The Environmental Working Group allows a search of Coos County zip codes to see who has benefited from federal farm subsidies. Several familiar names appear as recipients of USDA payments totaling $4,452,663 since 1995.
Amongst the beneficiaries are Robert G Ross $434,282, Messerle and Sons, $35,886 since 2003 and the Coquille Tribe receipting $38,805 since 2002.
Yes, welcome tonycapo.
Panties are twisted because SOMEONE is telling the good folks of Coos County some truth. Those complaining don’t want the voters to know the truth.
THEY drove this county over the cliff and are mad as hell that people are finding out just how they did it. Now comes their Big Move to destroy representative gov. in Coos County. We shall all see what happens with that one, and thank gawd M is distributing what truth we pry from them. They don’t like it.
So it seems to me this is what we are dealing with. The very perps who drove this county into the place it’s in right now, are mad as hell that the voters are learning the truth versus what the Industry Rag called The World tells them, which consists of what Jon Barton tells him to print. My opinion only of course.
The Movers and Shakers of Coos County, the ones who put us here, are mad as hell that M is a part of the awakening of the population.
They are mad because M reports what they do. That’s all I can come up with as a reason for this assault on M or anyone else who questions them and their manipulation of this county, they don’t intend to change THEIR course, but they don’t want us to know what it is. Imagine.
“Hang on boys, it’s going to be a bumpy ride”
welcome, Tony! This would be our first mafia hit man (that I know of). Several individuals to seem to find MGx distressing… but we try our best to publish useful tidbits the electorate might want to know and then sometimes, not always, opine on said tidbits
Just had to come see what is getting the boys panties in a bunch.
Interesting site magix. This should be fun.
I read your stuff late sometimes. I read these comments for the first time today. Like the fellow in the Dirty Harry movie says; I gots to know. Is “Al” your friend Harley Davidson dealer Al who anybody that knows Apple Computer knows he did not save (sorry Bob Main); he did get laid off many years ago. His former employer Citrix not Apple should be his claim to fame.
A year ago Commissioner Whitty informed us that Oregon Resource Chromite Mining Corp had 8 years of mining at the Weyerhaeuser sites before they would even start on the Kimberly Clarke parcels or for that matter, any proposed County Forest lands. So tell us Al, what is the big rush? Why is ORC not willing to prove to us the trees will grow back and at the same high quality that they were before, particularly since the trees have not done so in Appalachia? When you consider also what these same ORC people did in Georgia with their Iluka Resources mining operation, (They left a complete mess after they filed bankruptcy two and a half years into their operation), we would be crazy not to take extra precautions here. After all, they have done so well to date in selling our high quality Chromite, not!
Our county would be foolish to continue to go down the same Weyerhaeuser way of doing things that has lead us right where we are today. If you don’t get what is wrong with this picture Al, I suggest you read “Plundertown USA: Coos Bay Enters the Global Economy”
The problem with the SCDC crowd is they believe in more of the same private corporate takeover of our public lands and services. As if this has EVER worked before! After all, we can all see how well it has worked with Wall Street and the banking industry. For those of us dealing on more of the local front, who have actually lived the Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Georgia Pacific – (i.e. – Koch Bros) way of doing things, I can assure you that “we the people” have not done well following the rape and pillage – ask questions later – corporate greed way of doing things! No matter how much you spew the rhetoric Al, some of us have lived here a long time and we already know better.
Einstein’s definition of insanity – Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results…..
People should take a warning from what Al writes. That’s what happens when you fall off your Harley and you’re not wearing a helmet.
Yes, and I have learned that I can be criticized for spending my own cash, including $2K paid to one of our interim commissioners before his appointment, to try and create jobs and bring badly needed revenue to local schools and for daring to publish a link to public records.
Microgrids and renewable energy ARE viable business plans and have been successfully implemented elsewhere and saved other communities.
I know it is hard but I encourage everyone to ignore Al, his main purpose here seems to only be to cause agita… and besides, there is just no sport in it.
And we’re just getting started.
Speaking of outsourcing, are you keeping up with Curry County? Because they’re coming to the conclusion that privatization of many – most – of their county services is their only choice. Having attended one of their budget-crisis meetings recently I can attest, with confidence, that by next summer their county structure will serve as the new model for approximately a dozen other Oregon counties. As a Commissioner candidate perhaps you should pay them a visit…
And just for clarification: my editorial did not use the word “parasite” – that was Mary taking literary liberty.
“Cronies”? I assume you’re refering to JJ, Daniela, Craig, Laird, Timm and Jon? Every, single member of the Structure committee contributed to the report, Randy. Apparently you believe there’s some kind of political edge to singling out Barton and myself, but the fact remains: everyone contributed to the final product. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, and again, and again – we’re trying to solve a financial problem. Your persistent view that anyone has something personal to gain from suggesting we outsource payroll, as an example, is bizarre at best. We’re trying to save YOUR job and YOUR retirement, Randy. What is so difficult to grasp about that goal? The fact that you’re actually fighting this process is bewildering. As the saying goes, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face…
You know that I have never stated that the Solid Waste employees were drug users, Randy. I know that you know because you were at the joint meeting and you heard the same presentation that two or three dozen other people did. Senior employees want a standardized drug testing policy that will help insure a safer work environment. You’re entitled to disagree, but you might as well get on board with this one because it’s inevitable. The liability factor is simply far too great for the County to not have a standardized drug testing policy in place.
I don’t attend Commissioner meetings because I have a business to run. I do, however, watch them on Channel 14 – right up to the public comment portion.
And yes, unless something major changes, the County is going broke. The only question is….when. That, of course, depends on a number of factors that could influence the burn rate of our reserves.
Yes, Solid Waste is a financial red flag. And simply deferring the closure costs do not make those costs disappear – it’s only delaying the inevitable. Pay now, or pay later.
And yes, we need a County Administrator. But not for the reasons you list, which are illegal. And to the contrary, during the Q&A of the joint Structure/Governance meeting a citizen very pointedly asked me how the County would pay for an Administrator and I answered the question. It’s on the tape.
Do you have an issue with ORC and other business ventures in this community? Is it prudent to vehemently support the Solid Waste facility while at the same time, criticizing ORC? Both have big trucks. One hauls dirt, the other garbage. One has dust, the other has dust, a really strong odor and, possibly, toxic fumes. Your comments might be interpreted as being anti-business or, perhaps, biased.
As a Commissioner candidate you will, no doubt, have to face the Chamber of Commerce in the very near future and I look forward to hearing how you plan to close the coming budget gap without the benefit of tax-paying jobs.
Last, but not least, thanks to all who contributed to today’s lively “debate”. We saw a resurgence of some old but highly entertaining adjectives (“liar”, “circle jerk” and one of my personal favorites; “suckling pigs”.), Mary learned that public disclosure laws apply to everyone, Mr. Sanne put a few more campaign stakes in the ground, and I learned that I’m incapable of running a lemonade stand, I have an inflated ego, I’m mired in extraction, I’m not smart, I fling “excrement” at people I don’t even know (wow – this is certainly the pot calling the kettle “black”), I’m incompetent, a little “Napolian” (sic), I’m all over the map, exhausting and highly inefficient. And I learned all that from just one blog!
All in all, it’s been a very informative day for me. Thanks to all for the great ideas, the solutions and, most of all, the highly intellectual feedback. I think we can all agree that we’ve put aside our differences, developed a viable business plan for the County, and that financial calamity is now a concern of the past. Well done.
Napolian Complex. Makes him think he’s big.
I can’t tell you guys how many people tell me to thank this blog for them. And the “boys” know it, that’s why they’re coming after you M. They don’t like a woman smarter than their sorry arses, Jody showed us that.
Insecure little men trying to be big. And to hell with our government to boot !
They’ve had their way with us for so long, they thought it would never end. Well it has boys.
I agree.
Little Al is just another Jon Barton Toadie. They’re all over this place.
They’ve sheet in this pond for so long you can’t see the bottom.
And when we ask questions, look how they respond. How dare we ask them why they’ve driven this county off the edge? Repeatedly.
Time to drain this swamp and the toadies that occupy it.
Bye Al. Now take Jon by the hand and go away? Perhaps?
Thank you! We mustn’t forget that Al is the same very person who declared in a public place, on camera, that his “perception is the reality”! I kid you not, he really said that.
MGX, don’t waste your time with the likes of Al. These guys don’t read and even if they did and you wrote it in crayon, I doubt very seriously they would get it. They keep pushing the same old crap that has never worked before and then wonder why the rest of us don’t go along.
Truth does not need to be defended, just proclaimed, and that is all you have done here in this post. You made a truthful statement about farm subsidies and who in this county actually got what. Look at all the abuse you are now taking from that. Obviously there are some old sacred cows around here that don’t want other people to know what the truth really is…
Al has implied that public employees are parasites and drug addicts. Don’t put him in charge of public relations and marketing, he sucks at it.
In another article about ORC on this blog Al accuses others of hating all that he holds dear. I have read most of the comments that these people have posted and I never read the word HATE in any of them. Al, on the other hand, has often spoken openly about his biases with regard to government, unions, public meeting laws, etc. He has never attended commissioners meetings or taken any active role in county government before, yet he lands on a committee loaded with his cronies and claims that he is just a citizen who felt the need to help the county. The final product of his efforts comes as little surprise to anyone who has been involved in county government or knows where his allegiance lies. With Fred as their liaison, Al and Jon Barton set out on a mission to privatize government, their intentions were so focused that they presented their “draft proposal” before they even got commissioner approval of their committees by-laws. Along the way I, like Mary, have exposed many of Al’s “misrepresentations”, and as a result he accused the solid waste employees of being on drugs.
Al insists that the county is going broke yet he also acknowledges that the counties budget is too complex for him to understand. He insists that the Solid Waste facility is a “red flag” that could be a financial burden to the county and should be privatized, yet he doesn’t want to acknowledge the well reported financial burden that closing the facility will put on all the citizens of the county.
Al and Jon insist the way to solve the counties financial woes is to employ a manager who could work independently of public openness and scrutiny, yet when asked how the cash strapped county would pay for this person they said that wasn’t part of their charge. One of Al’s closing statements in his presentation at the joint Structure/Governance committee meeting was to recommend that the commissioners immediately support deals with ORC. LNG, and the Coquille tribe because, as he put it, “beggars cant’ be choosers”. Al can’t handle criticism and he hates it when facts get in the way of his perceptions.
Take pride in what you do for this county Mary and keep up the good work.
Ha! Al is right, I am frustrated that someone who claims to be a businessman can’t tell the difference between a taxpayer investment for a something like a micro-grid, wholly owned by the public that saves money and generates revenue for public schools and creates more than 200 jobs and is brought in at a belt tightening cost of only $1 million per megawatt, who can’t tell the difference between all that and a farm subsidy.
People like Al with their laser like business acumen having been “helping” Coos County into its current state of poverty for decades now. Read The JOB Messiahs for an eyeopening history of waste and greed. Whether Coos County can survive anymore help from people like Al, who can’t even write a fact based report, (he does know how to animate his power points though) remains to be seen, but I suspect the next election will reveal the tenor of the public… maybe at last, enough is enough!
Best thing for Al is just to stop reading MGx
I detect some frustration on your part, Mary.
What you’re feeling now is what a lot of people in this community feel because of your relentless, baseless and highly irritating criticism of everyone who is trying to make a difference here. Not much fun, is it?
I have the ability to help this town – and that’s what I’m going to do. I think you have the ability to contribute as well – you just don’t want to. That’s fine. Your choice. But as I’ve said before; until you have the courage to jump in, take some responsibility, then maybe you should place your focus and energies elsewhere.
“I could care less where you get your funding, Mary. ” Says little al.
But he just spent a great deal of time “caring” didn’t you little guy?
“I could care less where you get your funding, Mary. ”
BIG FAT LIAR !!!!!
You care, you just attempted another huge lie, right to her face.
You little boys in this county, you behave like junior high school boys, you sneak around behind closed doors, in government halls, to find something, anything to use against ANYONE who questions why this damned county is a sewer of poverty, surrounded by hundreds of millions of dollars sucked down by you pigs Al. And you have the nerve to spend hours trying to find dirt on M? Why? Because she tells others what phoney cons you all really are? Is that why? You want how many more decades and hundreds of millions of dollars lost in this county for what?
YOU Al, and Jon and the Port? YOU ARE the problem in this county.
You run it. You broke it and ask us to pay AGAIN?
Your party is over Al.
Grown men sneaking around together to “take down” a woman who tells the rest of us what exactly you are doing? Grown men, well some of them grew up, some didnt, Sorry Al.
Jon Barton has run this county into a hole so deep it may never get out. His fat fiingers are in everyones’ pockets now. And he doesn’t intend to stop. Until he is stopped.
Sneaking around with your fellow little boys to discredit M, on her own blog.
Grow up little boy, oh I forgot, you can’t. The big Harley Persona compensates for that. It’e not OUR fault Al. Don’t blame M.
My post above was not calling anyone out. It is a link to public documents and my own appropriation request has been published on this site. By your reckoning I called myself out when I published the request on this site in 2009! http://mgx.com/blogs/2009/05/04/western-oregon-wind-project-update/
Al, why don’t you go away, you don’t contribute anything with your baffling jumps to conclusion. One would think you are ashamed that locals benefit from farm subsidies…
Listen, I earn my way working with highly educated logical people and this “all over the map” thought process you employ is both scattered, highly inefficient and exhausting. Go play twister somewhere else.
Funny! If Al keeps digging he may discover my nom de plume…
Mary – your document is clear: $2m from federal taxpayers, $2m from Oregon taxpayers (Oregon green energy funding), and $1m from private investors.
And I’m wondering how this information translates into me trying to make you “look bad”? Thanks in large part to public disclosure laws, your application is a public domain document because you’re applying for public (taxpayer) funds. I could care less where you get your funding, Mary. The original point was that I didn’t think it was fair for you to call out a couple of farmers on subsidies when you’re playing the same game, but on another field.
Mary, maybe you should consider writing an autobiography since your past appears to be so interesting to some people. You might make a bundle!
It was a $5 million project Al, where do you think the $3 million balance was coming from? But hey, as i wrote on this blog a year or two ago, the concept can be done with any technology, even dirty fossil fuel generators, just takes longer for the return. The county could make up its shortfall with energy.
Lets just agree Al that we don’t value each others’ opinions and that I view SCDC and the Port and some members of the chamber, yourself included, as a detriment to local progress.
Al wants all of US to join he and his fellow suckling piglets at the public trough?
Al? You guys are the very ones who drove this county into this hole, why the hell would we give you another moment to continue doing so?
And why the hell would WE join your group of incompetents who are responsible for putting us here?
Do you accept responsibility for that Al? Of course not, just keep attending that Circle Jerk on Wednesdays Al, and you’ll NEVER hear the truth. Just telling one another how great you are doesn’t make it so.
Until we get rid of this entire lot, this county won’t change it’s Death Spiral.
Telling us what to do, you ARE a little Napolian wanna be aren’t you?
Get in the ring and take your fair share of hits, that implies your running for office. If you do I expect you will be taking your fair share. How you refer to others (rabid dogs)come election time, will be front and center. Get in or get out of our government, no one asked SCDC to insert itself in the peoples government, not one person outside of SCDC asked for your committees to be formed. Quit trying to carjack our government, or get yourself elected and do it legally. A select group appoints its own county commissioners, then tries to transform the way the county operates. Let the peoples choice set the agenda, not SCDC.
He sounds just like a mirrored version of MarkM. To be a voter is not enough, to oppose special interest is not enough. Join us or shut your pie hole. That’s not gonna happen. To point out what you and your friends are up to, is gonna happen, deal with it.
Sorry, Mary – my bad. I was apparently confused by the statement “This grid will utilize dynamic new proprietary technology (light impact wind turbines), that are 6 times more efficient than conventional wind technology.” Does this mean that you intended to use another windmill other than Rogue River’s? Or did you intend to donate those windmills?
Perhaps you and I are not as different as you would like people to believe. Whether running a construction company, a soap and wax company, or a windmill company, it appears that you have always had capitalistic aspirations of your own. That’s fine with me. Just don’t pretend to that you stand morally superior to those who have had success or are not afraid to get their hands dirty. Do you really think people relish getting involved, just so folks on this blog can stand on the sidelines and attack them like rabid dogs? Games? Agendas? Conspiracy? B.S.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: get off the couch and get involved. First, you’ll find out first-hand just how difficult it is to get ANYthing done in this community regardless of which side of the fence you’re on. You’ll also learn that you have to be civil, be a team player, compromise and LEAD to get something done. You’ll also find that many of the positions you take are either wrong, misguided, or simply impossible to obtain.
Unless you’re willing to get in the ring and take your fair share of hits, you’re really not in a position to criticize those that are.
Thank you, as readers know I try and follow tax policy from the perspective of an investment to the taxpayer but haven’t focused much on farm subsidies before.
As an investment, enterprise zones and urban renewal districts show a really lousy return and I wonder if farm subsides do any better. Considering some of the payments received in Coos County were for farms owned elsewhere, like Iowa, the beneficiary may not reinvest that subsidy in the farming community where it was generated.
Farm subsidies have the direct effect of transferring income from the general tax payers to farm owners.
Direct payment subsidies are provided without regard to the economic need of the recipients or the financial condition of the farm economy.
Direct payments of subsidies are limited to $40,000 per person or $80,000 per couple.
Subsidies are also given to companies and individuals with little connection to traditional farming.
Income Eligibility Cap . The current cap allows anyone making less than $750,000 eligible for direct payment subsidies.
Subsidies are an inefficient use of taxpayer’s money as they represent transfer payments to above average Americans. From a public economics perspective, subsidies of any kind work to create a socially and politically acceptable equilibrium that is not necessarily Pareto Efficient.
Gasholes, gov. grants, free money, manna from the gods. Its your money, sorry your kids money, their stealing. It will all have to end, all of it. No more grants, subsidies, studies, and wars for oil.
Its winter, but the fire is smoldering with the 99%. Come spring and then summer, they will appear in numbers, the likes that will scare the two partys to death. Its to late to stop it from within. Watch it come this way.
You are so kind M, I’ll just say I’m convinced tonight more than ever, that it’s not Al’s ego that needs inflating !
They’re a dime a dozen out there. It’s not OUR fault Al, why take IT out on we females?
Ya got nothin but some mud to sling, or in the case of the gorilla in the zoo, just another handful of excrement to sling at people you don’t even know.
How sad for you.
Uh oh.
You are not very smart Al.
In your haste and determination to do or say anything you can to make me look bad you have really picked the wrong thing this time. The appropriation request I paid thousands of dollars of my own money in fees and travel to DC was NOT for my wind business, it was for a microgrid that would have been owned by the county, saved it $500K in utility bills annually and generated another $1 million annually for local school foundations. Read the request, its available on this site, and it is a model that works elsewhere and could work here if people like yourself and our current commission weren’t mired in resource extraction.
You may get off accusing people like me of sitting on the sidelines because they don’t want play the games you and your buddies like to play but you would be wrong, just as you are about so many things. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust you to run a lemonade stand… but I am sure if you keep trying you will find something to bolster your already inflated ego.
Mary,
I’m wondering if this information would be relevant had Pete DeFazio secured that $2 million dollars of taxpayer money you requested for your wind business.
Perhaps you’re holding farmers to a higher standard???