■ 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
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