Meeting on proposed income tax garners little community interest.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

With apologies to the late poet Carl Sandburg, what if they held an income-tax meeting and nobody came?

Lane County officials may have pondered that very question Wednesday night, when their public workshop on the proposed income tax drew a grand total of ... two people.

One was an acquaintance of Commissioner Faye Stewart, who attended the workshop and is a chief advocate of the tax. The other person is a strong opponent of the measure.

There were no energized groups of supporters or opponents. No members of the business community. No fence-sitters. No curious onlookers, other than a single reporter.

Expecting big crowds, officials scheduled the 5:30 p.m. workshop in Harris Hall, the cavernous public hall in the county building in downtown Eugene. They could have held it in a break room.

The turnout - or lack thereof - seemed in stark contrast to the circumstances.

The commissioners seek what would be the first personal and business income tax for public safety in county history. The proposal is the biggest - in dollars - measure on the Nov. 7 Lane County ballot. If approved, Lane would be the only county in the state taxing personal income.

Officials scheduled the workshop to explain the public safety problem, to show how the tax would work, to show what people would pay and to answer questions. County officials advertised the event in advance in The Register-Guard and put out news releases promoting it.

The sole question presented at the event came from Karen Reid, the aforementioned opponent, of Springfield: Will the commissioners adopt the tax if voters reject it?

Stewart said he wouldn't support that. As for Wednesday's no-show, he found it "a little disappointing."

"Somehow, we're not reaching citizens to get them involved enough to find out about it," Stewart said.