The Sizemore Screw--Delusional Edition

Oregon's own ballot initiative abuser Bill Sizemore implored Oregonians last week to thank our lucky stars for the screwing he's given us or write to him to find out how to get unscrewed.

Not being one to pass up an opportunity to out the delusion that is Sizemore, I took the undifferentiated ego mass up on his offer:

from Loaded Orygun [loadedorygun@gmail.com]
to Bill Sizemore [bill@otu.org]
date Nov 29, 2006 2:35 PM
subject Sending off my tax "savings"
mailed-by gmail.com

Dear Bill:
I read with interest your LTE to the Bend Bulletin regarding the tax "savings" Oregonians have been dealt with the passage of your Measures.

As someone who generally opposes what you do and how you do it, I'm writing to inquire (as you requested) how I might in fact refuse this "savings".

Thank you,
Carla
Loaded Orygun

Bill never ceases to dissapoint:

from Bill Sizemore [bill@otu.org]
to Loaded Orygun [loadedorygun@gmail.com]
date Nov 29, 2006 2:59 PM
subject RE: Sending off my tax "savings"

Carla,
When you pay your taxes the old fashioned way, you have no real say over how the money is used. However, if you do not wish to accept the savings from my measures, you will able to direct all of the money you saved from Measure 50 to the specific programs you most fondly embrace. Pretty much every government accepts gifts and donations.

Here is all you do. Take the real market value of your property and multiply that number times .015, which is the amount your tax would be absent my measures (but still taking the savings from Don McIntire’s Measure 5, which frankly has little impact today). Take this 1.5% figure and subtract from it the amount of your current property tax bill, minus the bonds and other voter approved add on taxes, which are exempt from the limitations of my measure. This simple calculation will tell you how much you saved from Measures 47/50. You can then write a check for the amount you saved to your favorite government entity.

Doing this should save you a lot of unnecessary guilt. If everyone who voted against my measure did this, governments would receive hundreds of millions of dollars more every year.

I should mention that this was a lot easier under Measure 47, the way I originally drafted it. In the original measure, I actually required a new line on the property tax statement where a property owner could refuse the savings from the measure and direct the savings to the government program of their choice. Interestingly, the legislature in redrafting my measure as Measure 50, refused to include that provision. Why? I suspect it was because property tax bills are a public record and all of those phonies who opposed my measure knew good and well that they were going to keep those savings, if everyone else did, and they didn’t want the world to know that they were hypocrites.

I hope this helps. It really is not hard to calculate.

You should also note that the contributions of your savings to your favorite government program are probably tax deductible. However, you probably wouldn’t want to claim the deduction, because that would diminish the effect of your contribution by lowering your income tax obligation.

Feel free to post this response on your website. If enough of your friends joined in your effort, you could reduce the impact of my measure by 48 percent.

Sincerely,

Bill Sizemore

Hmmmm...so all I have to do is some basic math, write a check to the gubmint and that's that, eh?

Not so fast, Bill.

Your Measure might make my check to the Oregon Department of Revenue smaller. But its made many of the other checks I have to write quite a bit larger. Due to drastic cutbacks in the public schools, I've been writing some pretty big checks to cover costs for things the government used to pay for ever since my kids enrolled (in 1996). Things such as computers, new projectors, new white boards to replace old chalkboards, after school programs, etc. have all come out of my pocket.

These costs have more than negated any "savings" I might have netted from your Measure.

Since you're so eager to accept responsibility for my "savings", I'm sure you'll have no problem accepting responsibility for my increased costs. Please email me your snail mail address so that I can bill you for these expenses.

And before you claim that folks who don't have kids in the public schools shouldn't have to pay taxes for those schools, think again. Unless you plan on privatizing every government service and program--that argument is specious. Public schools are the foundation of this state and this nation. If we don't all pay to keep them at the highest standard possible, then we all pay later with an ignorant electorate.

Oh...my bad. Maybe that's your intent in the first place. If so, at least have the balls to be honest about it.