Taxes and Fees

My wife asked me to check out two bills, HB 2436 and HB 2461.

HB 2436 is an Oregon bill designed to provide housing needs for the poor by increasing the fees collected by county and state clerk offices by $15.00. They expect to raise 19.6 million dollars over the next two years. According to the Marion County Clerk, Bill Burgess, in all 36 counties during FY 07-08, there were only 972,723 taxable transactions. Lets do simple math 15 x 972,723 - 19,600,000 = -5,009,155, where are they going to get the rest? Mr. Burgess also says there has been a 20% decline in Oregonians using this service. Lets do more math. 15 x (972,723 x .80) - 19,600,000 = -7,927,324. I wish a legislator could do simple math. The other question is who will be responsible for the low income rentals. Are we now going to let the government operate rental units or are they going to set prices at privately owned apartments? Either is unacceptable in a free society.


HB 2461 Beer tax. The premise is to use the tax money to pay for prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. What about the wine and spirits producers, don't they need a tax increase too? What about the drug makers and dealers? Should they not also contribute? The funniest thing to me is that we are taxing some of the people that need the help. Hey I forgot a group, the home brewers, we need to tax them also. How you ask? Impose taxes on hops, yeast and other products needed to make beer. In a time of economic downturn this is not what we need. Drug and alcohol problems are not are biggest concern at the moment. While we debate the need to raise taxes, more and more Oregonians are losing their jobs only to feel the government taking more money away from them.

These two bills will just grow government, tax the middle and lower class, and reduce liberties for Oregonians. Some legislators think this is good for Oregon. Let's examine some other revenue streams that harm all Oregonians. Tobacco tax, who smokes more the rich, the middle class, or the poor? Poor. And the lottery, who purchases most of the lottery tickets? Again, the poor. Gas tax, who drives the most? You get the picture. The very people that need most or all of the help that these tax streams provide are paid for by the people who have the least amount of income to spend.

Harry

E-mail to Senator Morse

Dear Senator Morse,

Please do not draft any legislation that imposes a tax on anyone in Oregon. I believe that one of the core values of the Republican Party is to limit taxation. Yes, there is a shortfall in the budget, and yes, the economy is bad. Consider what your values are! Republicans know that in times of economic downturn that the only course of action is to lower taxes to get the economy moving. Consider cutting the budget. I do not want Oregon Legislators to follow the Federal lead of tax and spend and spend and tax and spend some more. Enough with deficit spending. Work within the budget. I know it's not easy to follow a budget, I have to follow one every month, I just don't ever spend more than I have. Please work with the money you do have. Our future depends on men and women, like you, having the strength to seek a way to balance the budget.

Harry

Letter to Senator Kruse

Dear Senator Kruse,

There is no conclusive evidence that there is global warming. Al Gore's movie has no scientific basis to stand on. It was mostly made up using poor and sometimes untrue data. Climatologist at OSU do not believe the Earth is getting any warmer than it has been in the past. Green House gases entering our atmosphere have not even approached levels that have been discovered frozen in Antarctic ice. The media has used scare tactics to keep American's sitting on the edge of their chairs waiting for the next environmental disaster shoe to drop. Environmentalist also use scare tactics such as if you don't comply with what I say you must want to kill children. The language may not be the same, however, the message is clear and for them undebatable. I believe that it is our duty to move towards an electric society vs an oil society. I believe we need to develop solar, hydrogen, and fusion power sources, however, I do not believe that our current energy usage is changing the environment for the worst. There are too many factors to look at. What I do believe is that we need to reduce our need to import resources. Our deficit is a result of American's not wanting to change our ways of spending what we don't have, wanting the government to take care of us, and a move to a more secular society. As Eddy Izzard said "there were only to civilizations that placed their hands over their hearts, Rome was one and the US is the other. Are we destined to repeat history or will we move forward and overcome our current situation. It is my hope that individuals like yourself whom represent many will make decisions that are not right and liked always, just righteous.

Harry

The Dollar Store Gift

I will let Emma explain.

The Problem with Snow!

When I was growing up in Hawaii I dreamed about heading up Mauna Kea to gather Hawaiian Snow. We would four-wheel there with coolers sliding in the bed of the pick-up for storage of the famed ice. Once there there would be the snow ball fight and ice down the back. Heavy breathing and headaches, due to the altitude (13,000+ feet) on the peek. We would fill our coolers and make the log journey back home. We would enjoy snow cones made form the "snow" (it is mostly ice) by putting sugary flavored syrup (my favorite being strawberry) all over; fun and joy.

I attended college in Oregon. My first year there while sitting in my Computer Science Class, it began to snow. My first real snow. Of course I wasn't the only Hawaiian there and on this day it was not hard to find us. Since most of us had never seen snow fall form the sky, we stood outside, looking up trying to catch a few flakes on our tongs, all the while wearing our shorts and slippers. After a while in the frigid air, most of us went looking for a heavy coat and shoes to protect us from the cold. After a few days of freezing, this white stuff is not so fun after all.

I returned to Oregon in 2001. By this time I had forgotten about the dissatisfaction I had with snow. We had wet winter and no snow. Never crossed my mind. We live at 500ft we should not get snow. I was wrong. This is why I hate snow. It is dam cold. It turns bad drivers into people who should not have a license. It is the only thing people talk about. I have to scrape it off my windshield. Did mention it is cold. Not everyone shows up for work. the people who come to shop think the end is near. It is cold. My child won't stop sining "I love snow, I love snow....etc. samui des nei. (it is cold in Japanese) The same people who complained when it was too hot now complain that it is too cold. etc. etc. etc.

So my problem with snow, I need to get some syrup, throw a few snowballs, and put some snow down someones back and have some fun. I just wish that after I was done playing in the snow I could sit down in Kailua-Kona and enjoy the heat.

Harry

QBQ

Why am I angry? Well I could blame it on the people who did not send information out on time. I could blame technology for not getting the message across in time. I could blame the person who writes up the reports. I could do a lot of blaming. Does that get me in a better position? No. I need to ask the QBQ (question behind the question). What could I have done better to facilitate a better outcome? How could I have better communicated what I wanted, when I wanted it done and the consequences of lack of action?
This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time was not a pleasant experience and this time is not looking any different. I have let down my family and now need to do something to fix the situation. The first thing I am going to do is to be on top of the people who are supposed to be helping me. Sounds silly that I need to supervise people that are supposed to be providing me with a high level of customer service. In the end it is my responsibility to insure that everything goes according to plan.
In all seriousness I hope that I will help this group of people learn what it is to be accountable. I know I see them for a service. Now I need to take it into my own hands to get the best service that they can provide.

Harry

Obama Wins

For those who don't know me, I am a very conservative person. I believe in a limited government, strong military, low taxes. I believe we should uphold laws, reject abortion, and care for others. Unfortunately many Americans were sick of the way the country was being run and wanted a change. We elected Obama as the 44th President of the United States. I say we not the liberals elected Obama, because I am not a poor looser. Unlike many liberals who said Bush was not their president, Obama is my president because I am an American. Even though I did not vote for the man or his politics, he is still the president of the United States.

So what now? Liberals will say you lost and lost big. Okay, so what? There has to be winners and losers. Am I going to cry over spilled milk? No! I propose we now need to work harder. We need to educate ourselves, look for alternatives to our arguments, be a movement of self-reliance, generate debate that leads to solutions, and most importantly stand up for our way of life. With that in mind here are my ideas for the President Elect:

• Get rid of the IRS. Our tax code is so large that we spend billions of dollars, both public and private, to complete tax returns, collect taxes, and enforce tax laws. The simple solution is a flat tax on both individual income taxes and corporate taxes. No more deductions. For example: I make $100.00 say the flat tax is 10% I pay the government $10.00 easy simple. Business taxes, my company made $1000.00 my company pays $100.00. No one gets a refund no one takes a deduction. Imagine all the trees we would save not having to print all of those forms or for that matter refund checks. How about the oil, gas and all of the other natural resources that would be saved. And lets not forget we would also lower our carbon foot print. In one short paragraph I have outlined pluses for both sides of the issues. Environmentalists get more trees, less pollution, and smaller carbon foot print, Liberals get no tax breaks for the rich and large corporations, and Conservatives get fair taxes, smaller government, and less paper work.

• Remind the courts that they are to enforce the laws not create them. When people vote on an issue the courts have no right to over turn the outcome. Remember why we had a revolution in 1775? So we could live in a free republic in which the majority rules, not one decided by a few people or for that matter one. The minority needs to strengthen their argument and convince more people to their side. And when it is voted on by legislative or individual vote, both sides need to live with the outcome and not sue the other.

• Get rid of the Death Tax. The Death Tax is a punishment on Americans who want to create a change in their family tree. The money or assets they leave behind have already been taxed. Leave it alone!

• Get the country out of debt. We need to have a country with zero debt. Need to know how? Ask me or Dave Ramsey. It is very easy. Build and emergency fund, lets say for the U.S. a Trillion Dollars, pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball, fully funded emergency fund 30 to 90 years of savings, 15% of the GDP to retirement accounts, fully funded college fund, and finally give to the poor in the world.

• No more bail outs! American companies need to follow excellent business practices. When they fail they fail. We do not bail out the millions of small businesses that fail each year why should we bail out large corporations?

• Leave successful people alone. We often punish successful people by raising their taxes. Stop it! Let everyone decide where to spend their money. If I want to support a soup kitchen let me do it, if I want to give money to raise awareness about shin splints let me. It is my money. I earned it and I can do with it as I please as long as I don't break laws or hurt others.

• Read the book "What I learned in Kindergarten", simple advice for a lifetime of success.

Harry