CC Minutes - 01/14/98 Work Session

Home Browse Search

Ms. Taylor said that her fears about the council committee had been realized; the committee had spent considerable time on the topic and now was concluding it was too late. She said that the council was elected to make decisions and she questioned why it should appoint another committee. Ms. Taylor agreed that it might be necessary to wait until the fall for separate measures related to the parks, library, or community policing, but she wanted to proceed immediately with a measure to restore recreation services. She said that people were aware of the situation and they care. Ms. Taylor said that much study had been done in Eugene about taxes. She said that Eugene Decisions indicated people want businesses taxed more than households. She pointed out that Oregon has the 43rd lowest tax burden on businesses, and the 5th highest tax burden on households. Mr. Torrey said that all the councilors probably favored one source of revenue over another. He said that a split vote on the council about a revenue measure would doom the measure. Mr. Fart appreciated the work of the committee and indicated his support for its recommendation, which he termed a prudent one. He believed more community input was required before the council sought additional revenues. Mr. Fart agreed that the impact of the council's service reductions had not been felt by the community at large. He said that the council should allow the community to understand what was occurring before asking it for more money. He pointed out that the council was able to restore several services that had been eliminated as a result of higher than anticipated property tax revenues. Mr. Fart believed that the City was "running a little bit fat" in some areas, and that when that "fat" was trimmed lost services could be restored. He favored an election in November 1998 or later. Mr. Meisner agreed that the community was not completely familiar with the depth of the reductions, their impacts, their costs, or how Ballot Measure 50 worked. He said that the council began working on the reductions far in advance of their implementation, and that put it in the awkward position of having to reinstate funding for some services in advance of their elimination when the Tax Assessor calculated the property tax revenue total. People never experienced the reductions at all. Mr. Meisner said that in addition, some people misunderstood the impact of Ballot Measure 50 and believed that the City was receiving additional funding rather than less funding. He said that he would like to restore services as soon as possible, but was less optimistic than Ms. Taylor about the passage of a revenue measure. Mr. Meisner did not support the concept of a new citizen committee. He said that a broad based committee would still represent only a few people, and it was vital that the council engage the entire community about how it feels about services and capital needs and their relative priorities. Mr. Meisner said that the council's adopted goals should not be ignored so a new subset of people could formulate new goals. He also questioned the role of the Budget Committee in the process and wondered when the topics of tax equity and reform would be addressed. Mr. Meisner questioned the use of the term "blue ribbon," asking who it referred to, and how the committee would be representative of the community. Mr. Tollenaar said that the proposed committee would include representatives of all socio- economic elements in the community. He said that the council needed to educate the public about the fact current resources were inadequate to carry the current service system into the future. Mr. Tollenaar noted that the committee had been unable to reach consensus on a taxing source. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 14, 1998 Page 7 11:30 a.m.