Cougar Kit missing it's Mum :^(

[retired jerry]

you have to look at all taxes. Just looking at income tax is misleading.

What's weird is, California has both a high income and sales tax, lots of companies like in L.A. and bay area, yet they seem to be shorter on funds

[Steve20050]

you have to look at all taxes. Just looking at income tax is misleading.

What's weird is, California has both a high income and sales tax, lots of companies like in L.A. and bay area, yet they seem to be shorter on funds

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jul ... of-the-us/

Not picking sides here, but this is often cited as a major reason for CA problems.

[retired jerry]

That was a somewhat reasoned article. Usually, people just blame the problem on welfare, or illegal immigrants without much thought.

Although I still don't have a good feel for how much of the total California budget is on welfare, so it's hard to know if that's really that big of a problem.

But, take welfare. If, say, California has higher welfare, and Oregon has less, welfare people will tend to move to California. So there's an economic principal that forces states to pay less welfare. A war between states with ever decreasing amounts.

I have no problem having a portion of my taxes helping people that are having a hard time getting by, but I don't want to pay for other states poor people so the tax payers in those other states are off the hook.

Over the last thirty years, taxes have been diverted from higher education to K-12. Now, people routinely borrow $50K. Higher education should be low cost, then we'de have more people in good jobs making a healthy economy.

[Splintercat]

Tom are we not in the top ten for income tax? It seems the consensus is that we are, so where does all of the money go? I'd imagine it's just poor priorities?

We are, but as Jerry points out, you have to factor in the total tax picture -- as Oregon notably has no sales tax. If you look at total tax burden (sales+income+property+lottery, generally) we are usually in the middle of the pack, compared to other states. Here's an example from the Tax Foundation which puts the U.S. average at a total of 9.9% of income for state and local taxes, and Oregon comes in at 10%. Without a sales tax, a larger share comes from our income tax. But on the plus side, it's a progressive form of taxation (compared to our lottery, which is extremely regressive), so factors in ability to pay.

Back to ODFW, the main funding crisis for the agency comes from the collapse in hunting and fishing as sporting activities. The legislature has a surplus this year (likely to trigger our bizarre "kicker" refund), but there's little talk about shoring up ODFW -- the focus is entirely on schools. So, that's the dilemma for our natural resource agencies. I'd like to see a parks (including trails!) and wildlife tax added to our bottle deposit to fill the gap -- nickel per bottle, dedicated. I'd toss in paper coffee cups from Starbucks, etc., too. Oregon generates something like 500 million soda and water bottles and cans, annually - and I can only imagine how many coffee cups. That would keep pace with population growth and be off-limits to the legislature for other purposes.

But I digress...

Tom

[Guy]

Total Thread drift here.

This cub's death had nothing to do with taxation weather you believe people should be taxed more or less it has nothing to do with the outcome of this cubs life.

I'm always happy to discuss tax policy but IMHO it should not be in this thread.

I would ask that the thread be closed if this is where it's going.

[Splintercat]

Guy, I respectfully disagree: much of the discussion included vague reference of "the authorities" and "shouldn't someone do something" -- in the end, that's all about what people are willing to pay for or prioritize in the form of public services. I was initially responding to the comments about ODFW workers "not willing to go up there on their holiday" (though I suspect all of us might feel the same if asked to head into the office on our day off -- ODFW workers just happen to deal in wildlife). If ODFW hadn't been in severe cutback mode over the past few years, there well might have been staff on duty on weekends -- not sure of that, but it's certainly possible.

Okay... now back to the animals...

Tom

[Guy]

(though I suspect all of us might feel the same if asked to head into the office on our day off -- ODFW workers just happen to deal in wildlife)

As a salaried employee I'm expected to jump in and do whats necessary when needed regardless of the day of the year. I've spent more than one Christmas or Thanksgiving day hauling portable propane cylinders to a greenhouse with a broken heater or frantically knocking snow off a greenhouse roof before it collapses.

I'm guessing ODFW have no shortage of Salaried employees but maybe salaried means something different to them.

Again I'll say This cub's death had nothing to do with taxation.

[airoff]

(though I suspect all of us might feel the same if asked to head into the office on our day off -- ODFW workers just happen to deal in wildlife)

As a salaried employee I'm expected to jump in and do whats necessary when needed regardless of the day of the year. I've spent more than one Christmas or Thanksgiving day hauling portable propane cylinders to a greenhouse with a broken heater or frantically knocking snow off a greenhouse roof before it collapses.

I'm guessing ODFW have no shortage of Salaried employees but maybe salaried means something different to them.

Again I'll say This cub's death had nothing to do with taxation.

I work for state government and if someone called me on the the weekend and put the burden of taking charge of something I'm the only one with the expertise to handle, I'd feel personally responsible for that assignment, no matter how much it sucks.

[miah66]

3. The team from ODFW. They went out there immediately after getting calls Tuesday morning. Many man-hours were spent combing the area for additional clues. They sent the cat to vet specialists who have opened the stomach looking for hints as to why this happened. This is a biology issue from their perspective and they have been professionals about it. (I don't know who or if ODFW was contacted before Tuesday, but the team that recovered the animal acted fast and I thank them for it.)

I'm still extremely unhappy about how this was (or was perceived to be) handled.

So I'm not sure how you know all of this, but I was under the impression that they were notified MUCH earlier than Tuesday. So they didn't care to rescue it, only quickly retrieve it once it died so they could investigate why it was abandoned and why it died. Seems rather cold in any event and I'm outraged. No argument about "nature taking it's course" or revenue cuts or "cuteness bias" can make it acceptable to knowingly allow an animal to suffer for days and die like that. I feel like everyone is complicit, myself included.

[Lurch]

I'm just curious.. has anyone poked around the area to look for mom? Unlikely that she just abandoned him, also unlikely that some larger predator took on momma..

From my 30 seconds of research, it's not uncommon for kittens at that age (looks like a month or two) to be left alone for days while momma is on the hunt, so it's not too surprising there was no initial rush just because someone found a cub with no mother around. While the outcome was bad, it would be also be unfortunate to kidnap a cub while it's mother was hunting.