Hold off on gas tax

We need to take care of the streets of Sisters, and a gas tax is probably the most efficient and equitable way to fund street maintenance.

But this is not the time to be putting local businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

A three-cent gas tax may seem like no big deal, but for plenty of people the idea of paying more than they have to at the pump just sticks in the craw. They'll fill up in Bend and take their other shopping with them. In the current economic circumstances, just a few people doing that will have an impact that Sisters businesses can't afford.

For a passing tourist, higher gas prices look like gouging, and Sisters can ill afford a billboard saying "we soak tourists."

Raising local taxes, even by a small amount, in a severe economic slump is not good policy, especially as it stands to create a negative impression of the community as a whole. The city can afford to continue to subsidize the street fund out of the general fund until the state moratorium on local gas taxes passes.

Hopefully by then the economy will have improved and a tax hike will be more palatable.

A local gas tax would also be more broadly supported - including by the fuel dealers - if it was voted in by the citizens of Sisters who understand the need and accept the burden.

Wait four years and submit the gas tax to the voters.

Jim Cornelius, Editor