09/29/1982 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Gleason discussed the impact on the City of Ballot Measure 3. He said that this preposed one and one-half percent preperty tax limitation measure would produce complex changes in the entire Oregon tax system. He said that .one - problem with the measure was that it was vague and unpredictable. Mr. Gleasen said that the State Attorney General had indicated that some .of the provisions in the measure were based on California law and had ne parallel with the Oregon Constitution. Mr. Gleasen referred to materials which had been distributed to councilors on the measure. He said that passage of the measure would mean reductien of the City's budget by $14.5 million. He said that, while it was difficult to produce exact figures on the impact of this reductien en City operatiens, and recognizing that the Budget Committee would make the decisions en how to deal with the reduction, he estimated that approximately 300 to 350 employees would have te be laid .off. Mr. Gleason said that the proposed measure would reduce the property tax rate .one and one-half percent in the assessed valuatien in 1979 and would permit subsequent increases of only 2 percent per year. He said the measure provided that lIessential servicesll, defined ~ as Police and Fire, could not be cut below 1979 levels. Mr. Gleason said that this would not pretect the City's existing public safety system. --- Mr. Gleason said that comparisens of Measure 3 with California's Propositien 13 were not valid, since the percentage of preperty tax moneys going inte the California General Fund was only 10 to 12 percent, as .opposed 55 to 60 percent fer Oregon. He said that Califernia had also been able to draw on $6 billion in unencumbered tax reserves to aid local gevernments and that, because the last draw on these funds was being made this year, the true impact of Preposition 13 en Califernia was yet to be seen. - Mr. Gleason said that the principal benefactors of Ballet Measure 3 would be the business community, including major multi-national corperations, not the general citizenry. Mr. Gleason discussed the negative impacts of the measure on the City's ecenomic development program, including dewntewn development and industrial siting efferts, and en General Fund Revenue-Sharing programs. He then itemized City programs which would probably have to be cut if the measure were passed, including traffic and neise patrol, crime prevention, Willamette Street IIGutll enforcement, volunteer fire programs, the entire detective division, and two police patrel divisions. He said that two more satellite fire stations would need to be closed, in addition to the three already closed. He said further reductiens would include elimination of the fire prevention program, refinement and growth management land use planning, and the histeric preservation program. He said that respensiblity fer building inspection would probably have to be transferred to the State, that the public library and municipal swimming peols weuld have te be closed, that programming in senier centers would be eliminated, and that only recreation programs for which there was 100 percent reimbursement to the City could be continued. He said that the City would not be able to contribute te the Eugene Sports Pregram or to Joint Social Service activities. He said that e MINUTES--Eugene City Ceuncil September 29, 1982 Page 7