You're an artist and a musician? And I bet you had music and art class when you were a kid. See, our schools are tragically underfunded. And the arts and music keep getting cut. This is a way of our community saying, yeah art is important. Don't cut it. This money HAS to go to the arts. The yahoos in Salem can't decide to spend it on something else and so art education is protected. As an artist and musician, you can appreciate that, yes?

Funny how a lot of poorer districts managed to fund the arts without a special tax.

Fuck the arts tax.

I vote for most taxes because I believe in investing in the future. However, I didn't vote for this one for two reasons. 1. Only about 1/2 of the money was going to school art programs. The rest was going to high-brow arts that I believe should be funded by their patrons such as ballet. The proponents only talked about the school programs and I felt that was false advertising. 2. It's a regressive tax that disproportionately burdens the lower income community. I do think something was done to modify the tax base to address #2 but I'm not sure how thoroughly.

I hear a lot of it goes to subsidize rich folks who go to the opera or the symphony...

I'm tired of the cost of living in Multnomah County/Portland rising. This tax is a hardship on lower income people and the benefit has yet to be demonstrated. The fact that some people voted this in continues to lower my opinion of Portlanders.

I haven't paid one penny of this tax and the lazy revenue bureau still after 4 years haven't sent me anything in my name for non payment.Its an illegal tax that exemptions violate section 32 of the Oregon constitution which clearly states that all taxation shall be uniform throughout the territorial area on the same class of people which means everyone has to pay this including the Pers retirees and everyone else they are illegally exempting. The schools already had millions in reserve funds they could have used without this tax. It's also an illegal head tax not allowed by the Oregon constitution.

I'm in favor of good art and good music. Let the talented students apply for scholarships. Appreciated artists sell their products. What we don't need is welfare for hacks.

I'm pretty sure this isn't going to "high brow arts programs", unless you consider our public schools (or the PAM) "high brow". Here's a good breakdown of the "where it's going": http://imgur.com/a/RpLkG

I do think the way it's being collected is dumb, though.

The level of ignorance (as in, lack of actual knowledge) about the arts tax exhibited in this post is astounding . . . no, wait, not for most of the crowd posting, for whom making stuff up and throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks appears to be their modus operandi ("educated" by Faux News?).

Head tax? Lets' see how far Jack gets with that argument in court but so far this is the court ruling: ' "The proposed tax at issue here is not a head tax or a poll tax because it is not assessed per capita—it is assessed only upon income-earning individuals age 18 or older in households above the federal poverty guidelines," Wittmayer ruled.'

Less than 50% going to the school programs? Thanks tk for posting a link to an easily understood breakdown (easily found by anyone that wants the facts)

The distribution breakdown can also be found on the City's website:

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/art…

You can see that more than 75% goes to school arts programs, with only 10-15% going to RACC and about 10% going to administrative costs (pretty cheap).

Finally, note that households below the poverty level are exempt.

So please, stop acting like tea party douche bags.

The best way to support the arts is to support the artists you like. Public school ought to limit itself to basic literacy, and leave religious, philosophical, and political agenda's to the private schools. Sports fields, playgrounds, and auditoriums are a reasonable feature of public school facilities, but instruction in sports and arts ought to be left to be provided by volunteers. Civil servants such as teachers and the mayor, ought to pay income tax at twice the rate as the average citizen.

Liberals love taxes ... except when they have to actually pay them.

Very funny Spindles - it is the liberals paying the taxes, it is the damn Republicans always looking for (or creating) the loopholes so they can avoid taxes - and those same damn Republicans are the ones more than happy to take subsidies from the feds (which means us liberals are guilty of paying for corporate welfare). Like which taxes? The so-called "death tax", which is a tax on unrealized gains levied when a person dies. Damn Republicans are pushing that major loophole through for the 1%.