By the end of this week, another two cents would have been dropped off the price of gas at the pump's as part of the Eugene's gas tax would have been phased out, however, officials say that the street repair fund can't afford that 40% hit as the city Council has decided to [not surprisingly] keep the local five cents per gallon fuel tax.
"We said we would sunset it when we solved the problem. Well we haven't solved the problem yet," says Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy.
Mayor Piercy continued by saying that the best solution will come from the state.
Based on the history of the Eugene city Council, the fact that they decided to keep the five cents a gallon does not come to a surprise to some Lane County citizens.
"The city is going to lose; we're going to vote it down and they're going to say, well, we're still going to do it and that's exactly what they did. I rest my case,"says service station employee Odis Sander.
Paperwork is expected to be filed this week to collect at least 5500 signatures to place an appeal on the ballot. If the measure fails, the tax will stay at five cents per gallon until at least 2011.
just like Sander, this move by the city Council does not surprise me at all. In fact, I would have been surprised if they didn't try something.
As mayor's Kitty Piercy commented, "... we haven't solved the problem yet."
I can agree with her on that statement however probably not in the same context.
The city has been desperately and obviously at any means possible looking for ways to raise money for quite some time now, ranging from increase in the gas tax to a proposal to charging an additional tax for your driveway
Reference the following links as an example
archives
Additionally, if the mayor really believes that the state is going to come to our rescue, in my opinion... she will have a long wait.
One question I do have however regarding the roads, is why now?
They [the city] has left the roads deteriorate for so long, why are they so desperately worried about it now?
Could it be because the city is worried about giving a bad first impression to potential businesses that will be visiting our fair city when they attend the 2008 Summer Olympics trials?
Naw... they care too much about our community to be concerned just about that...NOT!
1 comment:
They haven't looked everywhere for money as I see countless people raising large sums of money for various purposes simply by being creative. It would also be a good idea to schmooz a few of the rich people living in Eugene to become 'first ctizens' and donate a little bit of the overflow they enjoy.
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