Kotek wins worst politician award, more winners

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By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Here are the winners of the 24th annual 2024 Taxpayer Awards as voted upon by 500 mail responses from Taxpayers Association of Oregon supporters who voted.

♦  WORST OREGON POLITICAL FIGURE  ♦

WINNER: Governor Tina Kotek.  In a highly controversial and ethically dubious move, Kotek created an office space for her wife in the governor’s office and hired her a full-time, $11,000-per-month government-paid scheduler assistant. Kotek’s wife was accused of using her position to lobby lawmakers. Four top Kotek officials resigned during this scandal— chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, legal advisor, and communications director. (Willamette Week 3/23/24, KOIN 3/25/24, Oregon Capitol Chronicle 3/25/24)

RUNNER-UP: Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio.  During her campaign for mayor, the media reported that she had more than 150 parking/traffic violations, including six different driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and failure to appear in court. A mere 10 days after the story broke, she was cited for being involved in a hit-and-run fender bender.  As commissioner, Rubio hid information from the public and other city commissioners that one of her departments had a tax surplus of $540 million because she wanted time to build a detailed plan to spend it so others couldn’t. (OPB 9/9/24, Oregonian 9/20/24, Oregonian 2/24/24)

RUNNER-UP: PSU President Ann Cudd.  When anti-Israel protestors began vandalizing the campus and threatening Jewish students, Portland State University Ann Cudd invited the protestors to camp out, which led to more riots that shut down the campus and stranded 21,000 students for days. The protestors took over the PSU Library, blocked anyone from using it, scrawled “Kill all Jews” on the walls, and did a million dollars in damage. Rioters demanded that the campus reject funds from Boeing Co., which works with Israel, and Cudd complied by rejecting Boeing’s $175,000 donations. Protestors punched, spit on and called slurs to Jewish students, who did not feel safe on campus during the protests. Police arrest records revealed that the campus rioters were mostly non-students. PSU President Ann Cudd agreed to demands by these non-students, which led to shutting down the school and total damage of nearly $2 million. Financial losses prompted school officials to lay off 89 employees. At the same time of mass staff-cuts, Cudd hired retiring Congressman Earl Blumenauer for $100,000. (OregonLive 5/2/24, NBC 5/4/24, OPB 9/25/24, Higher Ed Dive 10/17/24)

♦  WORST EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT WASTE ♦

WINNER: $29 million migrant hotel. Oregon spent nearly $30 million on an airport hotel to house 469 illegal migrants at a cost of $61,833 each. The program soon became too popular, as one California non-profit directed its illegal immigrants to travel to Oregon for the free hotel service. Eventually the program closed for lack of funding. (Oregonian 2/9/24)

RUNNER-UP: $200,000 event for ’Kotek’s wife: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek spent $200,000 of taxpayer dollars hiring a consulting firm to put on a one-day mental-health conference that heavily featured Kotek’s wife. The $200,000 conference drew only 28 attendees — that’s $7,100 per attendee! (Oregonian 8/2/24)

RUNNER-UP: Only 50 addicts received help through Measure 110 phone lines. Measure 110 (which cost $260 million) removed prison time for hard drugs and replaced sentences with a simple $100 ticket and a new drug-rehab phone line. Only 50 people out of the 6,200 drug arrestees used the phone line. Police eventually stopped arresting people. (KOIN 11/15/23)

RUNNER-UP: The Portland Art Museum received a $250,000 tax bailout while showing “Psycho Beach Party” and firing 175 volunteers. The Legislature gave a $250,000 rescue package to the Portland Art Museum. One of its shows featured a film party for “Psycho Beach Party” and for “Dirty Dancing.” The Museum also fired 175 volunteers because they were not diverse enough in skin color and age. After the firing, the museum was begging for volunteers online. (Portland Art Museum, Tomorrow theater, event date 2/22/24)

RUNNER-UP: $38 million for one of the nation’s least-watched baseball teams, the Hillsboro Hops. Government officials allocated more than $38 million in state and local tax dollars to upgrade a stadium (only 11 years old) for the Hillsboro Hops baseball team, which ranks near the bottom 20% in terms of attendance at games. The team averages 1,800 fans, which equals a $21,000 tax subsidy for each fan. (OPB 3/9/24)

RUNNER-UP: $30,000 for noncitizens to buy a home. A government-funded program, Hacienda, advertised $30,000 grants for first-time buyers, but its first condition stated that the program was “Only for people who are not American citizens.” Under backlash, the program rescinded the condition, describing it as a mistake. See photo on front for example. (NY Post 8/24/24)

RUNNER-UP: State officials hid a beer tax study because it hurt efforts to lobby for an 800% increase in beer taxes. While Governor Brown advocated for a 800% tax, the Oregon Health Authority spent $60,000 in tax dollars to study whether a beer tax would coerce people to stop drinking alcohol. The study concluded higher taxes don’t curb alcohol use; drinkers just pay more in taxes. The state then hid the taxpayer-funded study from lawmakers and the public but did, in fact, share the results with an anti-beer advocacy group pushing for the same tax. The state got caught using our tax dollars to lobby for more taxes. (Oregonian 2/23/24)

•  Free $1,000 checks to criminal homeless. Kotek’s new pilot program, Direct Cash Transfer Plus, gives homeless young people monthly checks of $1,000. The program’s list of first priorities includes non-citizens and people with criminal backgrounds over citizens and those with clean records. (OPB 1/26/24)

•  $22 million in legal costs over foster care agency scandal. Oregon spent $22.8 million in legal costs defending itself against legal action over the state’s failed foster care system.  Problems included sending kids hundreds of miles away from their homes, putting them up in hotels for weeks, and ignoring blatant signs of child abuse. One teen was housed in more than 50 different foster homes. (Oregonian 11/13/24)

♦  BUREAUCRATIC BUNGLER AWARD  (Government mistake) ♦

WINNER: Tree crashes into home of owner who was denied a permit to cut it down for safety. A Portland homeowner who was denied a permit to cut down her towering tree had it fall on her house during the 2024 snowstorm.  Please also read 11 snow storm government blunders of 2024.  (OPB 1/24/24)

RUNNER-UP: Housing Department had 30% mistake rate. An audit indicates the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department erred nearly 30% of the time while distributing $426 million in emergency rental assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Oregonian 1/4/24)

RUNNER-UP: Most dentists (up to 70%) don’t accept patients with government insurance. Roughly 55% to 70% of Oregon dentists refuse to accept patients on the Oregon Health Plan because their staff finds the government paperwork to be unclear, tedious, and problematic. This means most can’t choose their own dentist. (Willamette Week 10/13/24)

♦  Golden Schnoz Award — Government sticking nose where it doesn’t belong  ♦

WINNER! District Attorney tries to ban oil. Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schmidt joined a $50 billion (not a typo) lawsuit against 17 oil companies and then paraded on the streets waving a no oil placard. Using law enforcement to bankrupt legal companies that one does not like is an abuse of power. The same DA, also dropped nearly 1,000 riot charges, showing that he lets violent criminals go free while making criminals out of energy companies. (OPB 6/22/24)

RUNNER-UP: State TV ad tries to publicly shame people into stop drinking wine.The Oregon Health Authority created a TV ad where a child shames her dad in a grocery store for buying wine with the message that “wine is not good for you.” The ad was pulled over the outcry. (Willamette Week, 7/25/24)

RUNNER-UP: Portland bans leaf blowers. Portland banned gas-powered leaf blowers on all public and private property by 2026. (OPB 3/13/24)

RUNNER-UP: Lawmakers tried to ban gas generators. Senate Bill 525 would have banned gas-powered generators that people use in emergencies/disasters. Senators saw it as a way to reduce gas despite their emergency use. (2023 Legislature)

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