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by Bob Clark
If you are a registered voter of the City of Portland and have not done so yet, please go online at www.rethinkportland.wordpress.com [2] and sign the personal petitions to recall both Mayor Hales and Commissioner Novick. At the top of the website is the menu bar for downloading the petitions with instructions on signing and mailing. The deadline for gathering signatures is October 9, 2014.
Hales and Novick are both pushing a new “street maintenance” tax which would cost most every Portland homeowner and renter as much as $150 or more per year. They are refusing to give citizens any vote on this new tax, seeking to pass it with only a 3-to-2 majority vote of the Portland City Council.
Hales and Novick have put off this Council vote until November most likely because it is usually most difficult and expensive to gather signatures for referrals in the late fall and winter when weather drives people indoors. The Recalls are an effort to bring leverage against Hales and Novick to delay the Council vote once more, into a better season for signature gathering.
The Recall Effort now has its own office and experienced petition signature gathering leadership.
Also with regards to the street tax proposal, Dr. Eric Fruits provides a running dialogue on the political mischief and news behind the proposed new street tax/fee at www.nostreetfee.com [3]. In fact, there is an entertaining video of Mayor Hales doing his tax-them-and-tax-them-again rap.