In just a few months, the city of Portland will begin investing the proceeds from a groundbreaking new tax on large companies.
No other city in the U.S. has such a tax.
The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, or PCEF, will raise as much as $60 million a year from a new tax on big retailers. The money is supposed to supply clean, efficient energy and jobs to people the city has long slighted.
The overarching goals: to provide members of underserved communities with valuable skills while insulating, caulking and tweaking inefficient heating and cooling systems and installing rooftop solar panels at the homes of low-income Portlanders.
The new tax, and the still-developing ideas for how to spend the money, signal a sea change in Portland politics.
At its core, the concept transfers wealth from big corporations such as Walmart to low-income Portlanders of color. It's a local version of the Green New Deal proposed in 2019 by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). It's also part of a larger political effort to reshape who calls the shotsāand who benefitsāin America's whitest big city.
(Excerpt) Read more at wweek.com ...
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SO TODAY.....
Taxman by George Harrison (after paying British socialist tax rate of 95% as a wealthy earner)
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I donāt take it all
āCause Iām the taxman, yeah Iām the taxman
If you drive a car, Iāll tax the street,
If you try to sit, Iāll tax your seat.
If you get too cold Iāll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, Iāll tax your feet.
Donāt ask me what I want it for
If you donāt want to pay some more
āCause Iām the taxman, yeah, Iām the taxman
Will FOOLS never learn?