It is almost as patriotic as voting.

You can barely make out the tear stains.

I thought fondly about how much of it is going to Homer Williams. That made it extra special.

Fond though I am of the tradition of the yellow envelopes, I looked into paying my Multnomah County real estate tax bill by electronic funds transfer (EFT) transfer. See, www.multcotax.org

Fourty one cents is fourty one cents and I'd rather the price of the stamp stay in my pocket. If I save ten stamps paying bills, I can buy a one way ticket for a ride on the tram for which I am paying $ 55 million dollars, and still have dime left over.

I can go online at PGE or NWNG or Qwest and do a 1 time payment by EFT from my checking account to the utility, or set up a monthly draft against my checking account for the bills, all at no charge to me for the electronic transfer itself.

But with Multnomah county, an electronic funds transfer to pay the real estate taxes requires a $ 3.00 fee which apparently goes to some outside third party vendor named SameDayPay / E Serve.

God bless government.

Ted Wheeler, are you listening?

Here are the numbers form the League of Women voters memo posted on Amanda Fritz's blog

"City of Portland: $59 million of collected property taxes plus $14.5 million in special levy money goes to urban renewal annually. Of the $59 million, $24 million is diverted from Portland’s General Fund, $19 million is diverted from Schools and $15 million is diverted from the County annually

River District URA: $19 million of collected property taxes now go to urban renewal annually. That number will rise as assessed values rise. Of the $19 million currently collected, $8 million in taxes is diverted from Portland’s General Fund, $6 million from Schools and $5 million from the County annually. Only $7 million in property taxes collected on $359 million of assessed value (the frozen base) goes to the General Fund, Schools and County. The current assessed value of the River District now is $1.3 billion (almost a four-fold increase). *

*Downtown Waterfront URA: $7.7 million of collected property taxes now go to urban renewal annually. That number will not rise since DTWF is an Option 3 District. DTWF also receives $7-8 million annually from the Urban Renewal Special Levy. South Park Blocks URA: $5.6 million of collected property taxes now go to urban renewal annually. That number will not rise since SPB is an Option 3 District. SPB also receives $2.1 million annually from the Special Levy."

Remember that is an annual cash flow, NPV of that cash stream is more.

As I said the other day...the organism needs to feed itself. For PDC to continue they need more URAs.
As I wrote the check I could only think of all that money NOT going to schools and road repairs and other tangible items.

But with Multnomah county, an electronic funds transfer to pay the real estate taxes requires a $ 3.00 fee which apparently goes to some outside third party vendor named SameDayPay / E Serve.

Wait 'til some bureaucrat in the county screws up and taps your account for the money twice. See how long it takes to straighten that one out. 41 cents is cheap insurance.

See how long it takes to straighten that one out. 41 cents is cheap insurance.

If you think a Federal bureaucracy is somehow "insurance" against mistakes made by a local one then...

...You're right! Why didn't I see this all along?

Hey, that's fun!

It was a pleasant moment when I discovered that the new "pay online with your credit card" feature resulted in an additional $100 "convenience" fee. I guess when my property taxes quadrupled from 2006, this minor additional tax shouldn't come as a big surprise?!?