If the Republicans had been in charge of this election you could bet your bottom dollar the “race card” and other accusations would have been made about the conduct of the election.

Last Tuesday’s Primary Election was conducted worst than any numerous blantant acts of voter fraud committed during an election. Chaos and confusion over shadowed the true intentions of the politicians.

Both political party’s slates were contested in the at-large council and district council races. Both political party’s benefited from the mess. Personally, I think this was planned to control the election’s outcome.

Mike O’Connor, Democrat Party Chair stated he delegated his auhtority to Beth White to find inspectors. Yet, two weeks out, they knew they were short 200 inspectors. There were no news conferences or appeals made publicly for citizens to step forward and help.

Mayor Bart Peterson had to know that Ms. White needed help. Given all of the city-county employees. The Democrats could not recruit enough personnel to man the polling sites. So much for The Democrat Party’s machine.

We know what went wrong – there weren’t enough inspectors.

We know what has to be done for November – recruit more inspectors.

Long term, there are lots of other options: reduce the number of precincts, create voting centers, utilize absentee voting like Oregon, etc.

We could discuss long-term strategies to improve the system or short-term fixes as temporary solutions.

Or, you know, we can just keep bitching about Beth White. Whatever boosts your ratings, I guess.

On another topic, the state budget:

Your fawning over the state budget director this morning was hilarious. He sounds like a nice guy, but he doesn’t let history get in his way whilst making an argument:

The PTRF (Prop. Tax Replacement Fund) is a decades-old mechanism. It sat largely dormant until 1973, when then-Gov. Bowen proposed a huge reform. The kind of “reform” that was shoved by one or two powerful lobbies, and the kind of reform a doctor must’ve thunk up. The rest of us couldn’t afford it. He doubled the state sales tax, and put a large chunk of the increase into the PTRF. And the legislature demanded that county treasurers cite the PTRF as a legislative “gift” to property taxpayers. From one pocket to another…isn’t that great?

This was all done at the behest of the then-powerful Farm lobby. All before the market value approach to property assessment was mandated by a court.

What you’re seeing now is a quantum shift of the already-existing tax burden, with a small inflatioanry increase in overall money raised. But who pays that bill is being redefined–BIG time. The main categories: residential, commercial, agricultural–are seeing dramatic shifts. And there are even some shifts within each category. Long overdue, as we trend into real property values for assessments. What a concept, huh? The market deciding the value of a property, not an artifically-low (for some homeowners and farmers) assessor’s crib sheet.

That shift will be painful. And artificial “help” like the PTRF doesn’t make it any better. Reality sometimes sucks. But once in place, firmly, it will give each of us a solid indicator of our property’s worth, and thus, its tax impact. Without guessing too much. The implications could be–and in some cases are likely to be–that some homes have been drastically under-assessed for decades.

If the legislature had acted on Tax Court Judge Fisher’s ruling in a timely manner, any potential increases in property taxes might have been able to be spread over time. But now, local units of government are being asked to cut more and more, which in some cases is necessary, but because of the legislature’s inaction for six years, except for these PTRF “gifts”, the structure has to reform overnight. The pain will be loud and difficult for some. But it was avoidable, and predictable.

Abuse of the PTRF, as an economic shell game and a “distract them with shiny objects” item, is a largely-Republican ploy that got its comeuppance in 1973. And has changed very little since.

It is the legislature’s job to put in place, a system whereby property is assessed and taxes levied. The amount of those taxes is not the legislature’s job. It is the job of each local unit of government.

And most local units have modest, if any, increases in 2007 over 2006 spending.

Not that their bureacracies haven’t l=bloated and need some trimming.

But the lion’s share of this blame rests on the legislature for continuing to use the sugar-teat of PTRF as a “We Helped You” vehicle, when they should’ve reformed the whole structure. This tinkering around the edge, and giving taxpayers artifical “cuts,” is chickens— politics and ignores the real problems.

End of history lesson. Thank you.