Failed senatorial candidate Monica Wehby’s chief public feature may be her loathing of Obamacare (and her unwillingness to pen original policy statements about what we should do instead). Does Wehby now want to oversee Oregon’s troubled rollout of the program she despises? The Oregonian suggests that’s why Wehby called Gov. John Kitzhaber the day after getting soundly beaten by US Sen. Jeff Merkley.
The O also chatted with Charlie Pearce, a high-level operative in both Wehby’s campaign and the gubernatorial bid of State Rep Dennis Richardson. Those candidates failed (as have all the presidential campaigns he’s worked on) but, Pearce explains, that’s not his fault. He also calls Oregon’s press corps soft, intimating we all should still be bivouacked outside the governor’s home, demanding answers about his fiancée. My tent’s already in the attic for the season.
Remember back in May, when Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick floated their first attempt at passing a street fee? It was for $40 million a year, and included hiring 25 new public employees to get the necessary work done. Now Hales and Novick are proposing a vastly different, $46 million a year tax for roads. And suddenly we need almost 60 new employees for the job, O reporter Brad Schmidt points out. Why the huge difference?
About that new street fee proposal: The rich are sniffy about paying up to $900 a year (much less than other scenarios that had been discussed). And they’ve got a predictable ally in the Portland Business Alliance, which is fine with the tax on businesses, but appalled by the notion the city would force an income tax on residents. The PBA says it will force a public vote on the tax.
Back to Obamacare for a second: It’s complicated. Depending on individual states’ health insurance markets, premiums are expected to swing dramatically this year, meaning it’s almost certainly smartest for the insured to shop around—again—to find a better deal.
Ugh. The New York Times interviewed Kurdish girls who escaped slavery at the hands of ISIS, and it’s awful and depressing.
But it does make this news all the more welcome. The Iraqi army has reclaimed a fairly major refinery town from ISIS’ clutches, potentially cutting a source of income for the rich bastards.
Meanwhile, the US is thinking of letting the CIA loose in Syria, to arm rebels as it sees fit.
While we await a grand jury’s decision in the death of Ferguson, Mo., resident Michael Brown (and the frustration and backlash almost certain to follow), here’s what St. Louis reporters have been able to dig up, from public records, about the teen’s death at the hands of a cop.
How productive is Our Nation’s Capital today? President Obama is probably going to veto the Keystone XL pipeline (good). Congressional Republicans are probably going to orchestrate a series of sequester-like budget showdowns to try to back the president away from immigration reform (bad).
See you next August, Philae. Maybe.
Can live with this.
I refuse to apologize.
“About that new street fee proposal: The rich are sniffy about paying up to $900 a year”
I’m guessing Dirk Vanderhart doesn’t work for himself. If he did, he’d be irked that sole proprietors get hit twice with this tax (business and residential), in addition to paying city and county business taxes, plus the Trimet tax.
There are a lot of folks who don’t quality as “rich” that are getting taxed out of this city.
Why not add a 5 cent tax on every gallon of gas sold in Portland. Do the same for diesel sold in gas stations (excluding semi-trucks) and put a sur-tax on all electric vehicles registered in Portland. That way, the actual users will help pay for the maintenance. Speaking of which, out on hwy 224 Thursday, Tri-met buses were running with chains on, on perfectly clear roads.