Now I'm really confused! Help!

[frgmnt13]

All right people. I am sorry about my comments about K falls. One thing is clear. We all love Oregon for one reason or another, and there is obviously room enough for all of us. (That's a rare thing). However, I did not lie about a thing. Dramatized perhaps, but lie never. I experienced what I experienced. The Meth seems to be bad t/out the NW. It is wierd, because it is really not a problem down here on the Gulf Coast. Crack is still an inner city drug du juor. I love your state, and hope I will be welcome there despite my oppinions. As a born and raised Texan, I cordially invite you all to come live here. You can have it. I've always hated it. Now let's all be friends.

[scone]

Ya know, I can nderstand why liberal would bag on K-Falls (and conservatives bag on Portland), but why make up lies to appease yourselves? That's very unbecoming of you.

I have never lied on this forum or anywhere else. My statements can be easily documented, and my sources are available, just search on my screen name (I have written on the meth issue before, and don't see any reason to type this material over again.) One could also research the Oregonian articles, the DEA website, or the local newspapers.

An accusation of lying, without proof, is a personal attack by definition. Any further such incidents will be flagged to the mods.

[Todd.LA]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

I must say, I found your comments about people who live in Portland just as, if not moreso unbecoming. People are people everywhere. There are good and bad. Small towns, including K Falls, don't have a premium on the good any more than Portland has a premium on the bad.

I'd ask you ... why make up lies to appease yourself?

In my experience, Portlanders spend very little energy thinking about rural Oregon; whereas rural Oregonians seem to be seething with resentment towards big liberal Portland and its residents.

At any rate, people have clearly voted with their feet as to which part of the state is more appealing to live in.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

I must say, I found your comments about people who live in Portland just as, if not moreso unbecoming. People are people everywhere. There are good and bad. Small towns, including K Falls, don't have a premium on the good any more than Portland has a premium on the bad.

Ya know what- you have a point. I probably do bag on Portlanders too much.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by frgmnt13

All right people. I am sorry about my comments about K falls. One thing is clear. We all love Oregon for one reason or another, and there is obviously room enough for all of us. (That's a rare thing). However, I did not lie about a thing. Dramatized perhaps, but lie never. I experienced what I experienced. The Meth seems to be bad t/out the NW. It is wierd, because it is really not a problem down here on the Gulf Coast. Crack is still an inner city drug du juor. I love your state, and hope I will be welcome there despite my oppinions. As a born and raised Texan, I cordially invite you all to come live here. You can have it. I've always hated it. Now let's all be friends.

Very well stated.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by Todd.LA

In my experience, Portlanders spend very little energy thinking about rural Oregon; whereas rural Oregonians seem to be seething with resentment towards big liberal Portland and its residents.

At any rate, people have clearly voted with their feet as to which part of the state is more appealing to live in.

I think there is resentment from those not in the Portland area. How Portland votes is how the state is. As one of many examples, when Portland voted for the whole state to pay for Portland's mass transit and thereby raising property & gasoline taxes for everyone there was a lot of bitterness. That's the problem when any state has one large city that's overwhelmingly liberal and the rest of the state is very conservative. Since there are so many more people in Portland, they dictate the entire state and those other people living in 95% of the lands feel disenfranchised- and that would be normal of them. It creates tensions between them.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

I think there is resentment from those not in the Portland area. How Portland votes is how the state is. As one of many examples, when Portland voted for the whole state to pay for Portland's mass transit and thereby raising property & gasoline taxes for everyone there was a lot of bitterness. That's the problem when any state has one large city that's overwhelmingly liberal and the rest of the state is very conservative. Since there are so many more people in Portland, they dictate the entire state and those other people living in 95% of the lands feel disenfranchised- and that would be normal of them. It creates tensions between them.

I will be checking this. I don't believe that Portland has or had the authority to raise taxes for the entire state to fund a project that would only benefit Portlanders. Gas taxes pay for roads, property taxes pay for schools. If some money were siphoned off for Portland from those revenue streams I don't think it was much. But as I said, much as I'd like to, I won't take your word for it that that is what happened.

H

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

I will be checking this. I don't believe that Portland has or had the authority to raise taxes for the entire state to fund a project that would only benefit Portlanders. Gas taxes pay for roads, property taxes pay for schools. If some money were siphoned off for Portland from those revenue streams I don't think it was much. But as I said, much as I'd like to, I won't take your word for it that that is what happened.

H

When I lived in K-Falls there was a big stink about property & gas taxes going up to pay for Portland Tri Met. I can't recall all the particulars, but my recollection was that it was via the Reps in Salem- the Portland lobby. Of course, the gov had no option but to go along as Portland places the gov. I do not think it was any sort of ballot initiative- if that helps.

[Todd.LA]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

When I lived in K-Falls there was a big stink about property & gas taxes going up to pay for Portland Tri Met. I can't recall all the particulars, but my recollection was that it was via the Reps in Salem- the Portland lobby. Of course, the gov had no option but to go along as Portland places the gov. I do not think it was any sort of ballot initiative- if that helps.

Overall, rural Oregon gets more tax dollars than it contributes, because most of the tax revenues are generated from income taxes and to a lesser extent property taxes. Metro Portland has much higher average incomes than rural Oregon. Likewise, property values are proportionately far higher in metro Portland than in rural Oregon. Yet, funding of K-12 education (around 1/2 of the total state budget) all goes through Salem and is divided more or less equally on a per capita basis statewide. If anything, Portland proper, which has some of the highest salaries and property values statewide and some of the lowest numbers of school-aged children per capita, is getting much more of a raw deal as far as state tax dollars go than rural Oregon.

I do understand rural Oregonian resentment on things like that bill about hunting using dogs and so forth. I think the resentment is more rooted in cultural differences and economic inequality.