The fun just never stops! I ran across three articles from different sources this morning, bemoaning the fact that thousands of people aren't paying the city's "Arts tax". Portland officials are muttering darkly about turning "scofflaws" over to collection agencies, although inasmuch as the constitutionality of the tax has yet to be decided in appellate courts, it seems unlikely that collection agencies are going to want to get involved in the near future.
Thus far, little about that tax is working as advertised: it was allegedly For The Children™, but about half of the money collected goes to entities that have large endowment funds, such as the Portland Symphony. Administrative costs were to be capped at 5% of proceeds, but the city's well over that mark. And while it was peddled as a head tax upon all Portland residents, it turns out that PERS recipients and So-So Security recipients are exempt under state and federal laws.
How typically Portland!
