04/22/1992 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e that while he was not prepared to vote on a mix of taxes, he wanted to present the community with a mix of taxes for the purposes of eliciting feedback. Mr. Rutan proposed that the council provide the community with the strategy packages and ask citizens to indicate how they would fund the balances for "A" and "B." He added that 50 percent of the residents of lane County live in Eugene, and stressed the importance of working with lane County, the City of Springfield, and the school districts on those revenues that all the jurisdictions might be seeking, such as property taxes. Mr. Green and Mr. Miller indicated their interest in further discussion of a local retail sales tax. Mr. Boles pointed out that the council had committed to return to the community with a set of balanced, sustainable strategies. He said that the council needed to be specific about the revenue sources it supported and the amounts to be realized from those revenues. Regarding Mr. Rutan's comments on interjurisdictional cooperation, Mr. Boles said that there had been considerable effort on the part of the council to persuade the other jurisdictions to delay action for the sake of a coordinated approach to revenue shortfalls. He said that the other jurisdictions did not appear to be interested, and the City of Eugene was on its own. Mr. Boles regretted the failure of that effort. Mr. MacDonald proposed to balance Strategy Package A with a combination of corporate and personal income taxes and a gas tax increase of two cents. The increase in the gas tax would be used to fund shortfalls in the street tree program. He noted that if the State decided to place a sales tax before the voters, it could pre-empt the City's ability to collect a local sales tax. Responding to a request for clarification from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Smith said that the City is investing $700,000 to $1 million of Road Funds in street rehabilitation at the current time. The City requires about $3 million each year for ten years to fully fund street rehabilitation and maintain its infrastructure investment. A two-cent increase would not fully provide that funding. Responding to a question from Mr. Boles, Mr. Smith confirmed that no General Fund moneys were used for maintenance of the transportation infrastructure. Mr. MacDonald anticipated that the State would increase its gas tax, resulting in more money for municipalities. He suggested that the City did not have to fund its entire street maintenance needs with a local increase. Responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Mounts regarding the percentage yield to be realized by a mix of personal and corporate income taxes, the council directed staff to prepare information regarding the anticipated revenues realized by a corporate income tax at varying percentages for further review. Ms. Norris observed that previous analysis indicated that a one-percent corporate income tax would yield about $1.5 million. MINUTES--Eugene City Council 5:30 p.m. April 22, 1992 Page 4