CC Minutes - 02/14/11 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Brown did not think the council needed to decide on the rates at this point. He recommended that the council direct staff to work with EcoNorthwest and an ad hoc citizens group to craft a graduated tax with specific rates for all four years so that taxpayers know that their rates would not change. He did not think the graduated rates presented to the council were graduated enough. Councilor Brown agreed with Councilor Ortiz that more people should share their burden because it was everyone's responsibility to pay for education. However, he did not care if a few families did not have to pay the tax. Children were the future and must be educated. City Attorney Klein said he must draft a ballot title based on the resolution. If the council did not establish rates tonight, the ballot measure would not be specific about what would be raised or what the rates would be. Councilor Zelenka supported the motion. He feared the tax would not receive support if it did not include a specific amount. He preferred a progressive rate structure, although he believed a flat tax might have a better chance of passing because it might be perceived as more fair. However, he could support a flat tax that covered more people. Councilor Clark suggested the council should be discussing the amount it wished to raise rather than the rate. Councilor Poling indicated support for a flat rate tax on incomes in excess of $1 so that all helped to pay for the schools. Councilor Pryor suggested the tradeoff the council faced was between the simplicity of the tax rate and the number of taxpayers affected. An OTI of $25,000 reached 68 percent of the taxpayers. He agreed with Councilor Poling that everyone ought to pay the tax and for that reason he favored a graduated tax. He supported a four -year tax with an annual yield of $16.8 million rather than a six -year tax with a $26.6 million annual yield. He wanted to help the schools but also wanted to be able to pass a measure to do so, and thought the lower amount had more chance of passage. Councilor Farr believed that the council was rushing the process and making decisions based on incomplete data. He feared the opponents of the proposed measure would be able to highlight those flaws to the community. He said the schools "deserved a lot better than this." Responding to a question from Councilor Brown, City Attorney Klein said if the rates were not in the resolution, the ballot title would not mention the rates; he anticipated the council would adopt an implementing ordinance that contained that information prior to the election. He suggested that information about the rates could appear in the Voters Pamphlet. Councilor Taylor determined from City Attorney Klein that a person earning $26,000 would pay 1.42 percent on the entire amount. She suggested that was unfair. Councilor Farr pointed out that the funding crisis had taken some time to build and he found it unwieldy to be dealing with something that should have been taken care of a long time ago. He was frustrated to be told that if the council did not do something now the schools would fall apart but he did not think the council had the right information to make the decision. He thought the result would be a bad decision. Mayor Piercy acknowledged the situation was not ideal and the timing was challenging. She pointed out that the council was approached by community members who asked for help because they could not stand MINUTES — Eugene City Council February 14, 2010 Page 11 Regular Meeting