope it somehow, miraculously, goes down in flames, like the socialists' dopey Multnomah County capital gains tax proposal that crashed in a 4-to-1 defeat last year. 

Newer news is that Portland City Hall is thinking about scrapping (paywall, sorry) its $35-a-head annual arts tax and replacing it with a property tax increase. It would be combined with a property tax increase for the parks. (We've had parks for something like 150 years, but suddenly they need their own property tax, don'tcha know.)

Now, we all know that the net effect of switching the arts tax from a head tax* to a property tax would be to squeeze more money out of the people who live here, but in a way I'd welcome it. Because once you say "property tax increase," the voters of Portland rush like lemmings to blacken the "yes" circle, no matter how dubious the cause. Empty community college, empty convention center, empty convention hotel, worthless zoo, yes yes yes! And when you say "parks," the sky's going to be the limit. 

Part of me would rather have a hideous property tax bill with no separate arts tax on top of it than a hideous property tax bill with a separate arts tax on top of it. Not to mention the savings from not having to pay bureaucrats to administer the hideous head tax.

The problem, of course, is that they're probably going to charge way more money on the property tax bill than is shaken out by the current $35 a head for the artsy types. And in the end, every head with a roof over it will pay. The kids who rent don't seem to understand, but they will have their rent jacked up to cover the additional property tax burden on their landlord. You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to see that, just a functioning brain and half an education. And stay out of the coffee shops in Eugene.

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* For purposes of the Oregon Constitution, it's not a head tax. Honest. Don't look in your dictionary. Instead, read Wittemyer v. City of Portland, 361 Or. 854 (2017).