Vote for Matt Wand

By Bill Flynn

Matt Wands opponent in the Oregon State Legislative District 49 election campaign needs to have a simple lesson in common decency. Civilized and respectable people do not tell lies. Apparently he never learned this. Many of us have by now received the mailings from Matt Wand’s Democrat opponent. He knows Matt Wand is winning the campaign race on his metrits including support for local jobs and building a stronger community. but since Wand’s opponent has so few merits, out of desperation he fi lls our mailboxes with lies and trash. I do not want to be represented by someone who can’t tell the truth. So I am not only voting for Matt Wand but after receiving the recent mailings from his opponent I am sending Matt Wand a check.

Local Jobs in East County is One of My Top Priorities

By Matt Wand

My goal as your next State Representative for East County is to focus on helping to create local jobs, here in East County. In the twenty years since the initial MAX line was built, it appears that East County has more and more become a “bedroom community,” with more and more jobs locating in downtown Portland, Beaverton or Hillsboro. Our industrial areas—such as the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park—have not developed to help foster additional economic growth. This leaves our neighbors sitting in traffic as much as one hour in each direction, or on the MAX for even longer.

The time that our neighbors spend commuting should be family time. Instead, it is wasted time, leaving us with fewer opportunities to be involved in community groups, or simply spending time with our own children. We will have a stronger community when all of us work closer to our homes.

I have been committed to this goal as City Councilor in Troutdale. During my time on City Council, I have helped establish the Troutdale’s Open for Business Plan, in which businesses can open in Troutdale or expand their existing businesses into empty storefronts for free or reduced planning, permit and inspection fees. We were able to enact this plan after learning that a local business was facing in excess of $20,000 in planning and permit fees to expand. I felt that was excessive, and that the first $20,000 spent by a business should be for employees, inventory and equipment—in other words, items that spur our economy, rather than government.

I also promoted a suspension of the scheduled increases in residential utility fees in 2009, and defeated a new gas tax, because the economy in 2009 was so poor that our neighbors needed relief. During this same time period, my opponent was voting 39 times to increase state taxes and fees, at a cost of $4.1 billion over four years. He voted to tax hospitals, which will likely increase the cost of health care. He voted for a 5% reduction in education funding, and then allowed the governor to cut another 9% in education funding without making an effort to stop it this summer.

He took away our right to vote on Multnomah County’s Vehicle Registration Fee that hits our poorest neighbors the hardest, in order to pay for a new Sellwood Bridge that connects wealthy Portland neighborhoods. His proposal also took away $50 million in revenue sharing that would have come to the Multnomah County Cities from the fee. Although he claims to support East County receiving its “fair share,” in this instance he only made sure that Multnomah County and Portland continued to use East County as a revenue source for their own benefit.

East County needs representation that understands our community, that will stand up to other areas in our region to protect our interests, and to promote East County as the best place for new businesses to bring local jobs. I have a proven track record of doing just that, and I will take those values and strategy with me to Salem as East County’s next State Representative.

A Fresh Change for Salem

Editorial in the Public Forum Section of NW Connections – October Issue

State government is in a real malaise. Government has budgeted far more than they are receiving in tax revenues. With few exceptions state leaders have been very slow to respond in a devastating economic downturn that has affected all of the private sector and left thousands of families without jobs.

However, a fresh breeze is blowing from Troutdale. Enter candidate for State Representative Matt Wand who is running for District 49. District 49 incorporates the cities of Troutdale, Wood Village and Fairview and adjoining neighborhoods. Wand is currently serving with distinction on the Troutdale City Council.

Matt’s desire and goal is to make Oregon inviting and open for business. There is much room for improvement here. Oregon’s shortfall in state revenue and ruinous private sector job losses, he believes, are the direct result of a less than business friendly attitude in Salem. His vision is to start by reducing barriers to businesses. Budget priorities such as public safety and education are crucial, but raising taxes in a struggling economy when families are hurting and businesses are failing will only further weaken our economy.

Wand brings experience, tenacity and a keen insight into how government should work and will prove to be a positive and innovative leader in representing the people of our East County cities.

To download a .pdf of the NW Connections, October issue, click here!

Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian

Apparently, the Oregon House Democratic campaign committee is taking political lessons from Sarah Palin.

As the GOP vice presidential candidate in 2008, Palin quickly proved herself a master of the guilt-by-association game when she accused then-Sen. Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists” because he knew a guy who 40 years before been a leader of a radical group involved in bombing the Pentagon and Capitol.

Now, as The Oregonian’s Janie Har reports, the House Democrats’ FuturePAC has taken that kind of attack a notch further by trying to imply that three Republican legislative candidates are supporting a 30 percent sales tax.

Their reasoning?  Well, the three candidates – Shawn Lindsay of Hillsboro, Patrick Sheehan of Clackamas and Matt Wand of Troutdale – have ties of one kind or another to Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group with an active chapter in Oregon.

In turn, a lot of folks involved with Americans for Prosperity – if not the group itself – happen to be supporters of the so-called “Fair Tax” proposal.  That movement wants to abolish federal income and Social Security taxes and replace it with a 30 percent sales tax.

That connection was enough for FuturePAC to churn out hit pieces like the one that landed in Wand’s district recently.  “Is now really the time for a sales tax?” says the cover.  Inside is the answer: “Matt Wand thinks so.”

The flier goes on to helpfully explain that Wand “is campaigning with a group that wants to impose a 30 percent sales tax on Oregon.”   A similar piece against Sheehan calls it “his sales tax!”

All three legislative candidates say they aren’t supporting a sales tax.  And if they become legislators, they wouldn’t have any ability to pass the “Fair Tax” proposal anyway because it involves the federal tax code.

Ironically, the most prominent candidate raising the idea of a sales tax is the Democrat at the top of the ticket in Oregon this year.  Former Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is running to reclaim his old office, has backed previous sales-tax proposals and continues to suggest it as a way to reduce Oregon’s heavy reliance on income taxes.

I wonder what he thinks when he see his fellow Democrats helping poison the well for any sensible discussion of a sales tax in Oregon.