Opponents of the recently enacted gas tax filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning at the Lane County Courthouse disputing how many valid signatures are needed to get the increase on the ballot.
In the petition, the number of signatures required for a referendum petition is 10% of the number of the votes cast for all candidates for mayor in the last election, emphasizing the word "candidates".
" There were no contribution and expenditure reports from anybody besides Kitty Piercy and that is required of all candidates so there were only 53,000 plus votes for candidates," said Lobbyist Paul Romain. "
Petitioners claim that if the write-ins are taken out of the equation that they would have enough valid signatures to give voters a chance to vote on the increase.
A hearing will be held this Friday at the Lane County Courthouse.
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From the Register Guard:
Published: Saturday, July 28, 2007
A court victory on Friday for Eugene's gas station owners will send the city's latest gas tax increase back to where it started in May - the City Council.
After hearing arguments, Lane County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Foote ruled that gas station owners collected enough petition signatures to place a gas tax referendum on the November ballot.
Foote's ruling also means that the city's latest 3-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase won't take effect on Wednesday as planned, city attorney Jens Schmidt said.
Back to the drawing board.
thanks for the update
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