You know, not that I'd agree with this, but if they want more taxes, why not just raise the gas tax more? I mean, more disincentive to buy SUVs, right? They should be all for it.
I mean, I don't think their explicit goal is to actually become big brother, but jeez, if it were, I'm not sure what they'd do differently ...
In Oregon, all new "tax increases" have to be voted on by the people, calling it a "Fee" is a way of bypassing it. No one would go for a higher gas tax, so make up a mileage "fee" and you can bypass those pesky voters. Of course it doesn't matter because Portland and Eugene decide everything for this state and both those cities are chalk full of Stupid people willing to give the Government anything they ask for.
Oregon is screwed, it has a number of different balance sheets, all of them in the red.
It tried to "pave the way" for free health care, it's bankrupt, the state has to borrow a ton of money to keep it going.
They don't give a crap about Private property. In fact they have this quasi governing body called METRO. Which is like a council of "experts" that plan and oversee the development of every community in the State. Essentially, if a city wishes to expand it's city limits, it would have to go through them first. News roads? New Buildings? You wanna put up a garage on your property? It all goes through METRO. My Mothers neighbor has an Acre of land in NE Portland, one of those few surviving neighborhoods from the 50's, when yards where important ya know. He wanted to put up a garage, a single car garage, attached to the side of his house. METRO would not allow it, because in 20 years there will be a road on that spot leading to and area which is now his backyard, which will be low income housing. He owns the property outright, it belongs to him, and yet.....he can't build a garage.
They've completely killed the only industry Oregon had, timber. Its gone, forever. Mills are expensive as hell to build and when they shut down, they rust, they corrode, those machines don't just "fire back up". Thousands of rural workers out of a job because of these idiots in Portland. Radical Environmentalists, The kind that hammer metal spikes into a tree so that when a faller goes in, his chainsaw breaks on the spike and cuts him in half. They forced out Private ownership citing the endangered "spotted owl", among other things. Once the forest couldn't no longer be maintained by Private industry any longer, the government took it over, didn't thin it out, the woods caught on fire, and killed the Stupid Spotted owl anyway.
If you are a rancher, they don't want you to shoot a wolf attacking your cattle, they will in fact fine you if you do. Just make a call to "animal control" (ROFL) And they will come out and capture the beast. So while your cattle are being shredded to ribbons by a rabid wolf, don't do anything, wait over an hour for animal control to show up capture it and release it a few miles down the road where it will promptly return to your property to finish killing the rest of your herd.
They've killed the fishing industry, they are actually paying fishermen to NOT FISH. And yet at the same time, they allow sea lions to hang out in reservoirs across the state, and eat endangered salmon to their hearts content.
This state is broke, and morally bankrupt, which is why I'm moving to Montana. Any good areas in NW Montana any one knows about?
Our right to travel is inalienable. This whole scheme is a horrible idea on many fronts.
