Hales: A Street Fee Offer You Can't Refuse (Portland: 2015, felon)

[freemkt]

Lars Larson just said that Hales has announced voters will face a menu of street fee options on the May ballot.

"None of the above" is not an option.

[urbanlife78]

Why would they want to put none of the above on the ballot? This vote will just be to get input from the voters and make them feel like they are doing what the voters want.

[freemkt]

Sounds like the "progrssives" are acting regressiively.

[AndyAMG]

Mmmm spaghetti... oh nevermind, menu doesn't always have to do with food.

"none of the above is not an option"

I guess it had to come to this...

When something is overwhelmingly unpopular you have to force people to accept it somehow. It's not a lot of money guys, just be glad you are allowed to live in the great city of Portland.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Just think how great it could have been if our city government hadn't been so financially dysfunctional for the last twenty years.
If it was Sam and Randy, they would have just done it without fanfare, and increased our water bills some more.
But, Portlanders voted them (and the current bunch) in, so I guess we can't complain.


BTW, I realize that it's not "a lot of money".
For a lot of long time Portland residents, it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing.

I suspect that most new residents of Portland don't know or understand what went on in the last two decades, so the thought is why not pay it, we need to have our roads fixed so let's just pay the tax.
They say, we don't care what happened in the past, it's unknown and/or forgotten.

They don't realize they are adding a new tax burden on themselves for stuff that should already have been done and has already been paid for.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by freemkt

Lars Larson just said that Hales has announced voters will face a menu of street fee options on the May ballot.

"None of the above" is not an option.

That's what you get for electing a Wahoo as mayor.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

That's what you get for electing a Wahoo as mayor.

I didn't vote for him, but I'm not sure any of the options were appealing.

A bit like that Staten Island congressional election (albeit not as extreme) - do you vote for the felon who's abrasive and a knucklehead, or the knucklehead who can't form a coherent sentence or discuss the merits of a very basic policy?

[freemkt]

Looks to me like a setup to allow the Business Alliance to buy their preferred plan with 32 percent of the vote.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

That's what you get for electing a Wahoo as mayor.

Portlanders weren't too happy with their choices for mayor, Hales wasn't really a favorite, he was just the guy who got more votes that the other person....and it wasn't saying much.

Actually I think adding to the gas tax would probably be best option out of all of them.

Originally Posted by freemkt

Lars Larson just said that Hales has announced voters will face a menu of street fee options on the May ballot.

"None of the above" is not an option.

It will be a series of questions about each proposal. You can simply vote no on all of them. Not quite the same (Novick and Hales don't want to be embarrassed too badly) but you can at least say no.

Of course, the vote is non-binding and Hales and Novick will simply do whatever they can convince one other person on the city council to go along with.

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