2006-01-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

We'll start out by a short introduction. I'm not highly educated. I'm not wealthy. I'm just a long term, hard working, over-taxed Oregonian that getting frustrated by the lack of fiscal education our politicians have, not to mention lack of common sense.
Let's start out with our education system.
1. Round numbers that I've heard are that Oregon spends approx. $12,000.00 per student towards basic education. The average teacher in Oregon makes $45,000.00 a year, some make more, some less. With 30 students to a class the cost is $360,000.00 per year. Take away the teacher's salary, that leaves $315.000.00 to operate the school operations. These are the questions I have. How many field trips to Ka-ne-ta, Oaks Park, Skate World, the Zoo, and too many others to list, without getting angry, and what is the educational value of thes trips? In the case of the Zoo, I see some value in the early years, but come on, let's be realistic.
2. Why is the Portland Public School Superentendent one of the highest paid public employees in Oregon? And if the Portland School Board can't balance the books and provided a proper education for our youth, why are they still office? In the real word, most of us would be un-employed.
3. Why does the Portland Libarian make more than County Sheriff?
4. Why did my county put in a temporary income tax, and still have to cut programs cause they can't make ends meet?
5. Why did the state give raises to Oregon Teacher before they even knew what the budget was going to be? Isn't that like a "post dated check" that the couldn't cover?
6. Wasn't the Oregon Lottery profits surposed to go towards education? Where's it actually going?
7. Why is there a school bus stop on every corner in Gresham? I've been told that if there's no sidewalk, the bus has to stop. Wouldn't it be cheaper to put in sidewalks? The home owner, at least here in Portland, has to pay for them anyway.
I could go on and on about waste and abuse of school funding, and I will later.

My next peeve is Oregon State Taxes.
1. Property taxes in the state are way too high. On my 50x100 lot, I pay over $2000.00 in property tax. The same lot in Washington state would be half. I know they have sales taxes, but they also pay no state income taxes. My Oregon State income tax is more than the Federal taxes I pay. That's just wrong!
2. Did you know that Oregons Tobacco tax is 65 percent?
3. Did you know that more than 40 cents per gallon is how much we pay for gasoline?
4. I paid $2500.00 to have sidewalks put in and the road re-paved, not by my choice, and the city came in two years later, tore up the streets, installed a sewer line and only patched the pavement ther tore up? When I asked why they didn't re-pave, I was told that the street wasn't good enough for re-paving. This also cost me another $5500.00, not including the $1500.00 it cos me for hook-up. Now my water and sewer bill is among the highest in the nation, why?
5. We voted aginst some of the Light Rail systems in place, they put it in anyway cause we didn't know what we wanted, huh? Most of the transit systems is running well below what it's capable of, and in the RED, but they still want more.
6. Bicycles in Portland are probably a good thing, but not in my opinion. Portland has designated bike trails on roads that are paid for by comuter that don't ride, but they've narrowed roads for bikes, given them the right-of-way, and charge them nothing for those uses. Is that fair?

I'm getting mad while writing this, my blood is boiling! Please let me know where I'm wrong and I'll reply.

Do Oregon Politicians need a basic math education?