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<br />- Mr. Gleason said Oregon has chosen to put all the capital of cities, school <br /> districts, counties, special districts, and the operation costs of all of <br /> these districts on the property tax. He feels this dislocates investment. <br /> People in Oregon spend less money on property tax investment because other <br /> investments are not so highly taxed. Mr. Bennett agreed, saying people who <br /> invest consider the potential for a long holding period on their investment. <br /> Because people in Oregon believe the property tax will continue to increase, <br /> property investment rates go down. <br /> Mr. Obie asked about the experience of cities that are sales tax dependent <br /> during recessions. Mr. Gleason said such cities typically design an in-cash <br /> balance cushion against this. If the growth rate drops, the equilibrium is <br /> automatically readjusted. <br /> Mr. Gleason said the main issues the council must address are productivity, <br /> revenue, and service level. He said all three of these issue are <br /> interdependent and must be solved together. With regard to productivity, he <br /> said the City must demonstrate to the council and the community that it is <br /> seriously interested in improving productivity in such areas as the number of <br /> managers, printing and buying patterns, use of space, wages, and other <br /> issues. Mr. Gleason said he favors a performance audit approach for gauging <br /> productivity. <br /> With regard to revenues, Mr. Gleason said the council has given staff <br /> latitude in the past on setting user fees for services. He added that the <br /> council has also expressed that there is no support for an increase in <br />e property taxes or a major revenue switch. <br /> Mr. Gleason said it is not his experience that Eugene provides services that <br /> other cities do not. He does not feel Eugene is overly serviced. <br /> Mr. Gleason said the council has indicated that it wishes to use charges for <br /> service as the principal source of additional revenue. He said he will use <br /> that direction for establishing a five-year plan to ease the impact of <br /> service reductions as much as possible. He outlined several financing <br /> options and service adjustments that staff feels will assist in solving the <br /> projected General Fund deficit. These financing options and service <br /> adjustments included the following areas: street and road fund; event <br /> management, permit, regulatory, and economic development activities; downtown <br /> mall maintenance/programming; and public safety fees. <br /> B. General Fund Mission Statement <br /> Mr. Holmer expressed apprehension about this budget approach. He feels the <br /> council needs to look in detail at the budget to determine what services <br /> should be financed from the General Fund. He said there are too many <br /> interrelationships between the General Fund and other areas to approach the <br /> budget with such a limited focus. Mr. Holmer felt the language in this <br /> document is far too vague for the council to make any meaningful decisions <br /> about the budget. As an example, he cited the background material regarding <br /> capital projects. <br />e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 20, 1988 Page 2 <br />