Talks about sales tax again? Where do these people keep coming from?

Bend Bulletin

One of the changes that have been suggested to a state task force that is considering tax code changes, is to vastly reduce property taxes, and or eliminate them altogether for homes that are worth less than $1 million.

The catch?

You have to agree to pay 6% sales tax.

The task force won't release any recommendations until the end of the year, however, pollsters have told the panel that Oregonians are unlikely to support the creation of a sales tax unless other taxes are eliminated.

not to mention the fact that we have told them nine times that we DON'T want a sales tax at all."

Of course, if you don't like the idea of a 6% sales tax, how about a 5% sales tax in exchange for a $25,000 property tax exclusion?

let's see... the last time that a sales tax looked like it might become a reality, all of a sudden (yet not unexpectedly) the city of Eugene chimed in by stating that it would add a "city sales tax" to the mix.

The county of course, not wishing to be left out, wanted to also add a county tax.

So once we allow ANY sales tax to get started, it just opens up a Pandora's box and a feeding frenzy for new taxes.

OMG! It's been almost a month!

WOW! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted anything.

My apologies to my readers.

I've been in training on new job for the past four weeks, working 12-13 hours a day and have been pretty much dead by the time I got home.

Things are starting to smooth out a little bit and I will pick up blogging again real soon.

There are a lot of things going on in Eugene right now, so much so, that there is enough time to touch on everything.

Stay tuned... I'll be back shortly.

Sincerely,

Robin

Another reason why I like XP

Microsoft is warning Vista users about upcoming update
BBC News
Microsoft is warning Vista users that the next service upgrade (SP1) may actually cause some third-party programs to stop working, some will not run and others will lose some of their functions.

Programs such as Trend Micro Internet Security and Zone Alarm Security Suite, are just a few of the programs that will be hit by the upcoming release of SP1.

some of the programs that are affected...
"BitDefender AV
Fujitsu Shock Sensor
Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10
Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008
Trend Micro Internet Security
Zone Alarm Security Suite
Iron Speed Designer
Xheo Licensing
Free Allegiance
NYT Reader
Rising Personal Firewall
Novell ZCM Agent"

isn't it interesting that the programs listed above are designed to block viruses or keep an eye on places someone visits online?

One of the things that Microsoft boasts about its Vista operating system is its increased in the security of its operating system and also how it is used to combat piracy.

Personally, I will stick with XP Pro or switch to Linux if I have to.

Interesting....

Senator Clinton -- you will have health care or else

The New York Times--
Senator Hillary Clinton D-NY left open the possibility on an appearance this week with George Stephanopoulos that if elected, her government would garnish the wages of people who didn't comply with her health-care plan.

Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly asked Senator Clinton three times about garnishing wages of people who refuse to participate in the program, Mrs. Clinton replied...

"we will have an enforcement mechanism, where the risk that or it's some other mechanism through the tax system or automatic enrollments."

Clinton indicated that such mechanisms would not include penalties or fines.

they don't have to pay fines... we just want them to have insurance. We wanted to be affordable. And what I have said is that there are a number of ways of doing that. Now, there is not just one way of getting to that."

Clinton commented that the focus on enforcement was clouding the issue of her proposal to cover the uninsured which would mandate coverage for all not just children.

Massachusetts, the only state with an insurance mandate, as thus far failed to enroll nearly half of its uninsured despite imposing a modest first-year tax penalty of $219 which increased significantly this year.

A point raised by Mr. Obama was that under Hillary's health care plan, forced everyone to buy insurance even if you cannot afford it or pay a penalty.

let me see if I have this straight...

Under Clinton's plan, health insurance will be mandatory.

The reason for mandatory insurance is because a large number of citizens are without insurance.

One of the major reasons I do not have insurance (speaking personally) is because I cannot afford coverage at this time.

So, if I cannot afford universal health care, where do I get the money to pay the penalties?

And if I pay the penalty for not having insurance, will that automatically enrolled me in the universal health care plan?

Both candidates, Clinton and Obama have the right idea that the US needs some type of universal health care and I think that they should take some examples of other systems around the world and use a system that will work.

In the meantime, let's put the Clintons on a strict $35,000 a year income and see which expenses that they choose to cut back.

I will bet you that health care would be one of them.

English-speaking Americans are being demoted for not speaking Spanish as Oregon begins to strictly enforce language rules.

As per conversation on Daniel's blog, the issue was brought up regarding Americans being required to learn Spanish in order to get or keep their jobs.
Some of the postings in response to that thread, indicated that no one has been required to learn Spanish and/or that it was okay for an employer to require employees to learn a new language as an amended job requirement.

Anyway, case in point ...

Hat tip to Lars Larson for pointing out the following article.

June 2006

Fire Crew Bosses Who Can't Speak Spanish Can Lose Jobs.

the Denver Channel, 7 news --

Officials are now having to lay off firefighting bosses who are not bilingual for safety as many new hires in Oregon only speak Spanish.

"What we do know is 85% of the crew makeup is of Hispanic dissent." Said Jim Walker of the Oregon Department of Forestry, "our main concern is that they are safe, and they are in a safe environment, and a law that deals with communication."

The argument is for safety reasons, all bosses must speak the same language as their crews on the fire line. They want to make sure that the leader of the crews can quickly communicate during an emergency.

"If you have one Spanish guy on the crew, as an English crew boss, you can no longer be a crew boss. You have to step back to a squad boss, which is a demotion." Said Jamie Pickering.

Pickering, can no longer work as a crew boss and supervise 20 firefighters. He can now only manage a squad of four firefighters.

The language requirement change in Oregon was made in 2003 after devastating wildfire season in 2002 which had contractors scrambling to find help.

"We're living here. We should speak the language." Said Manuel Franco, a contractor for fire crews.

"Why doesn't the state require these crew members to speak English?" The state does not have a clear answer.

The mortgage crisis...

CNN

The recent housing crisis has got me wondering about events in 2005 when banks decided that it was good practice to start giving mortgages to illegal aliens. E.g. Bank of America, etc.

The bank industry stated that it was a "win-win situation" and saw it as an "untapped" source for a growing revenue stream.
Not everybody agrees...

"It's institutionalizing illegality," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a New York-based think tank told CNN. "Now there's no distinction being made between the people that follow all the rules and those who break our laws by entering the country or overstaying their visas."

Dinerstein was also worry that this could lead to a form of "predatory lending."

Advocates on the other hand said the benefits outweigh the potential downside.

"This is a huge untapped market with people that live and work in this country and are capable of buying homes to realize the American dream," said Chan Peterson, executive vice president and head of community banking at Banco Popular, one of the earliest banks to enter this field.

Peterson added that there is a common misconception that illegal immigrants will be more likely to default on their loans than a documented resident.
except for the little issue of risking deportation.

"Illegal immigrants are here to stay and banks are recognizing that." Said Alenka Grealish, manager of the banking group at Celent, an independent research and consulting firm.

Grealish added that banks are careful to follow guidelines that the government has already have in place.
The risk for the bank is lowered because secondary markets such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to buy mortgages from banks that lend to illegal immigrants.

"Banks are counting on the fact that we do a lousy job with interior enforcement," said Celent's Grealish. "Once you're in the country and you haven't done anything wrong, the chances of being deported are very slim. Banks are banking on that."

first of all, I think that it would be a higher risk for a bank if the person that they loan money to risk deportation at any time.

For example, once you've been deported, it is a felony to return to this country.

So looking at the housing issue at the moment and with all the loans that are being defaulted, I just am curious if this has anything to do with it.

would you still use YAHOO if Microsoft owns it?

Microsoft Corp. has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid $31 a share for YAHOO on Friday.

The combination of Yahoo and Microsoft would crave Harpold number two player in the online search business currently dominated by Google.

This could be good news for Yahoo has announced Tuesday that it would lay off 1000 employees by mid-February citing what it describes as "headwinds" facing the company.

Yahoo has made some changes over the recent year, such as adding more storage space for its Yahoo e-mail, however, has been unable to control its spam.

In either case, I am a Yahoo user, and the question I have for my readers are...

How do you feel about Microsoft and Yahoo merging?

"We don't need your money... we need to prioritize your money."

Robin's Commentary --

"We don't need your money... we need to prioritize your money." Was a quote from President George Bush today when he was giving a speech at the Hallmark company.

That one statement is a message that I would like to send the city of Eugene.

Just to make sure that they understand that... let's break that statement down.

1. "We don't need YOUR money"
it is OUR hard-earned money, not money that is just sitting there in a pile for the taking.

2. "We need to PRIORITIZE your money."

The city of Eugene needs to set his priorities straight in my opinion.

We need to make our city safe as a priority, then businesses will relocate to the city and banks will be willing to loan money for development.
Currently, one of the reasons why Eugene is having so much trouble renovating downtown, is because banks will not loan money for development because downtown is considered a "depressed area."

When I used to work downtown I always felt very uncomfortable walking by myself. In fact, three weeks after we relocated downtown, one of my coworkers had his old pickup stolen from the parking garage.

Demonstrating that you're able to prioritize the money would also make it a lot easier to raise more money because it would infer confidence in the citizens. Reference Springfield as an example.

In my opinion, the city of Eugene needs to take an example from the president.

ODOT's Road Users the Task Force (RUFTF) final report for GPS gas tax collection system

ODOT --

2001, a task force was established through HB 3946 and passed by the 2001 Oregon Legislative Assembly in order to find new methods to "ensure a flow of revenue sufficient to annually maintain, preserve and improve Oregon State, County and city highways and roads system."

The "system" would require placing a GPS recording unit within your vehicle in order to collect a variable tax which would depend on the location, time of day, and the amount of congestion of the road being traveled.

The system would collect the tax by interfacing with the GPS system with the gas pumps.

In its 12 month feasibility study, 285 volunteers with 299 motorists and two service stations in Portland were outfitted with the GPS system and interfaces.

The task force findings were that the concept is viable and that 91% of the progress participants said that they would agree to continue paying the mileage fee in lieu of the gas tax if the program was extended statewide.

The study also showed that the mileage fee could be phased in gradually alongside the gas tax allowing non-equipped vehicles to continue paying the gas tax. Retrofitting the vehicles however at this point appears to be expensive and difficult.

The study also showed that different pricing zones could be established electronically and the assigned fees could be charged for driving in each zone.

this proves the mileage fee concept could support not only congestion pricing but also assignment in the collection of local revenues and other "zone oriented" features. Furthermore, the area of pricing strategy applied in the pilot program produced a 22% decline in driving during peak periods."

ODOT developed the system with specific engineering requirements to maintain privacy.

The next step is for the Oregon Mileage Fee Concept will require additional development and testing in order to prepare for full implementation. This will require ODOT working with technology firms and automotive manufacturers for implementation within the next 10 years.
I particularly like the point of "22% decline in driving during peak periods" due to pricing strategy.

This is another example of how they are trying to get us out of our cars and into public transit.

Let's take a quick look at these two systems and how they compare for 1 gallon of gasoline.

The current system of pre-paying the tax at the pump means that you would pay for
$.24 plus federal and city fees {source:Oregon.gov} no matter where or when you drive.

Under the proposed GPS system, the amount of tax that would be paid for that 1 gallon of fuel would vary depending on the day, time, and location traveled and would be paid at the time of the next fill up. Total cost, unknown.

In short, under the current system, if I wish to buy $10 worth of fuel, I could calculate easily how much do I would get versus the proposed GPS system.

Those are just a few of the reasons why I personally feel the GPS system is a bad idea.