Voters approve PPS school bond, arts tax, library district
PORTLAND, Ore. – Voters gave a big thumbs up Tuesday to three tax measures to upgrade schools, provide a permanent funding source to the Multnomah County Library and get more teachers in the schools to teach arts and music.
Measure 26-144, the $482 million Portland Public Schools improvement bond, was passing with 65 percent of the vote late Tuesday. The money from the bond will be used to repair, upgrade and replace schools.
Measure 26-146 will fund arts and music teachers in Portland schools through a $35 per year income tax. It was passing 60 percent to 40 percent.
Measure 26-143 will create a permanent Multnomah County Library District by assessing up to $1.24 per $1,000 on property. It was also easily passing by 62 percent to 38 percent.
Live Election Results:
- Measure 26-144 - PPS $482 million school improvement bond
- Measure 26-146 - Arts & Music Tax
- Measure 26-143 - Creates Library Tax District for Multnomah County
The reason all of these pass, is because a majority of the people voting in these tax increases do not have to pay it, they don't own a home.....
Tax, tax, tax, tax and TAX some more - and last night we learned that the Oregon Legislature is now OWNED by taxation drunk progressive extremists too? Oh get ready Oregon - get READY! To part with more and more and more of your personal budgeted dollars. Â
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Oregonians - extra especially dumbed down this election cycle - surely did bend over and "agree" to it all. S Dumbfounded to me why they did - seeing how no one in elected power guaranteed  these newly doubled over extra appropriated tax provided library funds that were just gifted to Multnomah County on top of all of the other EXTRA APPROPRIATED monies on top of the (supposedly sufficient budgetted library monies they originally received) - will suffice. Or will ever suffice. But golly gee - my Multnomah County neighbors have more in their back pockets to waste being BLACKMAILED by their public bureaucrats than do I. Forcing me now to be TAXED DOUBLED OVER, or even tripled over now - just to keep the doors of the library open. For public use.Â
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Gone to what exactly, Â Multnomah County schools - "arts" and "music" and "LIBRARY" wise? Gone to cover the union negotiated COMPOUNDED monies public employees are demanding in benefits - more and more each contract cycle - or else?Â
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Blacmail works. Case in point - the election results from yesterday. But that's okay - my neighbors who voted it all in - don't give a hoot, are just dumb enough to willingly subject themselves to blackmail and tripled over excess taxation - and it's all a progressive rainbow over all of our heads today, right?Â
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Ick.Â
Huh, is anyone else missing comments? Not deleted, just missing? I am certain I didn't violate any rules it was a benign mention that the Library levy and the library district are now doubling the money the library gets and that with the added taxes, property taxes in the PDX are have doubled.
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 @Repoman It's happened to me a couple of times in the last week too.  Seems LiveFyre was written by bunch of college interns with a Java compiler and free pizza.
Luckily we escaped the stolid politics of Portland two years ago. My retired mother still lives in a modest home on a retirement income in Portland. Her taxes will increase an additional $491.80 per year based on the current assessed property values. Â
While this may not sound like much to many folks, this is a dent in her fixed income budget.Â
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Between the taxes, fees and whatever whimsical notation charge this city and Multnomah County continue to place on the people or the people chose to place on themselves, When is enough enough?
Way to many yippes in p-town
Rent just went for everybody renting owners not going to pay the renters will pay it for them
Darn it. Â
I guess there are a lot of independently wealthy people in Portland who can easily come up with the huge increase in property taxes.Â
As much as I love the library system in Multnomah County and use their services, I voted NO on the measure. I also voted NO on the school bond, even though I have 2 elementary school children. Â I' appalled at the property tax increase we'll have to bear!! It's insane. And we live on 1 income. We also live frugally: 1 car (2001) paid off, 1 TV, NO smartphone. Â Our mistake was buying a house built in 2005 and did not cost $150K. I don't know anyone who's house is assessed that low. Â So, please, do NOT assume that all families with children in the PPS district voted for the insane school bond. Â I'm worried now about how to come up with the monies to pay for BOTH the library district AND the school bond. Aaaaaaaaaaargh.
 @Baffled Really? $40 a year for the library is going to break you? You have way more problems then taxes.
What the hell is wrong with people of Portland?!?!
 @notacuntservative I think a lot of people voted yes long before the news about the PPS passing over the 40mil government bond because the teachers didn't want to be accounted for.
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This is very disappointing. Our government needs to learn to budget like we do as a household or as a business. Wasteful spending and poor planning on their part shouldn't equal less money that I will have for my own personal budget. And it's B.S. that people who aren't property owners get to vote on new property taxes. The $900 on my current property tax bill for my local school district really seems like more than enough of a contribution. And now it's going up? Great. Thanks a lot Multnomah County voters!Â
While the Library district has always "been" there, this one compounds the levy we already passed last year (it is a two year levy). Thus a double whammy.
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With the bond, and the "art tax", plus the double library, your property taxes nearly doubled.
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Just so everyone is clear, the art money won't give your kids paints in classes, this will go to a special interest group. And while I have been waiting for Marysville for almost three years to be rebuilt, the bond won't make it nay better of a school (Whitman for example will still have a rundown building and poor teachers because it's in a crappy area like it always has).
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The only thing anyone will really see benefit from is the library district.
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I feel sorry for anyone living in portland. Â Their taxes will be so high they will have to move.Â
 @sortbait We would in a heartbeat, if we weren't underwater!  It's unbelievable the amount of taxes people want to pay here.
Stupid stupid stupid.......Lets hand out more money then we already do!!!!! Â So giving in this state!
Time to move the heck out of Portland and Multnomah County! Why is it that people with kids never are happy unless they're forcing people without kids like me to pay for their kids' needs? Nothing stops them from writing their own (tax-deductible) checks to the schools, and they already get huge tax breaks that I don't get simply for having kids. But no, they aren't content unless they're forcing me to pay for their kids too with more taxes. It's outrageous.
 @NWGuy sorry. Not ALL parents of school kids voted for that insane bond measure.  I'm really worried about the increase. And I'm also angry because the majority of people let PPS fool them into thinking that it was about the "safety" of their children. There are other ways to deal with seismic retrofits. They also should have split the seismic work from the maintenance projects. Even if we wanted to move to WA,  it's a tall order to sell a house these days. AAAAAAAArgh.
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 @Baffled  @NWGuyÂ
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With the house market "improvement" many people are jumping out.
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In ADDITION to the 5 empty and two other homes for sale on my block, i saw 5 new for sale signs on my way home yesterday in my area (Lents). That's 5 NEW. I saw 7 total, again not counting the 7 empty or for sale homes next to, or across from, my home.
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I have wanted to move now for a year or more. But since my neighbors are ALL trying to sell it's not worth trying.
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Ohhhh how soon they forget!!!! All the promises made with the 3 year ITAX! Increase class sizes, let out the scum from the jails and shorten the school year. If we pass the ITAX we wont do any of that. Two days later they did exactly opposite what they promised NOT to do. $35.00 for now, and then how much next spring, fall, year?
I am so glad I got out of Portland!!!
Portland Loves their taxes and giving more of their money away to the Gov't.Â
It is easy to pass property tax increases in portland because the majority seem to be renters that are too dumb to realize that it will result in higher rent by them. I'm guessing all the union contracts will at least increase at an amount to not only cover inflation but to also cover the new property taxes leaving everyone else in the lurch to pay out of pocket with no increases to their take home pay. Another shocker is reelecting fritz to the commission. YIKES. Glad I no longer live in pdx. I am surprised that the dems shot down legalizing marijuana after passing almost their entire agenda. I guess they don't want their weed prices to increase when their dealers have to start paying taxes.
Don't be fooled by "supporting arts & music in the schools" -- it's a clever entry for the city to get a hold of your paychecks, and start levying income taxes. Don't let them start doing that for ANY reason. I'm all about the arts in schools, but I'll be damned before I give the city access to my paycheck. Try again.
 @badcat A mere $35 of your paycheck? Sounds like a steal of a deal to me! For only $35 a year we get to restore arts in our schools and provide better access to arts organizations around town (even more options for lower priced tickets to all the arts organizations around town... um awesome!). I can't imagine growing up with out learning to play an instrument, learning to draw and paint, learning to sing and learning to act. I had the privilege of learning all of the above in my elementary, middle and high schools. But that's not available to most Portland students today. How could our schools neglect half of all their students' brains? I was watching the Discovery channel the other day and it was a program about Einstein. Apparently Einstein when developing the theory of relativity, he got stuck, took a break and started playing the violin. It was then, while playing the violin, that it finally came to him. Voilà ! Many many studies show that students do better in math and science when they have arts education. Schools with an arts education generally have a lower drop out rate too. It baffles my mind that Oregon is wasso far behind the rest of the country in arts education, as well as support of our arts organizations. Not anymore. I, for one, am proud.
You paint a very rosy picture, no pun intended, Â but you are very naive. Those of us who've been living in this county and old enought to pay taxes for the last thirty years know better. We've all seen this before. It's not going to turn out like you think. Wait and see. Hopefully you wise up before the next election.
 @MandyAMorgan  @badcat MandyAMorgan, the school board has proven time and time again they don't know what to do with money except beg for more of it.  Why do you want to take even MORE of my paycheck to give it to the equivalent of a drug addict?  I'm having a hard enough time making ends meet and thanks to people like you, it's going to become more difficult.
 @MandyAMorgan  @badcat So Mandy.. are YOU going to reimburse me the $35 a year that will be taxed to my income.. because I live in Portland.. however I do NOT live in the PPS school district?Â
I live in Portland but the Centennial school district, yet I will have to pay the $35 a year so YOUR kids can have programmes that my friends and neighbours kids do NOTÂ
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 @MandyAMorgan  @badcat Maybe Mandy it was the mere fact that Einstein took a break when Viola it can to him.  You go ahead and think that it is a good deal you are simply young and stupid
@BarbWire @MandyAMorgan Agreed! She obviously has too much money on her hands. Perhaps she can pay for someone elses share as well. I live in the Centennial district as well and we are retired on a limited buidget. Oh, if things get too bad for us since BO just won re- election I will just go down and sign up for the Oregon Trail card and see if Mandy minds paying more of her taxes to help me out so that I can pay for the arts,library and PPS funds. .
I voted no, no, and no.
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The company that bought my business took my advice and sent a letter to all the renters telling them that if these measures pass their rent will go up $100 per month.
Brilliant! I wish all rental agencies would have done the same. Then all the renters, wefare recipients and section 8'ers would have maybe gotten a clue. Duh!
 @PTLD CITIZENÂ
The letters when out today with increases effective at the 1st of the year. All that government money going to a foreign corporation. It will never come back to the US.
 @RalphCramden Me too I got my property taxes and took one look Voted NOT only NO but HELL NO!!!
 @gbudavidÂ
The money grubbing schools are the worst. They can waste more money than Medicaid and wrote the book on how to achieve poor performance and still have the respect of the unintelligent.
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If the public school system was business they would go bankrupt.
 @RalphCramden  @gbudavidÂ
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And if schools were run like businesses then children would think the Sun revolved around the Earth that the Earth was created in EXACTLY 6 days and what is goos is only what [insert corporate CEO] says it is
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Schools may not be profitable but education should not be. Systems of common good, like education, infrastructure, judicial, public safety and health should not have profit motives. Not to say there should not be systems with profit motives, but those should not.
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Once you monetize and create profit incentives for those things, more than half the population will be left out. It is fine to expect the best employees you can get, but it's another thing to only accept the best students. All should be educated, even the âdumbâ ones. Once you accept that premise, the concept of profit is lost.
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This is not to say our school system, or any, is doing the best job they can, but comparing education with a business is not the way to look at things.
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 @RalphCramden  @gbudavid Ralph, its all for the children, anything for the children in Portland.Â