Stuart goes digging

A week after Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart added his name to a letter to three members of the U.S. House of Representatives, asking for funding for the Columbia River Crossing, Stuart addressed some critics via his Facebook page.

Here’s what Stuart wrote:

“That’s my money too.” ~ Phrase used to rebut statement that State and Federal money for locally needed projects is much better to get than using City/County funds when possible. Interesting to me as a philosophical argument, I mean, is it REALLY my money? So I did some digging.
Taxes our County residents pay to local governments represent about 100% of the total taxes raised at that level (especially since goldbricking Oregonians don’t pay sales tax). At the State level, our County taxpayers’ share is 2.7% of total taxes raised. At the Federal level, our County taxpayers’ share is .11%. SO, every dollar we can get from the Federal government for services we need here is 99.9% pure, and only 1/10th of 1 penny “ours” (with about 1/250,000 of that being mine).

Here’s the only comment from the mavens — “goldbricking Oregonians”? We listen to Kanye, so we know all about golddiggers but we hadn’t heard of “goldbricking” so we had to look it up. It means to avoid work by making excuses. We’re not sure that fits. Why should Oregonians pay sales tax when they come to Clark County? The law says they don’t have to pay sales tax; a bill that would have removed the exemption died this year.

We’re all for expeditions, but next time you go digging pack a pocket dictionary.

UPDATE: Stuart says he consulted urban dictionary, definition No. 2, and he stands by his word choice.