Chief
11-14-2007, 04:15 PM
In My Opinion
Date: November 14th, 2007
As I have repeatedly said, you have got to love the Columbian and the Vancouver City Council. We can now add the current Commissioners of the Port of Vancouver to that list.
First they misled the public when they, during what appeared to be a good old fashion smoke filled back room session, attempted to impose an outrageous $132% property tax increase without a vote of the people. The tax increase they said was necessary to purchase, what turned out to be the highly contaminated Alcoa Evergreen Property, because sufficient funds were not available?
Fast forward to the post defeat of the port’s attempt to raise our taxes and the defeat of Port Commissioner Arch Miller, the architect of the property tax increase, the port has somehow found the funds to buy the contaminated property.
Why is the port in such a hurry to purchase highly contaminated property that has become the poster child for superfund cleanup sites? Why are they willing to risk our hard earned tax dollars to purchase the property before it is decontaminated or they know the extent of the contamination? It is my opinion that it is for the same reason they rushed to impose the property tax that the voters rejected. They are terrified that some nasty tax paying private industry individuals may be interested in the property once it is decontaminated.
When will the Columbian, the Port and the Vancouver City Council Learn that increasing taxes, boondoggles, secret deals, and the wasteful spending of our hard earned tax dollars will not be tolerated.
Voters in the recent completed election are to be congratulated. It appears that two members of the tax and spend crowd were fired by the people and the vote count received by the other two challengers was heartwarming. We will continue to monitor the words and deeds of the remaining members of the tax and spend crowd. Hopefully they will pay closer attention to the needs of the people. They are elected to represent us, not dictate to us.
Are we having an impact? You decide. Greg Herrington was heard to say at the close of the CCTV coverage of the Election Results that the peoples use of the Internet in general and yours truly in particular impacted the election. He could reduce that impact by spending more ink informing us and less time being a cheerleader for the tax and spend crowd.
We have the power to get rid of those whose only solution to any and all problems facing Us and Them is to raise taxes.
Stay tuned and please vote during every election. If you don’t you may someday lose the right to vote.
L. M. Patella
CDR USN (ret)
Date: November 14th, 2007
As I have repeatedly said, you have got to love the Columbian and the Vancouver City Council. We can now add the current Commissioners of the Port of Vancouver to that list.
First they misled the public when they, during what appeared to be a good old fashion smoke filled back room session, attempted to impose an outrageous $132% property tax increase without a vote of the people. The tax increase they said was necessary to purchase, what turned out to be the highly contaminated Alcoa Evergreen Property, because sufficient funds were not available?
Fast forward to the post defeat of the port’s attempt to raise our taxes and the defeat of Port Commissioner Arch Miller, the architect of the property tax increase, the port has somehow found the funds to buy the contaminated property.
Why is the port in such a hurry to purchase highly contaminated property that has become the poster child for superfund cleanup sites? Why are they willing to risk our hard earned tax dollars to purchase the property before it is decontaminated or they know the extent of the contamination? It is my opinion that it is for the same reason they rushed to impose the property tax that the voters rejected. They are terrified that some nasty tax paying private industry individuals may be interested in the property once it is decontaminated.
When will the Columbian, the Port and the Vancouver City Council Learn that increasing taxes, boondoggles, secret deals, and the wasteful spending of our hard earned tax dollars will not be tolerated.
Voters in the recent completed election are to be congratulated. It appears that two members of the tax and spend crowd were fired by the people and the vote count received by the other two challengers was heartwarming. We will continue to monitor the words and deeds of the remaining members of the tax and spend crowd. Hopefully they will pay closer attention to the needs of the people. They are elected to represent us, not dictate to us.
Are we having an impact? You decide. Greg Herrington was heard to say at the close of the CCTV coverage of the Election Results that the peoples use of the Internet in general and yours truly in particular impacted the election. He could reduce that impact by spending more ink informing us and less time being a cheerleader for the tax and spend crowd.
We have the power to get rid of those whose only solution to any and all problems facing Us and Them is to raise taxes.
Stay tuned and please vote during every election. If you don’t you may someday lose the right to vote.
L. M. Patella
CDR USN (ret)