new dollar coins

For over a month now the government has been advertising on TV and radio about the new dollar coins. They are trying to get people to use the coins instead of dollar bills. You see the cost of printing dollar bills is around 30 million dollar and they print them every other year. The average dollar bill lasts only 13 months. The coins on the other hand would cost about 90 million to make but last about 100 years so the savings would be huge and start saving the government money in only a couple years.
Now don’t get me wrong I think the coin is a good idea as it would save the government a lot of money and also be good for the environment. The problem is that banks and businesses do not like the coins as they take up more room and weigh a lot more then bills and the general population do not like coins. I know I don’t and try to get rid of them so I don’t have to carry them in my pocket so as long as there are bills I will use them instead.
Now the money they are spending on advertising the coins is not going to change the way people view dollars. We will continue to use the bills because they are what we know and like. It is a big waste of tax payer money when it could be used for more important things.
It is time that our elected officials stand up and do their jobs. They are so busy trying to keep their jobs and those huge pay checks. Weather people like the coins or not is not the important part. The coin makes sense. It saves the government money now and in the future and is better for the environment. Part of being an elected official is to make the hard decisions for the good of all the people and do what’s right for the environment. They need to just stop printing dollar bills and make the switch to coins.
Yes people will not be happy about it but they will adapt to the coins and in a few years coins will become normal. It’s time our elected officials forget about being re-elected and do their job. They get paid to make the hard and sometimes unpopular decisions. If they are unwilling to do this then we should replace them with someone who can.

Pay raise for Oregon Governor and other Elected officials

Well the state of Oregon is planning on giving the Governor and other key elected officials raises next year. The raises will be anywhere from 35% to 41%. Now for the governor this is $36,000 a year raise. Does anyone else find this excessive? The average tax payer in Oregon earns about $40,000 a year working and they want to give him a raise almost equal to this.

They justify this by telling us that they haven’t had a raise in five years well guess what. Lots of hard working tax payers haven’t had raises either. I got my first Raise in five years also this year and it was a whopping 2.6% nowhere near the 39% they are planning on giving the governor.

Their next argument is they need to give the raise to keep them competitive with other governors. Well guess what we have never had an election where we did not have someone running for the office. As another point the governor can’t just go to another state to be governor like you would change jobs. You must live in the state you are governor of and then be elected. It would be almost impossible for a governor to change states.

In recent months we have watched the banking industry in trouble and all the elected officials are criticizing public business for the pay they give the CEO and executives of these companies. These companies earn a profit and pay them out of the profits they make. Elected officials are paid by tax payers and as they give them these huge raises it has nothing to do with whether the state turns a profit or not they just come to the tax payers for more money even though we don’t see raises like what they are getting.

It seems that our elected officials are no longer interested in working for the good of the people who elected them and just how much money they can get. I don’t care who you are you should never get a 39% pay raise in one year. Besides they all get cost of living raises each year. They should spread it over time by giving them a 3% raise like everyone else and do it over several years so it is not such a big hit to tax payers who are over taxed now.

They need to live in the real world with the rest of us. For too long elected officials and government employees have been getting raises the average taxpayer does not get. I have always supported worthy taxes such as schools, fire, police and the like but if they give raises out like this I can assure you I will never support another tax and will tell everyone I know to vote no on all taxes. It is time that the tax payers stand up and put a stop to this before all our money goes to pay them and there is nothing left for us.

My views on tax waste and what I would do

This is my page to express my views on government waste of tax payer money and what I would do if I could. Please feel free to leave your comments and link to my blog if you agree with what is wrote.

We need to have the voice of the average tax payer heard by government or nothing will change.
Thanks