Anne Marie for State Rep. – House Dist. 45

Tonight I attended the Multnomah-Clackamas Candidate Issues Forum. Here are some highlights.

Great format! Each candidate got to introduce themselves, and were posed six different questions that ranged from national security, socialized health care, education, environment, etc. They were given two minutes to answer each question. I recommend to everyone to come to U-Choose events so that we can all meet all of our candidates.

Kuzmanich, Bruun and Keller are all running against David Wu. All three of them would be a big improvement from David Wu, for sure. If you asked me to choose right now, I would go with Bruun. He answered each question similarly to the others, but each question he gave a concrete solution to each problem.

Delia, Fred and Jay are running for other Congressional seats unopposed. Vote for them! They each brought great strengths to this friendly debate. They each gave great answers. I am so glad they aren’t all running against each other.

I will post as soon as I know more details the upcoming U-Choose events. Save the date for March 25th on the west side. On April 8th, I will be a part of a very similar format for local candidates. I am excited!

In the meantime, check out my photos of tonight’s event in the Gallery.


Share this post with others.

I have been doing some research into my incumbent’s voting record. I can easily find it, but it’s one thing to hear/read what the bill is about and then to hear/read about it from a person’s slant. Let me give you an example. Last summer, my incumbent sponsored a bill that would take all unredeemed bottle deposits from the bottle companies and turn them over to government programs.

Click here for the link that comes straight from the desk of my incumbent and his co-sponsor, my Senator. Please take a moment to read it before continuing here. It isn’t long and it’s quite simple.

Representative Dembrow and Senator Dingfelder lay out their reasons for sponsoring such legislation quite clearly. They believe this unredeemed money does not belong to the bottling companies and there is need for fiscal transparency for this unknown amount of money and that bottling companies are somehow hiding this number. Those are all funds that somehow belong to the state and can be “used to fund schools, health care and other essential needs.” Really?

Can I give you another spin on this? I go and purchase a gift certificate from XYZ Bookstore. It gets filed away. Then I move and my friend throws away the box it was in. I have lost my gift certificate and I am out the money. (This analogy doesn’t completely fit, because some stores actually can find a way to locate that gift certificate for you, but let’s say they can’t.) I have just completed a transaction to XYZ Bookstore where I give them money and they have given me a product/service. If I don’t redeem the product, then who gets the money? Well, I would pose that we would need to sit down and argue if it’s the bookstore or myself. Our legislators, in their thinking, say that money “lost” in that transaction belongs to the state of Oregon. Really? I don’t think so.

How in the world does it work that the government gets that unredeemed service? How is it their business to stick their nose in this transaction? Well, I can tell you. In 1971, Oregon stuck their nose in it by requiring that bottling companies in Oregon give a five cent bottling deposit.

But I digress. Let’s look at our legislators thoughts. The arguments that our legislators give in this article:

“Unlike residents of other states, Oregonians receive no benefit from these unredeemed deposits.” Since when has Oregon ever acted like other states? Other states don’t have massive private business taxes either, so can we act like them please? Silly argument. How is it that Oregon deems itself necessary to receive a “benefit” from a private transaction? They do get a benefit, when the bottling company pays their taxes on their profits. That is when they receive their benefit, just like any other purchase in Oregon.

“The nickels those bottles represent are a windfall for the beverage distributors. There is no requirement for them to account for the deposits they receive or how much they return to consumers.” Correct, because it’s a private transaction between a distributor and a consumer. Do you all want to know the last time I bought crayons? Or milk? No. Because there is this loose 5 cents out there between consumer and distributor, our legislators want to know what to do with it and deem it fit to grab it.

“…the bill would compel the unredeemed deposits to be used for the public good. Oregonians did not pass the bottle bill to benefit the distributors. We passed the bottle bill to help Oregon recycle. Our legislation will bring unredeemed money back to the state so we can ensure that every penny of it is used for public benefit.” Oregonians passed the bill knowing that it was a program to incentivise them to recycle. If they don’t want to, they lose the nickel. That was the whole reason to incur the deposit in the first place, the consequence would be losing a nickle. I think that is a personal choice and we can’t do much more than that except to say, too bad so sad for losing a nickle. However, show me in this bill where “every penny” would be used for public good. I also want to see line item details how this $20-$30 million dollars mentioned above would go to schools, health care and essential needs. I don’t see that in the bill….at all. How many times in the last few months have we heard “fund schools and health care,” yet they still are not funded? I am finding myself grinding in my heels and saying “can you tell me first what you’re doing with what you have?” I felt this way about this bill as well.

I see legislation that sounds very altruistic and do-good on the surface. In the end, it’s another way to take away the choice of individuals, takes away the privacy of a consumer transaction, and gives the state of Oregon another way to extract money from me and in this case, away from an industry (bottling companies) that had that money and rightfully so, they provided me the bottle of soda. Trust me the state didn’t, and I am not seeing that they are providing me good schools either. I don’t want their health care.

Vote for me.

I believe in our right to privacy in our daily commerce. I believe the state doesn’t have any justified reason to enter into such transactions. My opponent sponsored this legislation and will do it again in the next election if we don’t replace him. Please click over to my contribute page and help me out as well.



Share this post with others.

Okay, Measures 66 and 67 and how it effects me.

I run a direct sales business. I go into people’s homes and give a demo on the product I sell for my company. I love my product, and I have a whole lot of fun doing what I do. I work a fraction of the hours others work for about the same pay.

Things to know.
1) I am a private contractor for my company, not an employee. As a result I have historically gotten a lot of tax perks because I can write off things for my business that an employee couldn’t. Mileage, square footage of my home, cell phone, a percentage of my utilities, etc.

2) Because I am representing a company, I do not set the prices, they do. I can’t raise prices to offset costs.

3) I am a top sales earner in my company. I have been nationally recognized for my sales. I have earned some pretty impressive awards and perks from that.

What I have always liked about direct sales, if you work hard, a direct consequence is that you will get paid…..well. No need to wait for a boss to notice your efforts. No need to wait for the collective quarterly sales reports for the team for you to get a raise. I work hard, and I get paid well. Capitalism at its best.

I also can share my job with others. When I train people to do what I do, I get paid well, and so do they. I have been able to train some great people in the last few years who are now living in a house and not an apartment, paid off credit cards, avoided foreclosure, dodged a car repossession. As a collective whole company, my company has grown worldwide by 4%. I know that isn’t a huge number but show me any company that has growth in this economy and I am impressed.

I am proud of what I do. I have a great job opportunity to share with others, and I am a one woman show of helping others do the same.

Now what happens with the new measures? Right off the bat, and you heard this from the proponents of the bill. My business tax filing fee just jumped from $10 to $150. I don’t mind that fee going up…..but wow! By over 100%? I also heard people say, “If you can’t afford this fee increase you shouldn’t be in business!!” Well, okay, but those same proponents also said that fee only applied to “big businesses” and used the words Nike and Intel. Folks, I do well at what I do, but I am not as big as Nike by a long shot. I think anyone who had a $150 bill added to their expenses unexpectedly would jolt a bit. Yes, I can and will pay it, but keep in mind some 80% of businesses in Oregon are small. Yes, they can probably afford it, but sheesh! Okay, I’ll pay it, but show me anywhere else where a tax jumps by over 100% and you will see people angry. Remember in Oregon…..tax=fee. Simple as that.

The other aspect of this tax measure is the retroactive gross receipts tax. What is that? That means that any corporation that has sold over $100,000 in the previous year now pays taxes on it. It’s a back door sales tax, retroactively. Well, let’s apply that to me.

I am incredibly proud of my sales reports. I sell products in the price range of about $25 to $100. Guess what my sales were in 2009? Really really dangerously close to $100,000. My profit on those sales were about 1/3, or about $30,000 gross. By the time you whittle at that all my expenses and income taxes, my income is modest. Well, apply a tax to the $100,000, and now suddenly I am at a negative cash flow. I am out of business.

Lessons for me? This just makes this little business person’s heart sink. I will need to make doggone sure I don’t ever surpass the $100,000 mark. I have to put a ceiling on my sales and pay to prevent being put out of business. I can’t grow my business for fear of going out of business. How much sense does that make?

How about the coworker my husband talked to? Let’s apply some really huge numbers to this. Guy runs a company that does 11 million dollars in sales last year. After paying his employees, he grosses $300K. He does well. Well, after the tax measures, he just lost one third of his gross income. Now keep in mind, that is gross. He needs to take 25% off for his personal taxes, blah blah blah. He is now down to around $100K for income. Well, in this day and age that is slightly higher than most, but if you weren’t expecting that because it’s retroactive, then you are out of luck. That right there is the reason why businesses are shutting down or laying off. That extra $100K in taxes is an employee or two. That extra $100k may be all of one’s income, so pay it and go out of business.

As we are all pounding on our adding machines and frantically trying to make this work and stay afloat, the majority party came out and said, “Measures 66 and 67 is not enough. We don’t have enough.” Within 24 hours of 66 and 67 passing, Ted Kulongoski said it might be a good climate for kicker reform. The ink wasn’t even dry on the new tax measures and he has the constitution to go for more. Luckily that was succinctly received with chilling consequences. The divisiveness caused by the measures made the political climate in Oregon very negative for kicker reform.

These are steep taxes. Unless a serious repeal process takes place, we will be living under this for a long time. Other states are hovering around us like vultures luring businesses here to other states. I heard a representative from another state say, “A business would need to pay $70,000 in business taxes in my state, where they would need to pay $300,000 in Oregon. It’s a no brainer.”

It’s a double whammie. We are paying more taxes. As businesses and jobs leave, we will need to continue to raise taxes to make up for that shortfall. Those of us remaining are hurtin’ for certain!

I dodged a bullet in my business, but I can only guess it’s temporary. The state will find a way to gouge some money out of me. My neighbor. My husband’s employer. Your neighbor. You.

Vote for me. I want to be a part of this solution. I would be joining a team of people who want to see this change as well. We can grow our tax base by growing business without raising taxes. It’s a pretty simple formula.



Share this post with others.

What is my typical day like?

I am a mom of two children. I have a nine year old who attends Oregon Connections Academy online virtual school. As his learning coach, I am needed to sit by him and monitor his schoolwork daily. However, this works well in that I am at home. I can get him a school task to work on, then sit with him while I finish tasks. However, this doesn’t leave much else for myself. Plus, next fall our four year old will be a five year old in the same program starting kindergarten.

So what happens when I get up….this has a point, just bear with me.

8 am, rise and shine. Breakfast, bedroom pickup, get dressed, check email, voicemail, and any other way in which I receive messages.

9 am or so. School begins. We are logged into Connections Academy and we are doing work until about 3 pm. In between moments during school, I check messages, make business phone calls, business paperwork, pay bills, wash dishes, throw in a load of laundry, answer the phone, and I usually don’t get half my to-do list done.

3 pm, I am transitioning into work. I run a direct sales business from my home. What is that? I am a representative for a company and their product. I go into homes and do a “demo” of some great products, and let folks shop. It is capitalism at its best! I have been doing this for ten years, and it’s what pays the bills. It does take my time. I have paperwork, computer work, bills, etc. I have basic customer service calls, emails, messages, contacts, followups, etc. that I need to make that take a certain amount of time.

4-5 pm, I am heading out the door. I am driving off to do my demo. I usually get home between 9 and 10 pm.

10 pm-midnight. If I can squeeze in a bit more extra work, I do. I’ll do a follow up email, text, etc. Unless I have explicit permission I don’t call folks, but if I do, I squeeze in some more calls.

Bed. Wake up and do it all again.

Why is this a big deal? Well, do I have time to run as a candidate is the real question. I think if you ask any of the current candidates running for either House or Senate, they will all give you a similar schedule, and bemoan the fact that this election is getting squeezed into their schedule.

Those of us who are running agree that we don’t have time, but we also can’t afford not to run. Here are some things to think about.

• The spending in Oregon’s legislature is absolutely not sustainable. We can’t afford the budget we have. We need a new legislature to reverse the damages already done in the last two sessions.

• An astonishing one in five Portlanders is unemployed. Can we continue to bleed jobs? We can’t afford that.

• Oregon’s unemployment rate hovers above 10% and has for almost a year. Can we afford that?

• We have an education system that sinks 10K in dollars per public school student a year, yet Oregon has a 30% dropout rate. Can we afford that? Is that a good use of tax dollars?

• We have a current governor that has tried numerous times to engage in “kicker reform” for a rainy day fund. Yet, he was part of last summer’s legislative session that increased Oregon’s spending by 13%. Can we afford that?

• Oregon is sitting on renewable natural resources. Most of eastern Oregon is log-able land. Oregon has oil reserves off its coast. Yet we currently have moratoriums on harvesting those natural resources. What is to stop another country from coming to our coast and harvesting that? Nothing. But we shoot ourselves in the foot by not allowing oil digging off our own coast. Can we afford that?

Bottom line, can we afford another legislative session that is lining up to be another spending spree like our last one. No.

So I squeeze in some more phone calls, more emails and text messages. I squeeze more events into my life that I don’t have time for, and I hope to step into the gap. I want to be a voice for not only myself and my family, but my community.

None of us can afford this continued path. We can’t allow this train wreck to continue. We can’t afford it.



Share this post with others.

Here is the website blog! Oh my gosh, this has been a Herculean effort to get all of this set up. I just wanted to greet you, and give you who I am.

I am a small business owner of a direct sales company. I have been doing this coming up on ten years now. As I look back to when I started this up ten years ago, much has changed. Those days, we were worried about Y2K and we had just voted in George W. Bush. Who knew that less than a year later we would witness planes flying into buildings in New York?

These days, who knew we would be facing what seems to be even more daunting problems? Oregon faces one of the worst unemployment rates in the country, with no end in sight. We have just been hit with some pretty amazing taxes by Measures 66 and 67 only to find out that the state “needs” more. I find myself saying the old adage, “You can’t get blood from a turnip.” You can’t tax those who are unemployed! Well you can, but is that sustainable as tax revenue? Is it sustainable to continue to tax, while businesses and jobs leave Oregon daily? Is it sustainable to fund pet projects while we have truly suffering Oregonians? That is where I am at.

What am I thankful for as I get a headache thinking of these things? I am thankful for our democracy. If we, whether in our state or nationally, want change it is quite simple. Vote your voice in the next election. Simple.

I am thankful that my business is still afloat. Is it bringing in scads of dollars and income? No. Not by a long shot. But it is keeping me off unemployment and paying the bills.

I am thankful that my spouse’s job seems secure–at the moment. In the last couple of years, I think we can all agree, what we used to think of as secure jobs are now suspect.

I am thankful that someone asked me to run for this office. In that same conversation comes the conversation I have a lot. Several people are tired of their voter’s ballot. For their district, there is only one choice for a representative or a senator. It’s one party. So where is the choice and the democracy in that? I agree.

I also am thankful that when asked to throw my hat in this ring, I was given a bunch of honesty. I was told, “You will need a ‘Reagan landslide’ to win.” But we agreed that there needs to be choice on the ballot. I was given that honestly last summer. I swallowed that pill hard. My spouse wasn’t up for that so much. Why run if you aren’t going to win? My answer “Because there needs to be choice on the ballot.” There has been too much “Why run if there isn’t a chance to win at all?”

Then things happened this last fall. Virginia. New Jersey. Massachusetts. Senator Bayh. Suddenly, those of us who are a team running in those districts like mine who have always had one party on the ballot, got a dose of reality. There is a chance, and there is a good chance we will win. I have met some pretty impressive people that told me last summer that I needed a Reagan landslide, suddenly say “You might win.”

I am thankful for running at such a crucial time in Oregon’s history. I am thankful for those I have met so far that have encouraged and helped me along. I have so much to do, and so little time. We have so much to do and so little time.

What I will staunchly fight for:

*Jobs. Oregon needs jobs. Not state funded jobs that ultimately cost taxpayers. Private sector jobs that increase Oregon’s tax base and give people careers.

*Taxes. It will take a hard sell to ask me to raise taxes especially since our last legislative session increased state spending by 13% during a recession. The money is there. It is there about as much as it is in most of our household budgets. None of us are buying designer stuff right now. Neither should Oregon.

*Budget reform. This gets brainy really fast. The system is broke. We need budget reform right now. How we approach the books to begin with would make all the difference in how Oregon operates and approaches funding. Especially funding essential services instead of funding pet projects. Essential services should (but don’t) come first: roads, police, prisons, schools, roads, etc.

*Jobs. Oh I mentioned that already.

*Jobs. Just making sure.



Share this post with others.