LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[February 15th, 2006] PROMISE KEEPERS

I'm often amused and entertained by WW's occasionally comic, youthful and funky style of reporting, but I was not at all amused by your latest cover story on broken promises made by local officials and others ["But You Promised!," Feb. 1, 2006]. Either treat the entire subject with light humor or take it seriously, but mixing some serious issues, such as school funding, with mostly dimwitted fluff, ends up reducing the entire article to mere meaningless mockery.

The blurb on temporary tax increases to fund schools, titled "Temporary Insanity," more aptly describes the author who wrote this piece than the people he portrays as the perpetrators of broken promises. The piece blames primarily Multnomah County and city officials for pushing a "temporary" 1.25 percent local income tax hike to "keep classrooms functioning smoothly while giving the Legislature time to come up with a long-term fix" and then effectively breaking their promise by asking for a new four-year city-only tax plan.

Let's be clear who broke the bigger promise: the current federal administration which, despite its rhetoric, has dramatically shortchanged schools across the nation, our own Oregon Legislature under the leadership of Karen Minnis, which has led our once-flourishing Oregon public-school system to be the laughingstock of the nation (one of the only promises Minnis keeps is her promise not to raise taxes, a promise which has devastated our state and has only shoved the burden to our local leaders), and most importantly we, the shortsighted taxpaying citizens of Oregon, who have time and again voted statewide not to progressively raise taxes to pay for the vital services we depend on. Then we go blaming local heroes, such as Mayor Tom Potter, who dare to exhibit real leadership and try to take us in the right direction, dare to actually for once KEEP a promise—the promise of our children's future and the future of our economy.

"So how pissed should voters be?" asks the WW author of the possibility of another local tax hike for schools. The answer is "extremely pissed," but not at the local tax fix which is necessary to keep our struggling schools afloat. Rather, we voters should be "pissed" at Minnis and her legislative cohorts and hold them accountable for their broken promises and for once make the decision to fully invest in our own future.

Adriana Voss-Andreae
Northeast 10th Avenue