Beating the odds.Byline: The Register-Guard If bookies set odds on government tax measures, Lane County's proposed income tax to pay for public safety would probably be given the same chances of winning voter approval as, say, the Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Tostitos tortilla chips (a Frito-Lay product), is a United States college football game played annually since 1971. Originally, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium where it remained until 2006. picking the University of Oregon The University of Oregon is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. over Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame . But stranger things happen at the polls and in football stadiums. After all, who would have bet last summer that the Ducks would go 10-1? And who would have guessed that Lane County commissioners would reach agreement on a plan to pay for desperately needed police and crime prevention services? Before writing off the county's chances, cynics Cynics (sĭn`ĭks) [Gr.,=doglike, probably from their manners and their meeting place, the Cynosarges, an academy for Athenian youths], ancient school of philosophy founded c.440 B.C. by Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates. should consider the many obstacles that had to be overcome just to reach the point of settling on a tax proposal. In fact, it would have been understandable if county officials had decided to not even attempt developing a proposal. After all, voters have swatted down every county public safety measure for the past decade. Deep political divisions on the board of commissioners made consensus on a new proposal seem a far-fetched dream. To their credit, a core group of county officials - including then-Sheriff Jan Clements, his successor Russ Berger, and then-District Attorney Alex Gardener - began promoting the idea of forming a countywide coun·ty·wide adv. & adj. Throughout a whole county: found at locations countywide; a countywide search. Adj. 1. public safety district. That concept didn't get far before running aground a·ground adv. & adj. 1. Onto or on a shore, reef, or the bottom of a body of water: a ship that ran aground; a ship aground offshore. 2. . When the Eugene City Council refused the necessary land use approvals, determined county officials convened a task force made up of elected representatives from all 12 of the county's cities. Their mission impossible: De- vise - and agree on - a solution to the county's public safety crisis. Under the capable leadership of former county administrator Jim Johnson, this extraordinarily diverse group of local officials settled on the rough outlines of a proposal that focused on combating the county's methamphetamine methamphetamine (mĕth'ămfĕt`əmēn): see amphetamine; methedrine. epidemic. Commissioners were left with the politically explosive task of deciding how to raise the revenues needed to pay for the public safety programs. It remains to be seen if the package of personal income and business income taxes that commissioners decided upon was the right choice. Certainly, commissioners were right to reject a sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. , which would be doomed in Lane County - or anywhere in Oregon. County voters also have made it clear they have no appetite for new property taxes, even for the purpose of paying for public safety services. A proposed gross receipts tax A gross receipts tax, sometimes referred to as a gross excise tax, is a tax on the total gross revenues of a company, regardless of their source. It is similar to a sales tax, but it is levied on the seller of goods or services rather than the consumer. had appeal, but it would have imposed an unfair burden on high-receipts, low-profit businesses and might have generated fierce opposition from county businesses. Commissioners have yet to decide key details of the income tax plan, including when it should go before the voters. They also have to set rates and decide on possible exemptions for low-income county residents or small businesses - both of which should receive serious consideration. But the existence of similar taxes in both Portland and Multnomah County offers county officials some hope that Lane County voters might - just might - find them acceptable. Stranger things, after all, have happened. |
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