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Oregon
emerald
An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 80, No. 4 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, June 29, 1978
v J
Eugene approves
Civic Center bond,
city budget fails
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
The third time may be the charm and
after 15 years of planning, voting and
disappointments, the Eugene Civic
Center will become a reality.
In what was probably the largest voter
turnout for a special election in recent
years, nearly 30 percent of the regis
tered voters overwhelmingly approved
the civic center bond issue by a 3-2 mar
gin.
The bond measure, passing by a vote
of 10,473 to 6,848, may have been the
only thing good about Tuesday’s elec
tion. A city special tax levy on the same
ballot was soundly defeated by area
voters 9,700 to 6,770.
While the special tax levy would have
provided Eugene's budget with $6.4 mil
lion to operate city services for the com
ing year, the civic center bond will bring
Eugene up to its cultural par, says the
head of the Friends of the Civic Center
Committee.
The new center to be built with the
$18.5 million bond approved by the vot
ers will enhance Eugene’s cultural as
pects, with “room to spare," says Maurie
Jacobs, head the committee.
"Oh sure it wrll, with room to spare,’’
Jacobs says. “We’re also picking up
the slack that we missed for the past 15
years.”
The new center, which will include a
multi-purpose concert, theater and au
ditorium facility, was first proposed
nearly a year ago by the Eugene Civic
Center Commission. That facility would
also encompass a combined concert
hall and large theater with seating for an
audience of about 2,500.
A smaller theater with a 500-seat au
ditorium, underground parking, recital
rooms and offices are also part of the
project, which is expected to break
ground sometime in January, 1979.
Although the center will cost the esti
mated $18 million to build, the economic
impact on the community as calculated
by the Economics Research Associates
could mean about 1,200 new
construction-related jobs and nearly 200
more jobs once the center is completed.
It could also provide about $40 million
in increased revenue for the city before
the project is completed.
Will the new center meet the needs of
the community? Yes, Jacobs says.
"I can’t talk for 25 or 30 years down the
road, but for in the near future it will
definitely serve the needs,” he says.
Horse
house
Photo by Erich Boeketieido
Horses seem to inspire the artist in just a
bout everyone, but none more than one artis
tic McKenzie Highway resident. When she
carves a horse in some pose, there’s almost
something mystical about it. See the story on
Page 5.
State league opposes property tax limitation
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
A proposal to limit Oregon's property
taxes may have been introduced to the
state just a month ago, but one state or
ganization made up its mind about such
proposals several years ago.
According to Janet Calvert, president of
the Central Lane County League of Women
Voters, the State League made its decision
on tax measures a long time ago when the
group studied several tax proposals.
The league, a non-partisan political or
ganization that claims at least 2,000 mem
bers statewide, took its stance on tax
measures several years ago and has en
dorsed measures it felt would make the
state’s tax system equitable, Calvert says.
That includes property tax limitation
measures, which, until recently, were just
the angry grumblings of disgruntled prop
erty tax payers.
Those grumblings turned into action fol
lowing the overwhelming victory of the con
troversial Proposition 13 in California’s
special election earlier this month.
Although no one really knows just what
the effects of such a measure would be in
Oregon, California residents found out their
measure cut state revenue gathered
primarily from property taxes by several
million dollars.
The California measure promised to
open the door for increased business ex
pansion because businesses would be pay
ing less in property taxes compared with
middle income families, whose property
taxes dimbed sharply in the past few years.
But that may not be true, says Esther Loy,
chairer of the League of Women Voters’
state tax committee. The group is opposed
to a property tax limitation in Oregon be
cause it is not equitable, she says.
Businesses would benefit more than the
general public.
Because of the uneven property valua
tion between businesses and private
homes, the shift in taxes would hit the mid
dle income tax payer harder than the large
corporations or industries, Loy says. That
tax shift could make it harder on the private
property tax payer than it has ever been.
"We support only tax measures that try to
cover every segment of our society evenly,”
Calvert says. “That’s one of our criticisms of
this proposed tax limitation, that it hits the
homeowners the hardest.”
The group, while being supportive of tax
measures that do the best to spread the
revenue from taxes to those areas that
need it most, thinks the shift in taxes from
businesses to private homeowners will
make the system of taxation in the state
inequitable. That inequality will have to be
remedied somehow, Loy says, and a higher
tax on income may have to be initiated, Loy
says.
“I cannot conceive how we'll get local tax
measures passed under that measure,”
she adds.
If the measure is approved by voters in
November, Loy says it may take a court
decision to clarify the two-thirds definition.
Even then it may make it difficult for the
state Legislature to pass new tax meas
ures, she says.
“It will definately take a court decision to
clarify everything about this proposal,” Loy
says. “Whether this one thing can amend
several sections of the state constitution is
unclear.”
The limitation, while purported to be a tax
reform package, will probably also do a
great deal of damage to the state’s school
system, Loy adds.
The schools now receive the biggest
share of property tax revenue. If that re
venue were cut off, she says, it could have
disastrous results.
“What it will do with the school finance —
it just worries me," Loy says.
Local municipalities could levy city or
county income taxes, similar to the tax
proposed by the Lane Transit District last
month, that would be paid in addition to the
regular state income tax to finance the
school system, Loy says. But that isn’t very
likely, because that tax would also be sub
ject to voter approval, she says.