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Pollard is wrong in Raising Objections about the Cowlitz Casino


The Outsider
A Newsletter for the Overburdened Taxpayers of Vancouver Washington

After all, he and city leaders have already gambled with your tax money. The whole city fiasco should be called Vancouver’s waste and spend government. The People’s Hilton bought with taxpayer’s money has yet to show a profit. There are the ten year tax exemptions to wealthy downtown developers and property giveaway while the rest of the city is being taxed out of their homes. By his statement “exploring all the legal avenues available” means that the taxpayer will be paying for high priced lawyers for something the downtown developers want to pursue not most of the people of Vancouver. It would be a refreshing change if he was more concerned about the taxpaying citizens he serves than something not in Vancouver’s jurisdiction. The Cowlitz tribe has been in this area in one way or another for over 4000 years.

First we have Portland envy, and then we have Cowlitz Tribe Casino envy. When will it all stop? When will the Mayor, city council members and manager listen to the people they serve and do the job for which they were elected or hired? Why are we over paying these folks to sink the city further in debt? Isn’t it enough that we are paying managers and city employee’s wages and benefits that belong in much larger cities? All these wages and benefits are cumulative. Supposedly that is why we don’t have money for roads. We had to use that money on raises. You didn’t see that article in the Columbian.

How is the casino a threat to Vancouver? If they build the casino with a larger hotel and convention center than the city of Vancouver, businesses would use the Cowlitz casino instead of the Vancouver Hilton with its convention center. History would have again proven that mixing of public money with a private business has never been and will never be a good idea. It just doesn’t work.

The city no longer represents or listens to the taxpaying public. In recent times it has gotten worst instead of better. It is their attitude that they are government and can do anything with your money without any accountability. I urge everyone concern about their government to get involved with the new citizens group now forming. Only as a citizen group can we solve the problem and help our lack of focus city leadership.

Charles Stemper

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This entry was written by Charlie Stemper and posted on May 1, 2007 at 8:39 am and filed under Local issues. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Print This Post Print This Post . Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

5 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

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  1. Excellent essay! I totally agree. I am angry that Pollard and the City continue to force their vision for development, instead of getting input from the people. They force us to pay taxes on their high visions, while giving themselves and certain places obscene breaks. They built the Hilton & thwarted petitioners.

    Now they threaten a lawsuit to stop the casino because they think it’s a threat to their downtown development. More taxpayer dollars to support their way. SHAME.

    I regret the voters extended the mayor position to 4 years. I didn’t.

    Now I’m getting unwelcome phone solicitations to fight the casino. Where do I report them? How can I help to fight city hall?

    [Reply]

    1. Above written by g. kortesNo Gravatar on May 1st, 2007 at 8:52 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).

  2. Excellent essay! I totally agree. Pollard and the city force their way, regardless of what the people want. They give certain things tax breaks, and fought citizen petitions against the Hilton. Now they threaten a lawsuit to stop the casino. More taxpayer money for THEIR vision. SHAME.

    I regret citizens voted a 4-yr. term for mayor. I didn’t.

    Now I’m getting unwelcome solicitations on my phone to fight the casino. Where can I turn them in? How can I help fight the city’s casino objective?

    I want a casino, but even if I didn’t, I’d oppose the city’s ways. They are arrogant.

    [Reply]

    2. Above written by g. kortesNo Gravatar on May 1st, 2007 at 9:01 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).

  3. Yes, King Royce wants it his way. First the Hilton, tried to annex a large area without the people living there having a vote on the matter, (same as the Hilton)and now he is crying about the casino, mainly because he can’t get his grubby hands on the tax money.

    How about the selling of the old police building? For $200,000? No public bidding, no public appraisal. Well, I’ll pay the city $205,000 for the same property. The taxpayers will make a extra $5,000, and in return I’ll sell it to the highest bidder, minimum bid starting at 1.5 million, and would have plenty of people bidding on it.

    See anything fishy about that issue? I sure do. Why isn’t the Columbian publishing the appraisal on that property?

    [Reply]

    3. Above written by AllenNo Gravatar on May 2nd, 2007 at 7:17 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).

  4. My understanding is the supposed low wages to be paid to the proposed casino’s workers will include some sort of medical benefit like access to a clinic. We already have institutionalized gambling via the state lottery. There are buses that current pick up folks in Vancouver and take them to casinos in Washington and Oregen. I don’t necessarily see the Cowlitz casino as much more of a social threat than what is already in place. It might be a great place for a part time job with some health benefits that could help some young people through Clark and WSUV or some older people to make the transition to Medicare coverage.

    It might be much easier to access the casino than trying to negotiate your way downtown through the maze of streets and wandering homeless to the Hilton and finding a parking spot. Also, the likelihood of a casino being opened up in the scenic Columbian River Gorge would be lessened by a local casino.

    This is going to be interesting. A whole lot of Indian money went into a 17th District campaign last year. So far the Indians have been hitting paydirt on their investments in the Washington State political process. Maybe we can get a few crumbs?

    [Reply]

    4. Above written by Pat CampbellNo Gravatar on May 2nd, 2007 at 7:55 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).

  5. As someone who just spent last Saturday chauffeuring my spouse 200 miles roundtrip to Lucky Eagle so she could feed money to machines that always take more from you than they give back, it is a no brainer to want to cut down on the commute time and gas consumption.

    Will my spouse gamble more if the casino is in our backyard? I seriously doubt that will be the case. In fact, the opposite may be true.

    As an analogy, I use my experience of living in Florida for 26 years. When one first moves to Florida, you tend to spend lots of time in the sun and around and in pools. But after a year or so of knowing that practically every day will be sunny and warm, many native Floridians start dramatically cutting back on their sunbathing. If you check out the multitudes of pools in Florida, very often they are empty. That is because everyone that lives there knows that you can go there anytime.

    I think this same phenomena occurs with casinos too. This analogy probably doesn’t hold for the addicted, but people with a gambling problem are going to find a way to feed their habit regardless of how close a casino is to them. They can always blow their money on the lottery for instance.

    Why let other communities draw people from Clark County with their gaming facilities when we can have our cake and eat it too?

    PS: Until we all live in “Vancouver County”, it is none of Pollard’s business how La Center or the rest of the county is developed.

    [Reply]

    5. Above written by bushtoolNo Gravatar on May 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
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