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.

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.

Mortgage crises and what I would do to fix it.

With all the talk of the mortgage crises and what to do I have given it some thought. First you need to see the big picture and not just look at the 700 billion in tax money spent. This problem affects every aspect of the economy and country. Now remember I do not know all the facts but this is my idea. Banks are struggling under loans the people can no longer make the payments on. The people with those loans are falling behind because they now have to start paying principle on the loan that up to now was just interest. Banks have to write off loans and take huge losses. Now the blame goes all the way around from people who borrowed more than they should have, to the mortgage brokers that sold loans they knew were too risky, to banks that loaned to full value of the property so there was no equity in the property if the value went down.
I agree that the banks should not get off completely free. I propose that the government buy the bad loans from the banks and for this they be assessed a special tax on all profits for the next 20 years that starts at 20% and reduces 1% each year for 20 years till it disappears. This is only on their profits and would go into the fund that bought the loans to hopefully cover any losses the government might take on the loans.
Next sense the government sets interest rates they could reduce the rates on the loans they buy to 3%. The people would continue to make the same payments they were when they took out the loan. Now if you have a $250,000 interest only loan at 5%your payment would be $1042.00 a month. Now if your reduce the interest to 3% and they make the same payment of $1042 they would pay the loan off in 30.5 years which would allow the government to make 3% on the money they borrowed from the tax payers. The people with the loans would see their interest rates drop so they would get less of a tax write off. Again on a $250,000 loan their interest payment would drop from $12,500 a year to $8,300 a year so they would pay income tax on that extra $42,200 a year. If the average tax payer pays 15% federal tax this would mean an extra $630 dollars a year.
Now the 3% the government collects on the loans should cover any costs they incur for managing the loans as all they have to do is process the payments so there shouldn’t be a lot of labor involved and should be a little extra. The government would also collect the extra federal tax from the home owners and the special taxes on companies for 20 years. Also sense they will not be issuing any new loans the money should be paid back over the next 31 years give or take a couple years.
This would get the banks back on sound footing and stabilized the housing market because home would not be foreclosed on and homeowners would not have to sell their homes for whatever they can get to get out from under a loan that goes up to where they cannot afford it. This would also cut the supply of houses on the market which would stop housing prices from falling. Falling housing prices cause a big problems for states, counties and cities which are seeing their budgets shrink as they collect less tax dollars so they will not have to raise property tax to cover falling tax revenue.
This brings us full circle. Everyone has a part in fixing the problem and we can work together. Now this is a pretty simple plan and again I don’t portend to know all the information and there may be more to it then what I have here but it would be a go start.

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.