Fellow Oregonians:
“No-One should have to move away to be safe”
Safety requires that enough Police be available to protect your property. Property includes what you may own, the money you may have, the food you may have purchased for your dinner, or your business. Property also includes, at least for me, your life and your physical wellbeing.
There are two distinct aspects of requiring that Police be available. First and most important is the funding for the Police be reliable. Funding that is NOT subject to the whims of lawmakers with their pet projects that for some lawmakers are more important than the needless loss of life in our streets, our homes, and our businesses.
Second, the funding is set up to be long term without any form of barrowing. Funding for the Police must be looked as a cash flow, not a pile of endless bond measures that barrow from the future to pay for today.
The solution to this problem is overly simple. Property taxes should ONLY be used for property related services. Of course there are the Police and Fire protection, but also services in cities across the State that maintain records of where the utilities are.
A side benefit for limiting Property Tax use to property related only expense is that the real cost for the protection will be determined and then split up among the tax payers. Farms will not be forced to sell their land to pay for spending that was done by irresponsible legislation. After all, how much does it cost to protect to protect a field of dirt. On the Fire protection front, the cost of fire protection for any given building would be reduced because a sprinkler system was installed.
The goal is to take the ability to use Property tax revenues for political leverage away from the Legislature. Law makers should not be able to use your safety for political gain or corruption. After all, no-one should have to move away to be safe from law makers either.