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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1994)
■ COMMENTARY Gas tax seeks equity for homeowners, renters By Paul Nicholson I am writing in response to an ODE editorial about the Eugene City Council's rw **nt decision to refer a 017 cent gas tax to the voters. The editorial suggests that this proposal is motivated by a city council pro gram to got people out of their oars. In fact, the real issue is tax equity. The question the Council wilt place before you is whether storm water charges attributable to street run off should be charged to the automobile drivers who are served by the streets, or whether we continue to collect all storm water fees from property owners and renters. We are not propos ing to i oiled new revenue The issue before the voters is whether owners and renters who live in Eugene wish to continue to subsidize drivers. Next time you pay your EWEB hill, take a close look at the charges. If you own or rent a typical house, the proposed gas tax would reduce your storm water fees by $ 1 ‘47 — from the current rate of $7 87 to $5 00 per month Residents who purchase less than 70 gallons of gas in Eugene per month will come out ahead because storm water costs wilt be more equi tably shared by drivers, many of whom are non-residents ort om memal users. Federal mandates require cities with populations more than 100,000 to meet stringent feder al standards which greatly increase Eugene storm water fts>s These standards are imposed on urban centers, not because the residents of cities create more or dirtier storm water, but because only large i ities have the densi ty required to support a storm water treatment facility We are required to treat storm water so that people out in the country tan continue to send their untreat ed run off into our streams and rivers A reasonable editorial would have proposed a county wide revenue source to pay for Eugene's federally mandated storm water treatment, a position that I could have heartily endorsed Contrary to the ODE» editori al claims, the Eugene City (Coun cil is not even the original author of the proposal to tax gas to pay storm water fees The Citizen's Advisory Committee on Storm Water formulated the re« om mondstion which the Coum d is now referring to voters I da wish to give the impres sion that thi« City Council is indif ferent to the esi nlnting single is i upancy vehic le miles traveled m Eugene We do intend an earnest attempt to meet State of Oregon mandates which require that all Oregon cities plan to redui e the average amount of dri ving by 10 percent over the next 20 year*. Refraining from subsi dizing driving is consistent with this goal. The nveroge dri'er dri ves 17 percent more today than he or she drove 10 years ago, a trend we can ill afford to contin ue. lire most depressing aspect of this editorial is that the editor* drew all of their information from I hr Register-Guard article of Sept, 2H The editors of the ODE have beheld the spectacle of their professional brethren nt The Hrg ister Guard popping off edito rially without Ixjthering with l*al anced or accurate information. It is a shame that the editors of the ODE have not found a better standard to emulate. I’nul Nicholson is the Eugene City Council president ■ LETTERS Smith's bad math Like many other students, I was inter ested to read Denny Smith’s idea to increase funding for higher education from an undisclosed amount to $650 million in his budget proposal. Smith's previously undefined budget for higher education now reveals a number which, magically, is $50 million more than Kitzhabor's allo cution for higher education. And. more magic, tuition won't go up! Of course there will tat no new taxes, and you won't lose any state services. Everybody wins. Too bad it doesn't balance out Smith can't pay for his plan, according to the Oc t. R edi tion of The Oregonian. Not only that, but Denny Smith. Reagan Republican, enemy of big government, and fiscal conservative says it's too early to tell what programs to cut. I guess that is why his budget spends $47 million more than Kitzhaber's proposal Is (his the beginning of a trend? Are “tax and spend Republi cans" the wave of the future? David C Sloane LCC student Flying bridges If City Mall told the ODE that pigs could fly, then presumably the ODE would not print “Pigs can fly " Rather, the headline would read “City Hall claims pigs can fly." By the same token, the ODE should not have printed on Friday. Oct 7. that the proposed $80 million Ferry Street Bridge will contain rail lanes Rather, the ODE should have printed that City Mall claims that the now bridge will have rail lanes The ODE story should haw then explained that Kugonu Transportation Engineer Dave Richard has informed the City Council that the dedicated transit lanes (including rail) are not practical on either the present or any redesigned bridge be< ause of the way i^ir traffic must enter and exit, and that the draft environmental impact statement sup ports this i oncluston < lit % Hall knows there will not he rail lanes on the iwm Fairy Street Bridge, but they know that dangling the possibility of rail lanes gathers votes If City hall were really serious about light rail, itslvallot measure, 20-id. would propose a separate bridge for pedestrians, bicycles, buses and eventually light rail right next to the present bridge But for such « forward-looking solution to tie i on sidered. we must first defeat the giant car bridge plan, which Peter Keyes, Univer sity architecture professor, i harncten/ed as the "last grasp of the old way of think ing “ Junior Robertson Alumnus, 1980 Ask petitioners Now, (luring the fall. ! sun a lot of (Hits tinners While walking to the post office I often speak to these people. Some peti tioners lire paid, some ire not. I would like to remind people that they always have the right to ask if the petitioners are paid or not. I circulate a lot of turn-paid petitions, but only for the group I belong to. the Clearing Mouse on Human Rights and I'syt hiotrv David Oaks runs this unique assoc iation for ex mental patients. Although I'm against any petition to remove our historic trees. 1 think Measure 20-23 has some good points 1 like the idea of the Ferry Street Bridge being improved since 1 do a lot of bit ycle rid ing. Rhonda Rauch Eugene BACK TO SCHOOL FUTON SALE RIVIERA l ull Si/c I* rame VII Cotton I uton $ 199 HOURS: MON -FRI I I to 6 SAT 11 to 5 SUN Noon to 4 ROCK SOFT FUTON I CALGARY lull Si/c Frame All Cotton Futon CAMPUS AREA 1231 ALDER ST. sn DIO SI II PI k Pine Inline ('niton !• ulon Twin Si/e $129
