The $35 annual levy passed in a 2012 referendum by 62% to 38%; now its unpopularity is a running joke in town. Regular taxpayers don’t like it because it was badly designed and implemented, but why don’t the likes of Portland Center Stage, Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Portland Art Museum, Portland Opera and the Oregon Symphony? For a start, it turns out they’re now getting less funding from the city than they were before the tax was there. – Willamette Week (Portland)