The Lake Oswego City Council has voted to increase utility taxes to divert that money to schools. They claim it’s temporary. I’ll believe it when I see it.

The council has not been tasked to fund schools. Schools have their own funding mechanism. Now what will inevitably happen is the continued increase of both funds with the taxpayers holding the bag. When this “temporary” check jack is over here’s the press release you’ll see,

The Lake Oswego City Council has voted to increase ______ fees/taxes to fund the local school district which is a precipice of devastating cuts (the one time money being taken away).

Stay tuned. Mission creep has just been approved and your tax dollars are not safe. There’s never an end to the ‘good’ that these people can do with your money.

The mayor promised $2,000,000.00 to schools from city coffers. He had no standing–that’s right, no standing–to make a promise ‘gifting’ tax payer money from utility fees to give over to schools. He should be cashiered and so should the rest of those who voted to begin allowing the city to fund the schools.


…[Bill] Tierney joined Mayor Jack Hoffman and councilors Donna Jordan and Sally Moncrieff in approving the fees.

And these people should be retained:

Councilors Jeff Gudman, Mary Olson and Mike Kehoe voted no .