realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hAnd it's not a little bit. The top bracket takes the city rate on Portland profit from 3.25% to 15.6%. The city's own example goes from $227,500 to $1,092,000. Cutting bottom rungs is the cheap way out, so that's what the bill pays for. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8h"More higher paid positions" is the problem. Alphabet pays no surtax, and a chain full of part timers pays the top rate. The bill rewards a payroll with no bottom rungs, and the people who lose are the ones looking for a first job. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hHeadcount isn't the point. The formula only looks at the worldwide median, and contractors don't count. So contracting out janitors and security, franchising, self checkout and fewer part timers all lift the median. Nobody gets a raise. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hCutting a third of the budget mid year didn't add one bed. It moved money into grants, and the piece they could legally cut was litter pickup. So the hazards just sit longer. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hOver 4,600 of the camps the city removed last year were blocking a sidewalk. That puts people in wheelchairs and kids walking to school out in the street. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hYes. The person in the tent gets hurt first by the needles, human waste and fires right next to them. Crews picked up over 18,000 sharps in 2024, and 41% of Portland fires in 2022 were homeless related. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hI post mostly about Kotek because she's the one with a record to grade. She's governor and schools chief, and 41.5% of third graders read proficiently. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hEasy. A third grade reading gate that ends social promotion, graduation requirements restored, enforced permit deadlines, and a full audit of homeless and addiction spending. I'm for every bit of it. Each one's a deadline or a check. 300 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hShe even said "We don't have to do new construction," just buy existing buildings. That adds zero homes. Fewer builders, more empty public units, higher costs. This is government making housing more expensive for everyone. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hAnd it costs more. Metro's affordable projects averaged about $461k a unit. The city's own study puts a regular market rate building at about $423k. So "affordable" housing costs more to build than market housing, and she wants more of it. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 8hMorillo wants more of the government-run housing model, and that model is the mess. Home Forward had 955 of its 6,847 units sitting empty, it took 185 days on average to fill one, and citywide there are about 1,900 empty affordable apartments while people sleep outside. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 9hHe has a fundamental misunderstanding of economics, incentives, and human nature. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hOHP Bridge got the harshest audit finding there is, and the fixes run to December 2028. Families needed the nursing license treatment this week, not in 2028. 111 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hIn 2023 you set a goal of 36,000 homes a year. Oregon permitted fewer than 15,000 in each of the last two years, and you cut the goal to 29,359. The licensing board got a deadline and met it. Housing missed and got a smaller number. 111 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hSo when a governor leans on an agency, it delivers. Licenses went from months to days. That means the big failures were never out of your hands. You chose where to push. 111 1
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hYour own city economist puts the net at about $33M, not the $72M you keep selling. A surtax that pushes companies to cut entry level jobs is a strange answer to people leaving. 110 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hThe rate runs off CEO pay over the worldwide median worker, and part timers drag that median down. Walmart is 958:1 and a Portland raise doesn't change it. The bill gives stores a reason to cut hours, hiring, or put the next location outside the city. 130 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hThe 2.4% mixes two pockets. A federal tax cut isn't a pile sitting in Portland. Fair Share bills Portland net income, and the CEO's paycheck doesn't move a dollar. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hPermits were 14,839 in 2025 against a goal she cut twice to 29,359. Announcements aren't results, and people can tell which one they're getting. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 12hIt's not a marketing problem. People live it. OPB's own piece says Oregon is on track to build fewer homes this year than when she took office, and homelessness appears to have grown statewide. Nobody needs an ad to see that on their block. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 13hThen he wanted to cut $4.3M from camp cleanup. People living on those blocks deal with that every day. If your compassion keeps making things worse for the people you say you're helping, you're doing it wrong. 110 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 13hTake Fair Share. It's pitched as a tax on CEO pay, but the CEO doesn't pay a dime more. The way the bill is written actually gives companies a reason to cut part time and entry level jobs, so that's who gets hit. Even the city's own economist says it nets $33M, not the $72M they keep saying. 210 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 13hI don't care about his resume. My problem is his ideas are bad. Green is basically James Taggart on city council. Everything's "for the public good," and every time it's the people actually doing the work who get stuck with the bill. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026So "you'd lose more with Drazan" doesn't hold up. What you'd lose is four more years of nobody answering for homelessness up 19% and kids who can't read. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026What the governor does run is the agencies. OHP Bridge got an adverse audit, the harshest rating there is, and the fix plans run to December 2028. An agency that never faces new management has no reason to hurry. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026A governor can't repeal a law alone. Every change goes through the Legislature, where Democrats hold 18 of 30 Senate seats and 37 of 60 House seats. Worst case is gridlock on new bills, not your protections getting torn out. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026"I'd rather nothing get fixed." That's the whole Kotek campaign in one line. Tell it to the kids who can't read and the families in tents. Nothing getting fixed isn't safe, it's just somebody else paying for it. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026On rights, Democrats already hold a three fifths supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature. Rights written into state law don't hinge on one office. So I'd judge Kotek on what's happened here, not on what happened in Florida. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Kotek declared a homelessness emergency her first day in 2023. It's still on in year four, and the last count had Oregon up 19% while the country fell 3%. When one party knows it wins anyway, the basics stop getting fixed. A tent on the sidewalk is what that costs. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Neighbor here, and I get it. A government that works matters, and Oregon isn't Florida. I'm not arguing that. I just think "functional" should mean the basics work for the people who live here. Can I make the case? 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026So you don't like her, can't defend her record, and you're voting for her anyway. That's exactly why nothing gets fixed. She already has your vote, so why would she change anything? Homelessness up 19% is what a guaranteed vote buys. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026You didn't dispute one number. Your defense of Democrats is that Republicans are bad at winning. That's not a record, that's a participation trophy. A kid who can't read doesn't care who fumbled. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Democrats have run Salem for over a decade. Governor, House, Senate, the works. Nobody's blocking them. Yet homelessness is up 19%, most juniors can't read at grade level, and unemployment's a point above the country. At some point you have to ask if the ideas are the problem. 120 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Abuse complaints from people in city funded shelters deserve a real investigation, no matter who's asking. I mean that. But the same energy belongs on keeping shelters open and parks usable. Those folks are waiting on the basics today. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026And no, you can't pin it all on the mayor. Under the new charter the council sets the budget. All 12 of them. Whichever bloc you like, it owns this too. Ignore the tone stuff if you want. The list above still stands. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Picture someone whose shelter closed. Or a family at a run down park, part of a $700 million maintenance backlog. Council time and political capital are finite too. Weeks on a foie gras ban or a Zenith probe that found little are weeks not spent on them. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Picture someone whose shelter closed. Or a family at a run down park, part of a $700 million maintenance backlog. Council time and political capital are finite too. Weeks on a foie gras ban or a Zenith probe that found little are weeks not spent on them. 010 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026The replies have a point. Decorum matters less than outcomes. So grade the council on outcomes. Two budget cycles in a row of cuts to police, fire, parks and transportation. Shelters shuttered. Another $100 million plus deficit coming. That's a bad report card. 310 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Not just insurers scaring people. The Hospital Association says it adds taxes and complexity and could destabilize a struggling system. Vermont's killer was its own governor's math. Admin savings are worth chasing, but taxes are certain. Show me the rates before the vote. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Not just insurers scaring people. The Hospital Association says it adds taxes and complexity and could destabilize a struggling system. Vermont's killer was its own governor's math. Admin savings are worth chasing, but taxes are certain. Show me the rates before the vote. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026One payer also means one price list. Pay specialists less and you don't get cheaper care, you get fewer specialists. The shortage shows up as longer waits, not prices. And a payroll tax on employers over $500k is a cost on hiring. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Vermont passed single payer in 2011. Then its own Democratic governor, who ran on it, killed it when the math came in at an 11.5% payroll tax plus up to 9.5% of income. Oregon's record isn't better. Cover Oregon never enrolled one private customer online. Measure 23 lost 78.5 to 21.5 in 2002. 200 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Premiums are brutal, billing is a mess, and people skip care over cost. A 30 year old making $55k on a silver plan pays $5,478 a year now. But "closest" just means untested. The tax rates aren't set, so the $2,331 example rests on rates nobody has written. 100 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026When the people delivering a service write the rules for how it's judged, you don't get accountability. OEA's own PAC report says public education "has declined" under the governor it gave about $389,000 in 2022. Meanwhile a kid "only has one shot at third grade." 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026"But it's funding." OPB says Louisiana and Mississippi don't outspend Oregon, and Oregon spent $18,083 a student. Rhode Island and Washington do spend more, true, and the governor running schools whipsaws priorities, which Kotek owns. Not blaming teachers. It's the union's lobbying. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026OEA's record runs right into that. It testified for the opt out law, and in 2021 said it "has worked just as intended." In 2024 about 30% of 11th graders didn't take the state test. Its resolution says high stakes tests shouldn't be used to "fail students." That rules out a reading gate. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026OPB lays it out. Salem leans on "entrenched stakeholders representing the very groups ... that major reforms would force to change." OEA is one. Louisiana improved, and Mississippi did it with tougher standards and tests, school grades, and holding back third graders who can't read. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026The small business exemption is a good idea. 18,000 businesses, around $900 a year each, and it could pass on its own. It just starts in 2028, a year after the hike. I'd happily see that one pass. I'd just keep it separate from a tax that pushes chains to cut the entry level jobs. 010 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026If chains price the same everywhere, Portland shoppers won't eat it. Then it lands on hours and headcount, which can change here. Either way it's the cashier and the student picking up shifts. The bakery's $75 a month is easy to see. The shift nobody posts isn't. 000 0
realpdx.bsky.social @realpdx.bsky.social · 14/10/2026The CEO's paycheck doesn't change a dollar. The tax hits Portland profits. So the cheapest way for a chain to fix its ratio isn't raises. It's fewer entry level jobs on its own payroll. Contract out, more self checkout, or a new store just past city limits. That's incentives, not history. 020 0
