News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters voters tapped businesses and the tourist trade, but overwhelmingly nixed a request to dip into their own pockets to replenish city coffers.
In the May 20 election voters turned down a three-year $67,519 operating levy, by a margin of 166 no votes to 92 in favor, and rejected a 5 percent franchise fee for the water and garbage funds with close to 60 percent voting no.
However, a hike in the business license fee from $43 to $100 passed by a margin of 156 to 89, and 76.4 percent
of Sisters voters approved raising the transient room tax from 7.5 percent to 8 percent.
The two approved measures will net the city an estimated $29,000 in revenue next year, well short of what city department heads say they need to realistically operate.
City officials say they will manage.
"I don't think we're going to be real short and I don't think it will look that bad because we cut back so far this year," said City Administrator Barbara Warren. "I think that it's going to be another close year, but I think we're going to be sitting okay."
City councilor Gordon Petrie was not quite so optimistic, though he agreed that the city would get by.
"It leaves us real short on money," said Petrie. "We're going to have to get in there and whack the hell out of the budget. We can still get along, but it's sure going to be bare bones."
"Bare bones" means that two police officer positions that are now vacant will not be filled, reducing the force from six officers to four, Warren and Petrie said.
Warren said there would not be any other cuts in personnel.
"We're not looking at reducing staff at all," Warren said. "We may have to do some reassigning as far as work load goes."
Warren noted that the two new administrative staffers are lower on the salary scale than the people they replaced, which means a savings to the city next year.
Petrie said he was surprised that the voters rejected the franchise fees on the water and garbage funds, since they were merely bookkeeping changes that moved money into the general fund. Petrie suspects voters thought their water and garbage rates would be raised, which, he said, was not the case.
But, overall, Petrie was not surprised at the election results.
"City of Sisters voters have generally been tough to convince that they should be taxed more money," Petrie s
aid. "An awful lot of the people don't have the money to spend."
That makes long-term solutions to the city's budget woes hard to find.
"I think we've got to probably live on hard times for a while until the people realize they're going to have to pony up a little more if they want the services," Petrie said.
Petrie doesn't know how the city is going to develop the income it needs to maintain something close to the level of services it has provided in past years. He believes the city will have to look at some alternative sources, including a municipal sales tax or a food and beverage tax, ideas that came before the budget committee earlier this year
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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