Eugene weekly., September 13, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

T
Rabid
Transit
The drive toward West 11th EmX
heats up BY SHANNON FINNELL
I
n an age when money is speech and corporations are
people, following the money doesn’t always produce a
clear, well-documented trail of dollars. The opposition to
Eugene’s planned West 11th EmX extension is no
exception. Now the issue is heating up in anticipation of a
Sept. 26 City Council work session.
wo bus rapid transit (BRT) lines are running in
Eugene and Springfield, and while advocates such
as international public transit design and policy
consultant Jarrett Walker say BRT’s dedicated-
lane style makes transit a reliable and traffic-easing option,
some vocal local opponents disagree and have done
everything from littering West 11th with signs to taking out
anti-EmX ads on LTD buses.
Advocates say it will reduce Eugene’s carbon footprint,
that it will help redevelopment in an area expected become a
major transit corridor and that having a rapid transit system
is essential to adding the 30,000 people projected to move to
Eugene in the next 20 years. “Transit systems work, they’re
very effective, and you don’t find communities trying to give
them back,” EmX proponent Julie Daniel says.
Because there’s no public vote involved in the West
11th EmX extension — Eugene doesn’t typically vote on
topics as wonkish as mass transit projects — financial
disclosure related to issue advocacy isn’t required by law.
It’s free speech.
But the use of “Paid for by Tax Payers United” on Our
Money Our Transit (OMOT)’s anti-EmX ad campaign
raised questions for some local EmX enthusiasts, who
wondered whether that funding was coming from the
conservative anti-tax activists Illinois-based Taxpayers
United for America or conservative initiative sponsor Bill
Sizemore’s Oregon Taxpayers United.
“All of OMOT’s funding comes from concerned citizens
and local businesses. There is no outside funding that
comes in,” OMOT member Bob Clarke says. “[Tax Payers
United is] a group of individual business people that are
specifically united against EmX. You could almost consider
it to be a subgroup of OMOT.”
Clarke says he’s not sure why OMOT decided not to
register as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which would have made
public the IRS Form 990, which contains financial
information, including a nonprofit’s total revenue. “The
group is loosely formed of people who are concerned,”
Clarke says, “and they use my advertising agency as a
conduit to be able to acquire the bus ads or radio ads and
update the website so people are able to contribute to us and
not to an overall nonprofit corporation.”
OMOT is not registered in the Secretary of State’s
registry of active nonprofit corporations, the Oregon
Business Registry Database, the Oregon Department of
Justice Charities Database or the National Database of
nonprofits.
As a result, little is publicly available on OMOT’s
finances. The group’s site does list a group of local
businesses where anti-EmX petitions are available, and 11
of the 24 are related to the automotive industry.
Our Money Our Transit hired the K Street office of law
firm Dorsey and Whitney out of Washington, D.C., to
respond to the Environmental Assessment that LTD
submitted to the Federal Transit Administration.
Dorsey and Whitney’s 19 worldwide offices represent a
wide range of clients, including many oil and gas interests.
Past and present clients include Phillips66 (formerly Cono-
coPhillips), Tesoro Refining and Marketing, CenterPoint
Energy, Marathon Oil Company, PBF Energy, Continental
Resources, Delaware Pipeline Co., Global Energy, Holly
Refining and Marketing, U.S. Oil Company, American
Samoa Petroleum Office, Canadian Natural Resources, the
Algerian National Energy Company and Suncor Energy,
and the firm has acted as Canadian Oil Sands Limited’s
principle American liaison.
Oregon’s rapid
transit problem
Scott Moore of Our Oregon, a Portland-based economic
and social issues advocacy group, says that in Clackamas,
where voters are readying for a special election on light rail
rapid transit, the campaigns are subject to elections-related
disclosure laws, so finances there are a little less murky.
The Clackamas anti-rapid transit campaign is primarily
funded by two entities, Moore says, Nevada businessman
Loren Parks and Stimson Lumber. In Oregon, he says,
“We’ve been living in a Citizens United universe for a very,
very long time.”
P H O T O B Y R O B S Y D O R • D I G I TA L L AT T E . C O M
10 SEPTEMBER 13, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
VOTE NOW! BESTOFEUGENE.COM