City officials aren’t sure why Lane County voters soundly rejected all six property tax measures in Tuesday’s election. Among the levies, voters denied improvements and construction for jails, parks, a planetarium and a new public health building.
Ward 3 City Councilor David Kelly, who represents the University area, said funding measures often face resistance from voters, especially if a tax hike is involved.
“I think there is an understandable first reaction against any tax increase,” he said. “The first reaction is often the one that dominates.”
Kelly said that many measures may have failed simply because voters weren’t aware of their importance or impact. The tax increases would have been minimal, he said, but voters didn’t have the information necessary to weigh the costs against the benefits.
“There was almost no campaign behind the county measures,”
he said.
University student Nancy Suryan, a post-baccalaureate art major, said the goals of many of the measures were not clear.
“I don’t think that they gave enough information on a lot of them,” she said.
Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey said the results indicate voters are willing to make sacrifices in some cases, but not others. A bond measure to improve schools narrowly passed in Eugene, and voters approved the hiring of more emergency workers in Springfield, but other services didn’t make the cut.
“What you saw Tuesday night was what I think is a reflection of what’s important to voters in Oregon in general,” he said.
Torrey said he was pleased the school funding measure passed, and attributed its success to the hundreds of people who worked to inform the voters about the measure.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of the people who said ‘yes,’” he said.
Torrey said voters in other parts of Lane County sometime resist paying for facilities in the city of Eugene, and noted that the sheer number of measures on the ballot may have caused some voters to tune out.
“I didn’t receive one call on the county issues,” he said.
Torrey and Kelly both said that the results need to be examined more thoroughly before any conclusions can be drawn.
“It’s a little early to tell,” Kelly said.
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