Former mayor Sam Adams is now head of Porkland City Club, and now seems to believe that the City Club should set statewide tax policy. To wit: since they claim that federal "cutbacks" have left bike programs "underfunded", they think the state should impose a 4% sales tax on every new bicycle purchased in Oregon.
PORTLAND, Ore. – A new report from Portland's City Club suggests a statewide sales tax on new bikes in Oregon as one way to pay for bike programs it says are underfunded.
The study says federal funding cutbacks leave bike programs underfunded. One solution the City Club suggests is a 4 percent sales tax on every new bicycle sold in the state.
Porkland Democratics never have enough money, and throwing a sales tax into the mix has always been a cherished component of their holy grail. This is the nose of their camel, 'cause, well...bikes! They can expand it to other stuff later.
It was during Sammy's time in orifice that PBOT decided that they simply weren't going to pave or maintain city streets for the next five years - Sammy preferred to buy bicycle signs and paint bicycle boxes and buy bicycle counters at $20,000 a pop. Streets, being primarily designed to move cars and freight, are inherently evil, and have therefore always ranked dead last on his priority list.
One of new mayor Charlie Hales' best moves to date occurred before he even officially took office: he told Sammy's best bud, who Sammy had made director of PBOT, to hit the bricks.
And from the Bureau of Catch-22: the City of Porkland owns all of the "street trees", the trees that grow in the area between sidewalk and roadway. You can't prune them, replace them, or modify them in any way absent a permit from the City - which they routinely refuse to issue. At the same time, if something bad happens as a result of the presence of those trees, the entire responsibility for any damages and other expenses rests solely with the homeowner.
Thus it is that when a roughly 100-year-old oak split apart during the recent heavy rains and winds, damaging two homes, the city that owns the tree politely told the homeowners to go pound sand. The $10,000 cleanup fee, as well as associated home repairs, are all on the homeowners. Porkland: The City That Works (you over).
