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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2011)
opinion No on Portland School Measures “challenging People to Shape a Better future now” B ernie f oSter Founder/Publisher B oBBie d ore f oSter executive editor t ed B ankS advertising Manager J erry f oSter account executive l iSa l oving news editor B rian S timSon reporter d avid k idd graphic Designer m onica J. f oSter Seattle office Coordinator W ho doesn’t want to support education? Who isn’t shocked by the bad repair of public schools in Portland? And now the big question: Who can afford another $700- $1,200 in property taxes every year for the next six years? Because that’s how passage of the Portland schools levy and bond measure would hit house- holds and businesses if they are both approved by voters next week. Costing $2 per $1,000 per assessed value, Portland School District Measures 26- 121 and 26-122 dwarf other levy proposals we’ve seen in recent years. The Portland fire- fighter levy last year was 13 cents per $1,000; the Oregon Zoo levy in 2008, 9 cents; the Portland Community College levy was a whopping 35.5 J ulie k eefe S uSan f ried Photographers f rom tHe P uBliSHer Bernie Foster the firings illegal – the two fund- ing measures now on the ballot are like a slap in the face to homeowners in a down econo- my. As The Oregonian PolitiFact analysis showed last year, http://www.politifact.com/ore- gon/statements/2010/nov/23/ca role-smith/portland-schools- superintendent-carole-smith- says-/ Superintendent Carole Smith’s claim that the measure would “impact” 40 percent of all students is simply incorrect. The district says it want to spend the nearly half a billion dollars in new taxes on complete rebuilds of Cleveland, Jefferson and Roosevelt High Schools – but together these schools only repre- sent 23 percent of the district’s student popula- tion. The Oregonian’s PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter gave Smith a “Pants on Fire” rating for claims made during the funding meas- ures rollout last November. The district’s sketchy financial pitch for the levy and bond measures underscores what’s wrong with how the school dis- trict relates to taxpayers and families. Bringing out the We argued over the size of some of those measures at the time – but $2? The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 the Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub - lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of the Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. cents. We argued over the size of some of those measures at the time – but $2? For a school district that has earned so much public distrust of its financial decisions – such as firing the entire janitorial staff to save $4.5 million and then paying more than $10 million a few years later when the Oregon Supreme Court ruled © 2011 the Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. knowing what’s important can change your life! Subscribe to The Skanner – don’t miss an issue! Please sign me up for: q 1 year $74 q 2 year $140 q New Subscription q Renewal ________________________ name _________________ address _________________ city _________________ State ______ ZiP ________ Phone Mail with check or money order to: The Skanner P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Page 4 The Portland Skanner may 4, 2011 largest bond measure in Oregon history – on the heels of a string of other funding measures brought by desper- ate local agencies – seems tai- lored to appeal to upper-income professionals at the expense of regular taxpaying homeowners who are watching to price of gas, groceries and insurance skyrocket. Considering that the state’s unem- ployment benefits expansion this week is already set to be wiped out early by the unprecedented demand of jobless workers, we simply can’t believe the Portland Public Schools could be so tone-deaf to its own community. One more thing: The Portland district is one of the biggest property owners in Portland. A facilities management audit released in 2008 showed the district owned six ‘vacant’ prop- erties; the report was titled, “Effort Needed to Improve the Capability of School Facility Maintenance Services.” Sell your vacant property, PPS. If you did, ironically, then those properties could be taxed to contribute to your own oper- ations budget. Who doesn’t want to support the schools? Who doesn’t want all our children to have the best educational facilities we can afford? But the bottom line here was we simply can’t believe the Portland Public Schools could be so tone-deaf to its own community stated best by New York guber- natorial candidate Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party: Portland School District Measures 26-121 and 26-122 are too damned high. Vote no on both and send the district back to come up with solutions that won’t tax us out of our homes and businesses. what do you think? Post your comment on articles in The Skanner News at www.theskanner.com
