letsmakeafriendship

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11365407

People are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would require all new tolls on state highways to go to a public vote before being implemented. They need 200,000 signatures to get this on the ballot. From there, people can vote as to whether they want this new rule or not. Polls are a regressive tax, like sales tax, that impacts low-income and working class people the most.

General info: https://votebeforetolls.org/ To add your name (requires a printer and mailing a letter) https://votebeforetolls.org/ip4-esheet-packet-2023-08.pdf

People are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would require all new tolls on state highways to go to a public vote before being implemented. They need 200,000 signatures to get this on the ballot. From there, people can vote as to whether they want this new rule or not. Polls are a regressive tax, like sales tax, that impacts low-income and working class people the most.

General info: https://votebeforetolls.org/ To add your name (requires a printer and mailing a letter) https://votebeforetolls.org/ip4-esheet-packet-2023-08.pdf

from eugene reddit:

Hey y’all! I’m a PR student at the UO working on a campaign to promote an upcoming exhibit at our local art museum. Would love to gather some community input via the linked survey. We would greatly appreciate your input and responses! 🙏

"The legislation [introduced by Wyden] targets a practice known as “buy, borrow, die” that billionaires use to avoid paying income taxes: A billionaire buys assets that appreciate in value, borrows against those assets’ increasing and untaxed value, and then passes on the assets to beneficiaries when they die, without paying taxes. Wyden’s legislation would require people with more than $1 billion in assets to pay capital gains taxes on the appreciation of value in these assets—such as real estate, stocks, or collectibles—regardless of whether they are sold."

Been generally happy with this guy, he's got a long and great track record of defending people's right to privacy.

Barbie Walker is running for the Ward 7 seat and is the candidate of choice for local republicans and MAGA hat wearers. Who is funding her campaign? I pulled the data from orestar and here's the results. I have left out individuals unless they are associated with a well-known local business.

• $2,500 cash and $13,328 in non-monetary contributions from the Eugene realtors PAC Eugene Association of Realtors
• $2,000 cash from building industry PAC Oregonians for Affordable Housing
• $2,000 cash from Divine and Hammer LLC (idk who they are)
• $4,000 Oregons for Affordable Housing (PAC for development companies)
• $1,500 Lane Professional Firefighters Association
• $1,500 Dennis Morgan (VP of Renewable Resource Group)
• $1,500 Sierra Pacific Industries
• $1,290 Plumbers and Steamfitters PAC
• $1,000 Thorin Management
• $500 Dr. Mark Osterloh (local Ophthalmologist)
• $500 Barry Mason (owner of Oregon Taxi)
• $250 MSH Consulting (local consultant for non-profits)
• $250 John Charles Walker (former owner of Taylors Bar and Grill)

All of this spending is since 2020.

In the last election for Governor, they gave $10,000 to Friends of Tina Kotek but also gave a combined $85,000 to Betsy Johnson (widely acknowledged as a spoiler to help Christine Drazan) and Christine Drazan.

Here's that breakdown:

• Friends of Christine Drazan (R Governor Candidate last election who ran against Tina Kotek) $7,500
• Run Betsy Run $75,000 + $2,500 to another Betsy PAC.

In fact, if you look at any local R race, Tillamook likely donated to them. Their donation list is basically a "who's who" of OR republican candidates. Here's a few more donations:

• Friends of Boomer Wright PAC (OR House of Reps): $2,000
• The Leadership Fund (for supporting R candidates) $27,500
• Evergreen Oregon PAC (for supporting house R candidates) $20,000
• Friends of Suzanne Weber $5,000 (R OR Senate)
• Committee to Elect Daniel Bonham $3,000 (R OR Senate)
• Tim Knopp for State Senate $25,00 (R OR Senate)
• Denyc Boyles $2,500 (R OR Senate)

One of their biggest expenditures was to "Stop the Metro Wage Tax" which they spent over $250,000 on. I don't know enough about the measure's history to say one way or the other where it lands on the political spectrum.

All this is public info you can find on Oregon's ORESTAR system https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/gotoPublicTransactionSearchResults.do?cneSearchButtonName=prev&cneSearchContributorTxtSearchType=C&cneSearchTranType=C&cneSearchTranSubType=CA&cneSearchFilerCommitteeTxtSearchType=C&cneSearchTranSubTypeName=Cash+Contribution%2CIn-Kind+Contribution&cneSearchTranTypeName=Contribution&cneSearchTranStartDate=09%2F01%2F2020&cneSearchTranEndDate=09%2F15%2F2023&cneSearchContributorTxt=Tillamook&srtOrder=asc&by=FILER&cneSearchPageIdx=1