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Welcome back to the Lars Lyson Show.
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It's a pleasure to be with you on a Tuesday.
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Always glad to get your phone calls and emails.
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Welcome to the Radio Northwest Network, proudly serving the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho for the past 30 plus years.
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Now, you couldn't make stuff up this crazy.
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I mean, if you were high on weed, which I don't do, uh and and you drank Pendleton whiskey, you couldn't make up stuff this crazy.
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A pot company that handed Democrat politicians cash in paper bags and practically owned a now former Secretary of State of the State of Oregon, it is still in business.
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It still owes the state millions of dollars in back taxes and fees.
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And guess what?
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It sounds like they're still funding the Democrat politicians in the state.
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Jeff Eager knows the whole story.
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Jeff is the former mayor of Bend, Oregon.
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He's an attorney and political consultant.
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He writes regularly at Oregon Roundup on Substack.
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Jeff, welcome back to the program.
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Great to be back, Lars.
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Hey, you'll forgive me for saying that back when Lamoda first got into all that trouble, I thought, well, these folks are going to be out of business fairly soon.
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And I'll admit I was completely wrong.
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What's going on now?
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I had the same thought, Lars.
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Um, what's going on is that the uh even though Lamoto and its owners, uh Aaron Mitchell and Rosa Casares, uh still owe uh millions of dollars to the state of Oregon in back taxes, the uh scheme that the state of Oregon uses to verify licenses for marijuana sales allows people to continue to renew licenses if they are on a payment plan for their back taxes.
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So even though Mitchell's got eight million bucks in uh tax liens against him, if he's on a payment plan, he can still get his licenses renewed.
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So I think that's how it's gonna be.
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Let me ask you something.
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I mean, decades ago, I owed the IRS some money, but I think it was like twelve hundred dollars.
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And I said, Can I can I do a payment plan?
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They said, yeah.
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And uh I said, how fast do you want it paid off?
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They'd say, we'd like you to have it paid off by the next tax date by April 15th of the following year.
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I said, okay.
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And we worked it out.
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It was like a hundred bucks a month and it was done.
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On this$7.9 million, do you have any idea how much these folks at LaModa, the weed outfit, how much are they paying per year or per month?
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And how long is it going to take to pay back the$8 million?
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Do we know?
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I I don't know, Lars, because Department of Revenue won't talk about specific taxpayer situations and the Lamoto crew.
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Even if they're a commercial business.
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Yeah, even if they're a commercial business, even if the Department of Revenue is relying on a payment plan to reissue marijuana licenses, they they will not disclose.
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And I do believe they're legally prohibited from disclosing specific taxpayer information.
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Because one of the things that occurs to me is depending on how quickly or how slowly they're digging them their way out of all this debt,$7.9 million in state tax liens is is a lot of money.
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And if they're paying it off at half a million a year and it's going to take the next 14 years to pay the money back, that's almost like a gift that's being given to this illicit business to stay in business.
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That's the way I look at it.
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Do you think I'm out of it?
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Yeah, there no, not at all.
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I take there's something funny going on with the timing of when they pay off old liens and then they're still not paying new tax obligations.
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And I mean, Cazaris is on the Department of Revenue's uh uh delinquent taxpayer list.
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Like today, you can go on there and she's on the list, and DOR is still certifying her as tax compliant for uh cannabis licens.
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Well, I mean, I I guess I'm I'm tempted to compare that, say, to property taxes, where you can get up to three years behind before in the state of Oregon, the state can come and threaten to take your property.
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And then if you just, you know, of the three years you're in arrears, say you're in arrears for 23, 24, and 25, as long as you make one-third of one payment one year that you've stayed just ahead of the bill collector in that case, and you can and they don't seize your property.
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Is it that kind of mechanism, do you think?
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It it may be, Lars.
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It may be that they're in compliance with payment plans uh for as long as they need to be to get a particular license renewed and then they're back in Hawk, and then uh it it's uh the timing of all this has to be extremely strange for Mitchell in particular to keep building up all these tax liens while remaining per the Department of Revenue in compliance.
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Well, and and it also says something strange to all the other people who are in the weed business.
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Like, why would we pay our taxes on time?
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These folks got away with running up a giant tab and didn't have to pay it off, and they still get to keep their licenses.
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Doesn't that give kind of a disincentive to actually pay your taxes?
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Uh you would sure think so.
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And somehow Lamoda's got this situation figured out where they're able to stay in business despite their tax debt continuing to increase.
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It's are they still making big contributions to Democrat politicians like Tina Kotek?
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Not that I can see.
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They have they they stopped making those contributions after 2022 per or star.
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Um so I I think I think the Democrats probably wouldn't take their money now, uh presumably given the blowback they got a couple years ago.
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But then, like you, I thought that Lamoto was persona non-grata in Oregon after that, and here they are uh going strong, I believe 28 licenses for cannabis retail in the state of Oregon, despite this tax debt.
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Well, and you referred in the piece you wrote for Oregon Roundup to Cotec's new rules.
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What are there some brand new rules that were designed just to benefit uh Caseras and Mitchell?
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Yeah, so back in 2023 when Kotech and other recipients of La Moda Largesse were trying to distance themselves from the company and Mitchell and Cazares, Kotech announced new uh rules to hold cannabis companies accountable and make sure everyone was playing on a fair playing field.
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Uh, but the rules that she instituted contained this um payment plan loophole, I would call it.
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Um, so it it really hasn't had any effect whatsoever uh as far as keeping people with massive tax debts from uh getting licenses.
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Now, DR has or OLCC has decertified, I believe 36, they told me, um, cannabis uh retailers since the new rules went into place.
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But obviously Lamoda, ironically, was not one of those companies.
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Because they still have a couple of dozen licenses all by themselves, while other states like Washington State put a fairly strict limit on the licenses, don't they?
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I don't know what how Washington handles cannabis licenses.
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But is there any practical limit on the number of licenses you can hold in the state of Oregon?
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No, I d I I don't believe so, Lars.
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I believe they could they could hold uh infinite numbers of licenses.
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Wow.
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See, because that that makes me wonder if if these folks owe the state of Oregon and the politicians there millions of dollars in back taxes, you would think they'd say, you know, you don't get these taxes paid up, you're gonna lose some of your licenses, and we'll give them away to somebody else who's actually willing to pay the tab on a regular basis.
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Hey, Jeff, it's a pleasure as always to have you on.
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That's Jeff Eager, former mayor of the City of Bend, attorney, political consultant.
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You can find what he writes at Oregon Roundup on Substack.
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You're listening to the Lars Larson show and the Radio Northwest Network.
00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:05.839
Welcome back to the Lars Lyson Show.
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:07.919
It's a pleasure to be with you on a Tuesday.
00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.160
Always glad to get your phone calls and emails.
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:19.039
Welcome to the Radio Northwest Network, proudly serving the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho for the past 30 plus years.
00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.920
Now, you couldn't make stuff up this crazy.
00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:30.960
I mean, if you were high on weed, which I don't do, uh and and you drank Pendleton whiskey, you couldn't make up stuff this crazy.
00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:43.520
A pot company that handed Democrat politicians cash in paper bags and practically owned a now former Secretary of State of the State of Oregon, it is still in business.
00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:48.719
It still owes the state millions of dollars in back taxes and fees.
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:49.679
And guess what?
00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.840
It sounds like they're still funding the Democrat politicians in the state.
00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:55.840
Jeff Eager knows the whole story.
00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.799
Jeff is the former mayor of Bend, Oregon.
00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.200
He's an attorney and political consultant.
00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.719
He writes regularly at Oregon Roundup on Substack.
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Jeff, welcome back to the program.
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Great to be back, Lars.
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Hey, you'll forgive me for saying that back when Lamoda first got into all that trouble, I thought, well, these folks are going to be out of business fairly soon.
00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.239
And I'll admit I was completely wrong.
00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:19.760
What's going on now?
00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:22.239
I had the same thought, Lars.
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:52.079
Um, what's going on is that the uh even though Lamoto and its owners, uh Aaron Mitchell and Rosa Casares, uh still owe uh millions of dollars to the state of Oregon in back taxes, the uh scheme that the state of Oregon uses to verify licenses for marijuana sales allows people to continue to renew licenses if they are on a payment plan for their back taxes.
00:01:52.239 --> 00:02:02.000
So even though Mitchell's got eight million bucks in uh tax liens against him, if he's on a payment plan, he can still get his licenses renewed.
00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:03.519
So I think that's how it's gonna be.
00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:05.120
Let me ask you something.
00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:09.680
I mean, decades ago, I owed the IRS some money, but I think it was like twelve hundred dollars.
00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:11.840
And I said, Can I can I do a payment plan?
00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:12.719
They said, yeah.
00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.280
And uh I said, how fast do you want it paid off?
00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:20.800
They'd say, we'd like you to have it paid off by the next tax date by April 15th of the following year.
00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:21.520
I said, okay.
00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:22.400
And we worked it out.
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It was like a hundred bucks a month and it was done.
00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:33.360
On this$7.9 million, do you have any idea how much these folks at LaModa, the weed outfit, how much are they paying per year or per month?
00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:36.319
And how long is it going to take to pay back the$8 million?
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Do we know?
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I I don't know, Lars, because Department of Revenue won't talk about specific taxpayer situations and the Lamoto crew.
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Even if they're a commercial business.
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Yeah, even if they're a commercial business, even if the Department of Revenue is relying on a payment plan to reissue marijuana licenses, they they will not disclose.
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And I do believe they're legally prohibited from disclosing specific taxpayer information.
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Because one of the things that occurs to me is depending on how quickly or how slowly they're digging them their way out of all this debt,$7.9 million in state tax liens is is a lot of money.
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And if they're paying it off at half a million a year and it's going to take the next 14 years to pay the money back, that's almost like a gift that's being given to this illicit business to stay in business.
00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:30.560
That's the way I look at it.
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Do you think I'm out of it?
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Yeah, there no, not at all.
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I take there's something funny going on with the timing of when they pay off old liens and then they're still not paying new tax obligations.
00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:50.560
And I mean, Cazaris is on the Department of Revenue's uh uh delinquent taxpayer list.
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Like today, you can go on there and she's on the list, and DOR is still certifying her as tax compliant for uh cannabis licens.
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Well, I mean, I I guess I'm I'm tempted to compare that, say, to property taxes, where you can get up to three years behind before in the state of Oregon, the state can come and threaten to take your property.
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And then if you just, you know, of the three years you're in arrears, say you're in arrears for 23, 24, and 25, as long as you make one-third of one payment one year that you've stayed just ahead of the bill collector in that case, and you can and they don't seize your property.
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Is it that kind of mechanism, do you think?
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It it may be, Lars.
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It may be that they're in compliance with payment plans uh for as long as they need to be to get a particular license renewed and then they're back in Hawk, and then uh it it's uh the timing of all this has to be extremely strange for Mitchell in particular to keep building up all these tax liens while remaining per the Department of Revenue in compliance.
00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:01.759
Well, and and it also says something strange to all the other people who are in the weed business.
00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:04.240
Like, why would we pay our taxes on time?
00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:09.759
These folks got away with running up a giant tab and didn't have to pay it off, and they still get to keep their licenses.
00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:13.600
Doesn't that give kind of a disincentive to actually pay your taxes?
00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:15.839
Uh you would sure think so.
00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:23.199
And somehow Lamoda's got this situation figured out where they're able to stay in business despite their tax debt continuing to increase.
00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:28.720
It's are they still making big contributions to Democrat politicians like Tina Kotek?
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Not that I can see.
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They have they they stopped making those contributions after 2022 per or star.
00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:44.480
Um so I I think I think the Democrats probably wouldn't take their money now, uh presumably given the blowback they got a couple years ago.
00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:59.920
But then, like you, I thought that Lamoto was persona non-grata in Oregon after that, and here they are uh going strong, I believe 28 licenses for cannabis retail in the state of Oregon, despite this tax debt.
00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:06.160
Well, and you referred in the piece you wrote for Oregon Roundup to Cotec's new rules.
00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:12.079
What are there some brand new rules that were designed just to benefit uh Caseras and Mitchell?
00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:31.839
Yeah, so back in 2023 when Kotech and other recipients of La Moda Largesse were trying to distance themselves from the company and Mitchell and Cazares, Kotech announced new uh rules to hold cannabis companies accountable and make sure everyone was playing on a fair playing field.
00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:40.639
Uh, but the rules that she instituted contained this um payment plan loophole, I would call it.
00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:50.319
Um, so it it really hasn't had any effect whatsoever uh as far as keeping people with massive tax debts from uh getting licenses.
00:06:50.399 --> 00:07:02.160
Now, DR has or OLCC has decertified, I believe 36, they told me, um, cannabis uh retailers since the new rules went into place.
00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:07.600
But obviously Lamoda, ironically, was not one of those companies.
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Because they still have a couple of dozen licenses all by themselves, while other states like Washington State put a fairly strict limit on the licenses, don't they?
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I don't know what how Washington handles cannabis licenses.
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But is there any practical limit on the number of licenses you can hold in the state of Oregon?
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No, I d I I don't believe so, Lars.
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I believe they could they could hold uh infinite numbers of licenses.
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Wow.
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See, because that that makes me wonder if if these folks owe the state of Oregon and the politicians there millions of dollars in back taxes, you would think they'd say, you know, you don't get these taxes paid up, you're gonna lose some of your licenses, and we'll give them away to somebody else who's actually willing to pay the tab on a regular basis.
00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:54.560
Hey, Jeff, it's a pleasure as always to have you on.
00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:59.680
That's Jeff Eager, former mayor of the City of Bend, attorney, political consultant.
00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:03.439
You can find what he writes at Oregon Roundup on Substack.
00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:07.759
You're listening to the Lars Larson show and the Radio Northwest Network.
