Well despite the threats of layoffs, voters have voted 66% against the measure to enacting additional $35 registration fee in order for 40% of it to go to fixing the roads in Lane County.
According to the article, strong opposition came as residents complained that the fee was an unfair penalty on passenger car and small truck owners.
"That perception of unfairness may have tipped the scale against the fee, said Steve Candee, an Lane County College political science instructor who studies local politics... We seen in the past that people are not completely adverse to paying for services that they believe have value…"
BULL SHIT!!!!
It's not that people don't care about our roads in the community, after comments after comments after comments have shown that that for one, [especially people who have lived in the area for the last 10-15 years] that the city of Eugene and Lane County does not exactly have exemplary record of trust with the money that we've given them and we ourselves are hurting for money.
Our expenses are going up as well like increases in our utilities and other fees.
In addition, even though this is not related to this particular issue, I'm just speaking in my own opinion, on one hand when they need money, we hear them threaten fire, police and other essential services while on the other hand [perception] they always seem to come up with money for other nonessential projects such as the millions of dollars for the EmX project just to name one.
One response made by a Lane County Commissioner regarding my example using the EmX project is, [are you ready for this folks?]
"The EmX uses federal dollars!!"
Moreover, where do you think that money came from?
Anyway, I'm sure with the failure of this vehicle registration fee that they will be pushing other fees such as the State of Oregon's per mile fee, which has been approved by the way as an additional means to raise money.
And I love this comment from Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr
"Clearly, at two to one (opposed to the fee), It was something that was ill-fated. If it had been a close vote, we would have said, 'what did we do wrong?' But in a distant vote like this, it's an opportunity for or us to step back and say, 'what's wrong with this approach and how can we regroup?'"
Obviously… He just does not get it.
What are your thoughts on this?
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