News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Fadi Bedaywi, of Space Age Gas in Sisters, has taken the preliminary steps to launch an initiative petition to overturn the three-cents-per-gallon Sisters gas tax approved by voters last March.
Bedaywi has submitted paperwork and a request that the city attorney craft a ballot title. Petitioners require 162 signatures to get the repeal on the ballot.
City Recorder Kathy Nelson told The Nugget that it will likely be several weeks before the petition actually hits the streets.
"They are in the very preliminary stages," Nelson said. "They're not even close to being ready to collect signatures."
Voters in the City of Sisters approved the gas tax by a wide margin on Tuesday, March 9. The tally was 326 (60 percent) in favor with 219 (40 percent) against.
The vote affirmed an ordinance passed by the city council last August, authorizing the tax. That ordinance passed just before the imposition of a four-year state moratorium on local gas taxes.
The Oregon Petroleum Association (OPA) immediately filed an initiative petition. OPA took the city to court over the tax, arguing that the initiative petition "vetoed" the ordinance and that, since the ballot measure passed after the moratorium, the gas tax is invalid.
Judge Alta Brady rejected that argument on June 4, upholding the city's right to impose and collect the tax. Local stations have begun paying the tax.
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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