We got our property tax bill from our friends at the Multnomah County Assessor's Office the other day.

The assessed value of our home went up by 3 percent over the previous year, the maximum increase allowed by state law.

And so our property taxes went up by...

8.89 percent!

That's, what? Four times the rate of inflation? How does anybody afford to live here any more? Livability, my arse.

And then I look over there on the right side of the bill and check out the few hundred going to "urban renewal -- Portland."

Translation: To the guys who run the Pearl District.

To the OHSU tram.

To the trolley.

Percentage of the bill going to public education: 27.96 percent. That's not counting school district bonds, which eat up another 4.92 percent.

And yet we'll have to pay an income tax increase of 13.89 percent this year, too, or else the schools will have to close.

Imagine how homeowners on fixed incomes feel.

Imagine how unemployed homeowners feel.

Imagine how sick homeowners feel.

Hey, look, I'll pay, and I'll stop whining now. But when inane anti-tax ballot measures like 5 and 50 win by wide margins, don't run around slapping your forehead and moaning, "How?! How can this happen?!"

It's because our local government is wasting entirely too much money on rich people's toys, and it's p*ssing the rest of us off.

Many observers have rightly called PGE and Pacific Power dirty rotten scoundrels for playing the property tax card in the PUD election. But the utilities know where there's a huge store of justified outrage to tap into, and they're experts at harnessing all those negative ions.