News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters voters will decide next month whether to provide SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation) with some $262,000 per year for programs and facilities.
The organization is asking voters on May 17 to approve a five-year local option property tax of 35 cents per $1,000 in assessed valuation.
According to SOAR Director Tom Coffield and board of directors Chairman John Bushnell, the funds are needed to sustain and expand programs and to provide scholarships for low-income families.
SOAR had approximately 1,000 “youth users” last year, Coffield reported.
The funds would be used to generate a vehicle replacement fund and to leverage grants for adding a classroom and a multi-purpose room onto the facility located near Sisters High School.
SOAR currently has a permanent 22 cents/$1,000 tax base. The rest of its approximately $640,000 budget is made up through user fees and grants. The evaporation of a key federal grant provided impetus to the local option bid.
An $85,000 Community Learning Center Grant is no longer available.
“(The) Bush (administration) has pulled that money out of those kinds of public service programs and distributed it elsewhere,” Coffield said. “It’s just getting harder to get government funds.”
SOAR is also running up against a difficulty common to successful non-profit organizations: Granting agencies like to give money to start-up programs; they don’t like to fund ongoing programs. Most granting agencies want to see communities take over support of the programs that serve them.
That’s done through user fees, private donations — or taxes.
“We’ve got ourselves in a real quandary,” Coffield said. “Do we charge more to try to cover our costs and at the same time make it more difficult for families to participate? Or do we reduce the number of programs we offer?”
Coffield said that the Teen Center, which offers after-school programs, would have to reduce its hours if the local option fails. The program is offered free and generates no revenue for SOAR.
Coffield and Bushnell said SOAR would actually like to expand the program, offering regular weekend evening activities. SOAR also wants to add a teacher and expand the pre-school program; buy modular skateboard riding equipment; and maintain wilderness programs, tutoring and other current services.
The organization has plans for a Phase 2 of its community center building, but Coffield said the immediate need is for that additional classroom.
But why initiate a tax? Why not seek private donations from a community that has shown itself willing to donate money for arts and school programs?
“To be honest, it’s getting more and more competitive in this town to fund-raise,” Coffield said, noting that SOAR has been raising funds in Sisters for its entire 10 year existence.
“We were just burning people out,” Coffield said.
“We were looking for sustainable funding,” Bushnell said. “Trying to run a program over a long period of time with your hand out, we (the SOAR board of directors) just didn’t think that was a sustainable way to run a program.”
Some members of the Sisters community have questions about SOAR’s funding tactics.
“Based on what I know now, it seems like a lot of money per house in Sisters for the number of kids it serves,” said Sisters resident Jim Knapp. “Personally, I’d rather give the money to the schools. I think they’ve got bigger needs.”
Coffield and Bushnell acknowledge that Sisters residents just renewed a local option for schools and that school programs need funding as well.
However, they defended the local option proposal as a small price tag for vitalservices.
“We feel it’s a really small ding,” said Bushnell.
SOAR estimates that the cost per Sisters average $300,000 home is $9 per month or $105 per year.
The total SOAR bill, including the 22 cents per $1,000 permanent tax, is 57 cents per $1,000 — or $171 per year on that $300,000 house.
Coffield noted that that compares favorably with Parks and Recreation Districts in Redmond (approximately 37 cents) and Bend ($1.46).
Some recreation districts receive funds from Systems Development Charges, an option that SOAR is not exploring because Sisters’ SDC rates are already considered high.
“SOAR really is becoming the Parks and Recreation District of Sisters,” Coffield said.
Bushnell said the SOAR board is confident the local option tax will be approved by voters.
“We wouldn’t have run it if we didn’t think it would pass,” he said.
Coffield said that the vast majority of Sisters residents appreciate and support the organization.
“It’s just a matter of, Can people afford that cost? It comes down to, Can they afford what we’re asking them to pay?”
Do you support SOAR’s request for a local option tax? Tell The Nugget what you think. Comment at http://www.nuggetnews.com or email [email protected]
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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