EDITORIAL
‘Work-privilege’ tax
inappropriate, unfair
Tlio Eugene City Council would bo wise to reconsider
a vote made by some of its members at its July 13 meet
ing.
By a 4-3 margin, the council endorsed a new "work
privilege'' tax. which would be levied against individ
uals who work, but do not live, within the city limits.
Council members favoring the tax appeared to see it as
a possible solution to the city's budget woes, worsened
by the failure of a May bond issue that would havo helped
pay for a number of needed services, including building
maintenance, an expanded library and the opening of a
new fire station, already built.
As important as these projects are. paying for them
with a tax on nonresidents is both inappropriate and
unfair.
The tax is inappropriate because it assumes — quite
incorrectly — that nonresidents working in Eugene are
getting a free ride when it comes to the use of city ser
vices. But taxes are not the only way to make a contri
bution to the city: nonresidents support Eugene in oth
er ways.
Take the library, for instance. Nonresidents have to
pay J55 per household for library privileges, each yoar.
That hardly constitutes a free ride.
Before the library issue took center stage, the city
pushed other expensive projects such as the building
of the Hull Center and the expansion of tho Eugene Air
port. Both of these depend heavily on the patronage of
nonresidents. These facilities are regional in nature, and
could not survive without the holp of nonresidents, who
buy plane tickets and symphony tickets, too — just like
residents. If no one outside the city took advantage of
these facilities, there is no wsy they would have the suc
cess that they currently enjoy.
People living in neighborhoods that are covered by
Eugene fire and sewer services, such as the Santa Clara
River Road area, pay additional taxes to receive those
benefits as well. There is no free ride.
Of course, many of the nonresidents from more out
lying regions receive virtually no benefits at all from the
city. So a tax on them is even more inappropriate.
A "work-privilege" tax is also unfair.
Many of the tax's opponents have taken up the Revo
lutionary War rallying cry, "No taxation without repre
sentation," in speaking out against the tax. Such a charge
is fitting, indeed, the nonresidents who would pay the
tax have no legal say in the matter — they have no rep
resentatives on the council and have practically no legal
authority to repeal the tax.
Nonresidents cannot prevent the tax; they also cannot
avoid it. jobs are relatively permanent things. Most peo
pie do not have the luxury of quitting a job and finding
another where the taxes are more fair.
if tho city passed a restaurant tax, for example, people
could oat elsewhere. But if the city passes o "work
privilege" tax, nonresidents will just have to accept it.
The city has nonresidents over a barrel, and there's noth
ing they can do about it.
The "work-privilege" tax was proposed by a council
which would like to spend more money than the city
takes in. When the voters of Eugene would not agree to
more taxes — as was shown in tho May election — tho
council decided to try to tax a group that couldn't say
no.
It isn't fair. And nonresidents should continue to
oppose tho "work-privilege" tax — through letters,
phono calls and, if necessary, boycotts of Eugono busi
nesses.
Oregon Daily
PO BOl JtS* fUGfNf ORfGOW*;*X)
The Oeg<*> Datfy E mr* jkl •-» published cia% Monday through l?<Uy during »Nt> school
year and Tuesday and Thursday durmg the iummoi by the Otegon Da.'y Emerald
Pub*‘%hmg Co Inc . aHh« Uruv**vty ot Oregon Eugene Oregon
The Emerald 0(wa!« independency o» t*e Un(verity othce* at Surle 300 0> the
[*b Mtmontf Union and is a member the Associated Press
The Emerald <» private property The unlawful removal o» use o* papers s prosecutable
by >aw
Editor Kafy Soto
Associate Editors Meg Dedotph, la Saiccc a David Thom
Photo Editor: Michael Sh*ry^er
Night Editor: Davto Thom
General Manager Jody
Advertising Director Mark Walter Production Manager M' Mr Rosa
Advertising. Brian Dams. Sut*r Outta Tony I o* fen M.von M»chae< M lecte
Classified Bec»y Me*chant Ma nager
Business: Kathy Carbone St4NPVwtv Distribution: John long, f er«nc RakQCH
Production Dee MeCobb. Production Coo&WHOf Tera Gauftney
NtwwoOfn
Butin#»s OftVc«
34*-5511
W6-SS12
Dttpiay Advertising
Classified Advertising
346-3712
346 4343
f IN ^°!L*J5s£ \
1 11f j^,e
| TW a^Mto «*m
£*V if AT / J */,v£ . Oft \AjOU.b Be if
IT CnO»r HAV( 7t#s WHCWim WME61 x
LETTERS
Inquisition
In response to Ixiretla Nt*et of
the CXIA (ODE. July 7) It is just
this sort of twisting of the idea of
natural law under the guise of
compassion that fueled crusades
like the Inquisition As a six iety,
we have moved away from ideas
like natural law for the very rea
son that it is open to manipula
tion by groups which purport to
interpret it for the rest of us using
a narrow vision growing out of
fear and rigidity An exi ellent
distillation of the natural law was
posited by Hu hard Mayhury in
his book, Whatever Happened to
lustice?, wherein he reduced tt
to two basic laws "Do all you
have agreed to do" and “Do not
encroach on other persons or
their property."
When groups like the (XIA
encroach on the freedom and pri
vacy of individuals who are
harmlessly expressing who they
are, they are violating the most
hasu. ol natural laws All of us
struggle as individuals in society
to survive, to he as much our
selves as we dare, to be vulner
able, to connect, to love In short,
we are all seeking to live up to
our divine nature Having people
like Loretta Neet pass misin
formed judgment on intimate
aspects of our journey makes the
realization of ourselves that
much harder.
Please tend your own garden.
Julie Masters
Law
Metz off base
in response to the article by
Chris Metz (ODE. July 14) You
obviously don't understand the
game of baseball if you believe
that 1994 is a good year for the
game Yes. the All-Star game was
great, but that seems to be the
only shining light in this guar
anteed strike year.
With the re-alignment of the
divisions, comparing today's
Cleveland Indians to the Cleve
land team that last won a pen
nant in 1954 is like comparing
apples and oranges And the fact
that a sub- 500 club like Texas
can actually win a pennant, let
alone the World Series, shows
how the new system will make
mediocre teams into world
champs. The reason the season
lasts for 160-plus games is to
determine who deserves the
chance to lx* considered great, not
to have losing teams become
champions.
While the "big three” (Griffey
Jr . Thomas, Williams) are su
perstar players and deserve to bo
recognized in the record books,
it must bo done with asterisks
Today’s game is done with a five
man rotation, as opposed to n
four-man rotation previously, and
with the induction of the expan
sion teams, the pitching in base
ball isn't as strong from tup to
bottom as it once was. These
changes in the game have cheap
ened the marvelous feats from the
likenesses of Maris, Mantle and
Ruth, just to name a few.
1’rn afraid what once was a
child's game played hv adults is
now an adults' game played by
businessmen. Thom is only one
reason l>ehind this mess in base
ball (strike included): America's
desire for mediot re television has
made America's game mediocre
as well. The TV audience wants
shorter games, yet they also
demand more runs, and common
sense will tell you that these can't
possibly coexist
Baseball will continue to
change so long as corporate TV
America makes decisions that
satisfy its own needs, including
adding even more cities to get
more TV revenue to pay even
more .220 hatters multi-million
dollar contracts.
I hope a strike does not hap
pen, hut if it does, it won't make
much of a difference to me Just
as a "juiced" hall doesn't mat
ter to you, I could care less to see
a "wild card” team win a pen
nant, or to see pitchers giving up
home runs after home runs. And
yes, there was a game a few
weeks ago between California
and Baltimore that included
more than 10 home runs.
I only hope purists like me will
toll the stones to our children and
grandchildren about the great
ones that once played a game
known as America's game. Base
hall
Robert Polk
Eugene
Piercing
Open Letter to Anne Moser
kornfeld [ODE. July 14): So you
don't like body piercing, huh?
You've made this perfectly clear.
Someone else doesn't like the
way other people dress. Maybe
someone else hates the way oth
er people talk And wo bother to
wonder what's wrong with the
world today? I believe there are
more important things to worry
about than someone elso's
pierced nipple.
What you've done is killed two
birds with one stone. Problem is.
one of the birds was mine.
You've derided other folks for no
good reason (your bird). Cafe, that
must he Ok. people do it every
day. right? But piercers are exor
cising a legal right which does
not infringe upon yours (my
bird). Ca«t this through your head:
it's all right for people to he
different than you. It's a scary
idea (fur some), but a mature one.
The unfortunate fact is many
people have attitudes similar to
yours. Different things hug each
one of us For you to write (and
us to read about) useless com
plaints is a waste of energy.
Please try to complain about
something worthwhile next time,
if complain you must. Otherwise,
attempt a more interesting per
spective on the subject
Peter Shair
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY
The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters
containing comments on topics of interest to the University
community. „
The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or
style.