Poor Taxes If it seems like you haven't gotten anything done yet this year, don't be so hard on yourself. According to a local budget cruncher, you've already paid your share of taxes to support state and federal welfare programs. The Center for Informed Citizen Action declared Jan. 3 "Unpopular Programs Tax Freedom Day." Steve Novick, the center's founder, calculated that by the end of the first full working day of the year, the typical Oregonian family (with $50,000 annual income) had earned enough money to pay the $191 of their taxes earmarked for welfare recipients and poor foreign countries in the year 2000. "You could say that today, Oregonians worked to pay for welfare and foreign aid," Novick said in his Jan. 3 press release. "For the rest of the year they will be working to pay off their mortgages, buy groceries...and pay for more popular government programs like Social Security and education." Novick, a former political strategist for the Democratic state Senate caucus, modeled his low-profile study on "Tax Freedom Day," the highly publicized creation of the national Tax Foundation. Each year, in spring, the right-leaning Tax Foundation issues a study claiming that the average American won't earn enough to pay his or her taxes until mid-May. Novick, who comes from the opposite side of the political spectrum, says he wanted to make the point that only a fraction of taxpayer money goes to fund the most unpopular programs: cash assistance and foreign aid. "Polling over the years shows people have wildly exaggerated views of what those programs cost," he says. "Even if you threw in other programs that help the poor, like food stamps and Head Start, it wouldn't radically alter the results." Here's how Novick arrived at his calculation: According to the state Legislative Revenue Office, a family of four making $50,000 a year will pay $2,730 in state taxes this year. Since 2.06 percent of the state general fund budget goes to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, that means a typical family pays $56.40 toward state welfare programs. At the federal level, that same family will spend $8,028 in federal taxes. Since 1.64 percent of the federal tax receipts will go to foreign aid and federal welfare, that means a typical Oregon family will pay $136.30. Together, that comes to $190.70 in combined taxes for welfare and aid. With 257 working days this year, a $50,000 salary translates to $194.55 per day - more than enough to take care of those pesky poor people - here and abroad. -- John Schrag Hai-2K Contest Due to some weird computer glitch that hit us over the weekend, we vastly underestimated the amount of space needed to publish all the winners of our Hai-2K contest. So for the next few weeks we will continue to print a selection of the best entries. Here are our favorites in the category of Political Commentary. HONORABLE MENTIONS (RECEIVE 15 MINUTES OF FAME) Uh, Metro Council, Spender of garbage greenbacks, What is your purpose? --Colby Phillips, Northeast Portland "The City That Works" May become a bright beacon Or a smoking wick. --Radames Pera, Southwest Portland Expectations sink Leadership in short supply Kitz and Katz slog on --Pat Weathers, Gladstone Tribal casinos and Lottery bucks gave us gambling addictions. --David Thompson, Northwest Portland WINNERS (RECEIVE A FREE LARGE PIZZA FROM CAPTAIN ANKENY'S WELL) Lon Mabon asserts "Gay culture in school's taboo." Don't you find that queer? --Michael Krzeszak, Southwest Portland The mighty Earl spoke: "Too much, we will grow no more!" Livability --Sean Mann, Southeast Portland Portlandia, so big and still. Like government. Keep City Hall perch. --Steve Teich, Northeast Portland A Man and His Island If Bob Pamplin Jr. wants to make up with Portland, he's off to a good start, but he still hasn't crossed the finish line. By announcing that his family's company, Ross Island Sand & Gravel, will cease mining Ross Island in five years, Pamplin has begun reversing some rather nasty public vilification that began last year. The problems started with a public lawsuit over the toxic materials that Ross Island Sand & Gravel allowed the Port of Portland to dump on the island, which the Pamplin family owns. On top of that, the Department of Environmental Quality found that the company had created its own illegal landfill on the island, where it dumped wood and metal offal. Then it was discovered that the lagoon on Ross Island is a nursery for endangered steelhead and chinook smolts that rest there on their migration to the ocean. So last month, Pamplin, a wealthy industrialist more accustomed to kudos for his philanthropic endeavors than criticism of his business operations, very publicly announced that his family is considering turning the island over to public domain when they are done with it. But how much of the island, and for what purpose? While environmentalists fantasize about a wildlife wonderland, Pamplin spokesman Len Bergstein is careful to point out that the company wants to continue operating its processing facility on Hardtack Island, which is connected to Ross Island. Mike Houck, the urban naturalist involved in all things green in Portland, says that's not his notion of a wildlife refuge. "That would be problematic," he says. "The noise from the processing plant is horrendous." Critics of Pamplin say he's publicly flirting with environmentalists to get the state permit he needs to continue mining over the next five years without being strangled by fish regulations. City Commissioner Erik Sten, however, says Pamplin's musings are genuine. Pamplin, Sten's largest single campaign contributor, wanted to leave the city a legacy, the commissioner says, and the two have talked about Ross Island's fate for several years. Sten says after the fish were discovered in the lagoon he went to talk to the magnate and tell him that he now faced environmental regulations he'd never dreamed of. "If you're going to do something big with Ross Island, I told him, you should do it now," says Sten. Of course, mining at Ross Island has always been a temporary thing--after all, there is only so much gravel to dig out. But Pamplin hasn't always been thinking about turning it into a public park. Documents from August 1998 that were released as part of the lawsuit with Port of Portland show that Pamplin and his advisers considered everything from a championship golf course to a health club for the coveted island property. --Patty Wentz - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published January 5, 1999