HJR 201: Awful statewide property tax to bail out politicians of crime wave they created

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Lawmakers have authored HJR 201 which would create Oregon’s first ever statewide property tax and use it to fund public safety.  HJR 201 would allow this statewide tax to be exempt from current limits on property taxes — Measure 5’s (1992) rate limit and Measure 50’s (1997) assessment limit.   HJR 201 would be a referral to voters.

HJR 201 wishes to raise new taxes to fund more publci safety in response to Oregon’s recent crime — a crime wave caused by the politicians’ extreme liberal and pro-criminal policies.

Politicians recklessly create crime wave.

In 2017, liberal lawmakers passed a bill (HB 3708) to reduce prison time for thieves, which includes property, ID, and auto theft.  Portland released scores of Oregon’s worst car thieves onto the streets, and only two years later, the city was ranked the fifth highest city in America for car thefts. (KPTV 3/2/23)

Also in 2017, liberal lawmakers passed a bill reducing prison time for hard drugs.  Three years later, the drug legalization lobby pushed forward a statewide ballot measure decriminalizing virtually all hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, meth). The measure helped direct hundreds of millions of tax dollars toward treatment services, but it took the Oregon bureaucracy nearly three years to make most of the money available. Only 50 out of 382,000 Oregon addicts received help using M110 funds.  A big sham.

Defunding police

Portland defunded its police department by nearly $15 million and cut 100 staff positions.  At the same time, the city ended its gun violence response task force because of liberal complaints that enforcing gun laws disproportionately affected minorities.  Following these changes, homicides have spiked by 88%, and Portland saw the highest increase in homicides in America in 2020. During the Portland riots, super-liberal District Attorney Mike Schmidt dropped 70% of riot charges (665 total) which fueled more riots, which fueled more crime. (Oregonian 10/6/20)

Releasing 1,000 criminals early

Then Oregon Governor Kate Brown gave 1,000 inmates early release from prison between 2020 and 2022.  In complete secrecy, Gov. Brown conducted Zoom call interviews to chat with criminals behind bars and offer them early release.  Both crime victims and prosecutors (who knew the cases well) were kept out of the process.    Because early released criminals are 50% likely to be re-arrested for another crime within three years, you can imagine what releasing 1,000 criminals did for Oregon.

Now comes HJR 201 which punishes homeowners for the sins of criminals and liberal lawmaker policies.

 

*** Hearing on HJR 201, Tues. Feb 13th, 1:00PM House Rules Committee, State Capitol.  Please show up and testify here.

*** Learn more on HJR 201.  Link here.

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