City of Portland spends $200,000 tax payer money on center for illegal immigrants

I was reading where the city of Portland has opened a government-sponsored center for day laborers. They have used tax payer money for this. City leaders will spend $200,000 on the center over the next two years. Their reason is this will get them off the street corners and give them a safe place to go. I have a big problem with this as most of them are illegal immigrants. We are using tax payer money for this. How can any city or government do such a thing? In a way they are using tax payer money to support an illegal activity.

It makes you wonder what the City of Portland will do next. I know lets take the drug dealers off the streets. We can open a city funded drug house that way drugs are not being sold on our streets, or better yet how about a whore house. There is a big problem with prostitutes. Let’s put them all up in a house and that way we can get it off the streets. Now I know these are stupid but if you look at it from the legal point they are just as valid as the center for day laborers. Either way we are using tax payer money for an illegal act. I as a tax payer am appalled at this.

The city’s, county’s and state’s are all screaming they need more money and talking about raising taxes and yet they wastes tax money on something illegal. How can they justify such a thing? Now I have nothing against people from other countries, after all that is how this great country came to be. I do expect that the law be upheld and that all people are treated the same which means following the laws. If you are not in this country legally then you should not be given special treatment. You should have to follow the rules and become a citizen like all those people before you.

If government keeps spending taxes (especially on illegal) things then I as a tax payer have the right and duty to vote down taxes and vote against any elected official that feels they are above the law and can support illegal activities. It is almost like having organized crime run by our cities.

Portland needs to close the center and use that money for other legal things such as schools, homeless people, road, police (to arrest illegal immigrants) and fire fighters. Until they get their priorities right and start looking out for their tax payers I will not support them.

City of Portland wants a leaf district at tax payer expense.

I was reading in the paper that the Mayor elect of Portland wants to create a leaf district (to clean up leafs in the street). Now I do not live in Portland but just felt I had to comment on this idea. This is a classic example of government waste and a need to create a bigger government at tax payer expense. There are only a small percentage of people who push their leaves into the street and instead of cracking down on them their idea is to make everyone pay for this.

Now where I live for example, my street has 17 houses on it 11 have yard recycling and 2 have landscaping crews that take care of their yards. 5 of these houses have no trees or bushes (no leaves) of the 12 remaining houses only one does not take care of his leaves. This is about 7% of the people on my street. Why in the world should we all pay more in taxes for just 7% of a problem? Why can’t the city go to these idiots and make then clean up their own leaves. This is just another stupid attempt to get more tax money and hire more city workers.

The end result will be more people will push their leaves into the street. After all if I am paying taxes to clean up the leaves then why should I do it myself? Then what’s next? Why not put my tree trimmings in the street or better yet my grass clipping. We could all cancel our yard recycling and just dump it all in the street sense we would be paying for it. it is time that we all step up and be responsible for ourselves and not expect someone else to pay for our messes. A good example is the auto industry, banking industry and AIG. We all need to take pride in our neighbor hood, counties, cities, states and country.

Now like I said I don’t live in Portland so this will not effect me but you know once it happens in one city others won’t be far behind if they think they can get more taxes.

Auto industry bailout

Today I was reading about how the auto executives went to Washington DC to address Congress and ask for money for a bail out. The sad part is they all flew their private jets to Washington to ask for money because they are going broke. Now I find it a little funny and really sad that they would spend $22,000 on a private jet when they could have spent $1,200 on a first class ticket or better yet $500 for coach. Now if you wanted a hand out don’t you think you should show that you are willing to make cuts to justify someone giving you money?
Now I know how much the auto industry affects the US economy. All you have to do is look at the stock market right now. I have lost a lot of money and I think it will get worse no matter what happens. Now as I see it if we let them go bankrupt then they can renegotiate their contracts and they can work out a plan that will make them better able to compete on a global scale.
If we just give them the money then there is no reason for them to change and they can just continue as they have been going. I believe that in another 5 years they will be in the same situation and will be back for more money. There is an old saying that fits this perfectly. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for life.
We need to cut the apron strings that these big corporations have become accustom to in recent years. They keep doing business as usual and know that when they screw up the government will bail them out. It would be the same as one of us going to Las Vegas and gambling all our money. If we win we become rich and if we loose we ask the government to bail us out. It is a no loose situation. They need to know if they make bad decision then they loose no safety net. Maybe this way they will not take as many risks.
Letting them go bankrupt will be hard in the short run but I think it is the way to go. Let’s take our lumps now and get this behind us and move forward. This will also send a message to other corporations that we poor tax payers will not be there to bail them out.

Now on the same note the government needs to know that we as tax payers will not put up with this wasteful spending. They spend our money without any regards for the hard working Americans that give it to them. I think they would change how they spend money if it was all theirs.
My last word on this is I hope they have the back bone to stand up and do what is right. If they are unable to do this and look out for us then we should elect some that will.

waste of tax money by public schools

The state of Washington just completed an audit of 13 of the state’s biggest school districts and the waste they found really makes you stop and think. They found that the school together could save over 1.1 million over the next couple years if they controlled their spending on retreats. They found that the Vancouver school district could save at least $37,000 and the Evergreen school district could save $40,000. No keep in mind that they only checked 20% of their travel expenses so that number could be 5 time higher at $185,000 & $201,000.
On one conference in Chicago they found that the board members only attended 2 of the 5 day of conference but stayed for the full 5 day. They didn’t share rooms and spent over $200 a night on room. They also went out to dinner on two different nights spending over $50 each on dinner and all this on tax payer’s money. Now I don’t know about you but I don’t go out and spend $50 on dinner for myself even if I pay for it. To expect the tax payers to pay for these unnecessary and out of line spending when they keep telling us they have budget shortfalls and need more money is downright dishonest and should be illegal
Now I have always supported taxes I thought were necessary and of value like schools, police & fire but after reading about this waste I would have a hard time voting them any more money. It is bad enough that they give their employees raise’s every year (3% to 6%) and city of Seattle gave their police a 25% to 34% raise last spring. They seem to have forgotten they work for us and have a responsibility to spend the money we entrust to them.
Spending by our state and local officials has gotten way out of control. They do what they want with no regards to the tax payers they represent. It is time to put our foot down and demand they be responsible and live within their budgets just like the rest of us do.

county budget

I was reading in the Columbian new paper the other day and the county commissioners were talking about the budget for the next year. They were talking about how their spending was going up more than their revenue. They were complaining that because of a voter mandate their tax increases were capped at 1% plus new construction and with the current economy new construction was down 34%. Now even with normal new construction it would only and about 1% more to their budget so between the normal increase and new construction they would get about 2% or a little bit more each year. Now this is where it gets good.
They were talking about their surplus and how it was being eaten away and would soon be gone. Their reasoning was that with the cost of everything going up more than their revenue and here is the part I really like. With giving their employees 6% increase each year (remember payroll is 60% or more of their budget) their expenses go up faster than their income. Now isn’t that just the dumbest thing, anyone with a third grade education knows if your income goes up 2% you can only increase your expenses by the same amount or you will run out of money.
Now I know that everyone wants more money. I myself would like more and have asked for raises every year. For the last 4 years I was told no. My boss said they couldn’t afford to give raises. This year I got a raise and it amounted to 3% which equals less than 1% a year over the last few years. Now with the exception of government employees (count, state, city and federal) the average pay raise is less than 2% a year. Minimum wage has not gone up for a few years and when it does go up it is not that much. Our elected officials need to start to watch the way they spend our money we entrust to them. They need to write a realistic budget and stick to it.
I personally write a budget each year and have ever sense I got my first job so I would know what I can spend. I have found it incredibly valuable to me and would encourage everyone to do a budget each year. The simple fact is to spend what you have or less and that is how you get ahead. Our elected officials don’t seem to understand this and just keep spending as if their money was endless. If they need or want more they have the taxpayers to give them more. They don’t understand that we also have to live within our means so we cannot keep giving more and more to them otherwise we will not be able to balance our personal budgets.
The housing collapse was caused by several things one of which were people living beyond their means and all you have to do is look at the news or the stock market and you see what happens first hand when you spend more than you have. As we deal with this and try to solve the housing problem people forget about where the countries budgets are going. If we do nothing in a few years we will be facing a worse problem as our government faces the same problems the housing market is in the only difference is who will bail out the government except for us poor taxpayers.
Now what can we do about this problem. The first is simple pay for public employees should be capped at revenue increases, for example Clark County where I live sees a 1% increase plus new construction. This means they should only get pay raises of 2% a year. This gives them more money each year and keeps the budget in check. They say we have to give these big raises to keep quality people. The fact of the matter is if all state, county and city government did this then we would not have to worry about losing them as employees. The pay and benefits that public employees get is far better than most taxpayers get. It is time to level the playing field. Now from what I understand when a state, city or county job comes open they have hundreds of people put in for them.
Our elected officials have forgotten who they work for. They forget we are the ones who pay not only their pay checks but also all the public employees pay checks. If they keep living beyond their means they will not only bankrupt our government but the taxpayers too. We will become a nation in debt so far we will not be able to get out. It will not be easy but we need to start making cuts and stick to a budget. In good times you can spend a little more but you always need to save some for the future so our kids and our kids children are not handed a nation in debt.
If our elected officials can’t or won’t do this then we as citizens owe it to ourselves and our children to elect new ones who will. The public employees who work for us also need to understand that the days of huge pay raises are gone. If they don’t like their jobs or pay then let them find another job someplace else. But either way these huge pay raises need to stop or they need to live in the real world with the rest of us.

postage stamps prices

Postage stamp keeps going up and there is no end in sight. With the internet becoming popular and people using e-mail the amount of mail delivered by the post office have dropped off. Now with online bill pay more and more people are paying bills on line. Which means even less mail will be delivered. The post office will have to keep increasing the price of stamps. As they do this more and more people will cut back on stamps.
I saw on TV that a huge percentage of the younger population pay bills and use e-mail where as the older generation has been slower to except the new technology. But they also pointed out that it is the younger generation that are having kids and teaching them that using e-mail and online bill pay is the way to do things and the older generation is slowly dying off. So each year the amount of personal mail will decrees.
No other business could keep doing business as usual under these conditions. The post office though seems to think they can just keep raising the price of stamps to make up for dwindling business. Now the latest thing is businesses that are offering online bills. This is where they send you an e-mail to tell you your bill is ready. You then go to their web page and view or down load your bill. This saves the business printing cost and postage and is also good for the environment.
I have a solution that would work. I think the post office should get rid of Saturday delivery. The inconvenience would be very minor. Right now if you get something in the mail Saturday you can reply to it on Monday. Without Saturday delivery you wouldn’t get it till Monday so it would be Tuesday when you replied. One day later is all it would be. Even businesses wouldn’t be that big of a problem.
The plus side of this is the post office could cut their work force by up to 20% which could be done as people retire as to not lay off a bunch of people. But even if you don’t lay off that many workers you would also save one day of deliveries. This would save 20% of their fuel cost which would be huge and again this would also put less pollution in the air. This would be a great thing for the environment and cut our demand for oil.
I know I have tried to cut back on my driving and combine trips when I do go out. I have managed to cut my fuel consumption by about 8% from last year which has saved me money and I feel I am doing my part. Why then is the government unwilling to do their part.

Gas Tax

Fuel tax
For years the federal government has been pushing the car makers to increase fuel efficiency. They have been telling the American people to conserve gas, by fuel efficient cars, car pool or take mas transit. They have spent millions of dollars on car pool lanes and rapid transit. They are encouraging investments in alternative fuels and even giving tax credits if you buy a hybrid car. They are doing all this to cut our dependence on foreign oil and to help out the environment. II think these are all worthy things to do. I have always bought small fuel efficient cars; it’s my way of saving money on gas and helping to lesson my foot print on the environment. In the last year as fuel prices have gone up I got my boss to change my schedule a little so I could car pool. I am doing my part. Now you have to wonder what the government was thinking or how stupid they are.
Now they are complaining that as we cut back on driving to save money and cut our dependence on foreign oils they are not collecting enough gas tax. Almost every state is now facing a shortfall in their gas tax and looking at raising the fuel tax. I live in Washington State which has the privilege of having one of the highest if not the highest gas tax in the nation, 38 cents a gallon. Our governor last year had talked about putting a fee (not a tax so we do not get a vote) of $100.00 on all cars that get 40 MPG or better. Guess what my car is rated at 41 MPG highway so I would have to pay this if they do. They are also looking into raising our gas tax. They seem surprised that they have less gas tax money. Anyone with a third grade education can understand that if you tax something and then get people to buy less you get less tax money.
Driving nationwide is down is down 4.7%, California is down by as much as 8% and here in Washington and Oregon its down about 4.5%. Now the head of the federal transportation wants to raise the gas tax by .40 cents a gallon over the next five years (.08 cents a year) we currently pay .18 cents a gallon. This would rise what we pay in federal gas tax to .58 cents a gallon and for those in Washington State you can add the current .38 cents for a total of .96 cents a gallon in tax if Washington doesn’t raise their tax too. On the federal level this would amount to a 225% increase in gas tax. How in the world can a 4.7% drop in fuel use (gas tax) equal a need for a 225% increase? Can you imagine if your property tax, income tax, or sales tax increased by 225%.
Every time they raise the tax we will find new ways to cut back, all you have to do is look at cigarettes. As they have raised taxes less and less people are smoking, By the way for the record I have never smoked so this tax does not affect me but I still think it is unfair to tax one small group so heavy. I am sure that is how they justify such a big tax increase because they know they will lose sales of gas with an increase.
I am getting tiered of government thinking that the tax payer is a bottomless pit of money and every time they want or need something we will pay for it. I work hard and even harder to live on a budget. I do not have the option of spending more then I make and then expecting my boss to just give me more money. It is time the elected officials learn to live in the real world with the rest of us. They put these taxes and fees on and then wonder why when they do ask for tax increases on really important thing we say no.

Social Security

I thought the best place to start is the begging, what is Social Security. Social Security was originally set up to supplement our retirement. It was never suppose to be a full retirement fund. People always say it is a horrible investment which it is because it is not an investment. It is designed to provide you with basic need for living such as a roof over your head or basic food. To long people have looked at Social Security as their retirement and then when they retire they are unhappy with how much they have. People need to start taking care of themselves and putting money away for their own future. Look at it as an insurance policy you pay for. If you are not putting some of your money aside every month into something for your future such as an IRA, 401K or even a savings account then you are part of the problem. We need to get everyone to start taking responsibility for their own future and not rely on the government.

With that said Social Security is in sad shape because of the draw on it now. My understanding of how it works is this. What you pay in now goes to pay for those who are collecting it now. When you retire the people still working will be paying for your benefits. The first problem is we will soon have all the baby boomers retiring. There will soon be more people drawing benefits then are working so there will be more money going out then coming in. the government over the past years has slowly increased the age at which you can get Social Security to try to slow this down. This also is not a go choice and is unfair to the people putting their money in. when I started working I could get full Social security at 62 and Medicare. That has changed to 65, and now 67 and they are talking about making it 70. I have been working almost 30 years and if they make this change it will be like taking away 8 years I have worked. How would you like your bank to come to you after you have been paying on your house for 20 years and tell you, I know your loan was for 30 years but we are short on money so now you have to keep paying your mortgage 8 more years for a total of 38 year? They would be sued because that is illegal but yet the government thinks they can change the rules after you have already agreed to them.

Right now you pay Social Security on the first $96,000 of income after that you pay no Social Security. I think we should change that, maybe not for the tax payer but make the businesses that hire these CEO’s for millions of dollars keep paying on what they pay. They keep talking about helping the middle class and yet Social Security is a tax on middle income America. Just look at the payroll for Baseball. The averages salary for a player is now over a million dollars a year so they are paying Social Security on less than 10% of that. The average team salary is over 100 million which means Baseball has a total payroll of over 2.5 billion a year and Social security is collected on less than 10% or 250 million. Now if you only take the 6.2% that the employer pays on the remaining 2.25 billion it would equal $139.5 million dollars into social security and that’s just for baseball. There would also be basketball, football and all those hi paid heads of companies.

The next thing is they make everyone pay into social security even if you have a retirement plan from your work but if you are an elected official or state employee you don’t these people have some of the best retirement plans around. Let make them pay into social security like the rest of us do. This would also ad millions of dollars to Social Security ever year. It would also give our elected officials an incentive to fix Social Security.

Government bailout is a joke

Well they finally passed the bailout for Wall Street today. Now I was in support of the original bailout. It would have given money to buy bad loans and help out banks which would have helped them stay off bankruptcy. It would have helped stabilized the housing market and also the stock market. But I am very disappointed in the members of congress that changed their votes.
They lied to the public and told us that they would not support it because it put too much on the taxpayers and they wanted to stand up for us. Now it turns out it was just their way of blackmailing the country and taxpayers for more money. As if the 700 billion wasn’t enough they held out for an additional 150 billion dollars bringing the total to 850 billion or 21% more. They didn’t care about us they just wanted more money from us so now the bailout that they thought was unfair to us will cost us all more.
They tacked on 150 billion of special interest pork barrels. That is downright dishonest and should be illegal. I feel all those that had voted no and now changed their vote betrayed our trust and should be voted out of office. I think all elected officials should be replaced with someone who cares about the people who elect them.
Now some states are crying to the federal government for help making their bills. It now seems that with the down turn they are now facing budget shortfalls. They feel the federal government should bail them out to at tax payer expense. I don’t know about the rest of you but as gas has gone up I have made cuts in other places where I spend money. I think that if states can do this we as tax payers should be able to tell the government we want a bail out too. Maybe they can suspend all personal federal tax till this problem is solved. I know that will never happen but just shows how stupid it sounds. It is time that state, city, county and even the federal government start cutting their spending and lives within their means like the rest of us. It is time they step up and make cuts in spending waste.

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.