Gas tax is a good idea

Boy, was I wrong!

Prior to attending the Thursday council meeting on the proposed gas tax, I had suggested we follow the City of Bend's idea of adding a charge to everyone's utility bill to financially support the street fund.

One problem with that idea, as pointed out by Councilman Bill Merrill, is that each home, whether occupied by a large family with several cars that are on the road every day, or occupied only by one person making an occasional trip to the grocery or a weekly church service, would be charged the same.

The cost would be $90-$114 per year in order to raise the required $140,000 per year for the street maintenance. This is much more than I had expected.

I think it would be much better for the citizens of Sisters to support the proposed 3 cent/gallon local gas tax to properly maintain our streets. Nineteen other cities in Oregon have a local gas tax, and Redmond and Madras are currently considering it.

Since the gas tax would be paid not only by the citizens of Sisters, but also by our neighbors and the many visitors that come to and through Sisters, the cost to each of us would be greatly reduced. The city states the average cost to the typical driver in Sisters would be $21 per year, based on driving 14,000 miles at 20 miles per gallon. This is the fairest way to pay for the street upkeep, for if you drive less, you pay less.

Yes, the city has contingency/emergency funds, and it has been transferring money from the general fund into the street fund for minimum maintenance. Two things are happening however: additional work needs to be done to the streets to avoid much greater repair costs in the future, and city revenues are not keeping up with the required funding needs.

Most of the revenue comes into the city from our property taxes. That stream of revenue has been greatly diminished. The combination of fewer new buildings, lower room taxes collected due to fewer tourists, and other reductions has not enabled Sisters to continue to build its contingency funds and continue transferring money into the street fund.

The City of Sisters' staff is very small, basically only one staff member for most positions except maintenance. Therefore, if the city allows itself to get into financial difficulty, there are few good options available to it. The city council has a responsibility to assure the city has the capacity to perform all its normal duties and protect its citizens.

Sisters' street maintenance staff recently performed a thorough analysis of all 42 lane miles of streets, and the road inspections have shown that more money is needed each year to properly maintain them. It will be too expensive in the long run to have deferred maintenance of the streets continue to increase.

We've discussed the gas tax before and have put it off as long as possible.

A man representing the fueling industry was naturally present at the council meeting. He stated that if the council passed the ordinance for the gas tax, they would hire petitioners to come to Sisters and seek sufficient petition signatures to stop it, which would then force Sisters into an expensive special election in March. Nevertheless, the Council did pass the Ordinance, which is the best resolution for the citizens of Sisters.

So, it is up to us. If we choose to pay $21 a year in gas tax, with additional taxes to be paid by visitors and tourists, instead of the $90-114 per year added to our utility bills with Sisters residents paying it all, then please refuse to sign the petitions!

Virginia Lindsey is a citizen of Sisters and has served on the City of Sisters budget committee