It wouldn't be surprising if Mayor Hoy and the other members of the Salem City Council have a bit of post-traumatic stress as they get serious at next Monday's council meeting about choosing an option to raise revenue for city services, which are heading for a $15 million shortfall in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2025.
That figure is in an informative Salem Reporter story, "Library advocates push for property tax increase to restore Salem library hours."
Local library advocates organizing through the group Fund Our Libraries Now are asking the Salem City Council to seek voter approval for a property tax increase to fund the city’s library system.
The city council will meet Monday at 6 p.m. to continue discussions about how to best address the city’s $15 million budget deficit expected in the next year.
Library leaders cut hours in January, closing the main library branch on Sunday and reducing the West Salem branch to two days per week.
If the city doesn’t raise more revenue through taxes, fees or other means, City Manager Keith Stahley’s budget plans call for deep cuts, including the closure of the West Salem branch next year.
The stress would be caused by a previous failed attempt to raise revenue through an employee payroll tax on everybody who works in Salem, whether or not they live here. That option was referred to the voters through a business-backed initiative campaign, where it failed big time on the November 2023 ballot with a dismal 18% of the vote.
Of course, the four councilors who supported a referral to the public rather than passing it through a City Council vote -- Julie Hoy, Deanna Gwyn, Jose Gonzalez, Vanessa Nordyke -- probably feel less stress at this point than the five councilors who supported bypassing a public vote: Mayor Chris Hoy, Virginia Stapleton, Trevor Phillips, Micky Varney, Linda Nishioka.
The public comments for next Monday's council meeting are entirely in support of a Livability Levy that would pay for library, parks, recreation, and Center 50+ in line with a local option property tax levy that was one of the recommendations of the Revenue Task Force that presented its final report to the council on July 15. Jim Scheppke and other backers of the library deserve a lot of credit for marshaling so much support for this important service.
However, while many of the public comments say that the Livability Levy was recommended by the Revenue Task Force, actually this is just one of the property tax examples in the group's report.
The Revenue Task Force didn't express a preference for which of the eight options it presented to the City Council should be implemented.
When I first looked at the report of the Revenue Task Force, I kept expecting to learn which of the eight revenue raising options were most favored by the task force. Apparently the group couldn't agree on that, so they just forwarded every option to the City Council with an implied "you guys are going to have to decide what to do."
That'll be a difficult decision.
Choose wrong, and another defeat at the ballot box would be a disaster for the City of Salem. Sure, you get three strikes in baseball before you're called out, but two losses at the hands of voters would be a major setback. City officials then would have to make do with the options that don't require a vote of the people.
Likely some members of the City Council will favor a local option property tax levy that funds the police and fire departments, while others will favor the Livability Levy mentioned above. Personally, and I speak as someone who lives outside of the city limits, so I'm not financially affected with what's decided, I think the personal income tax option deserves serious consideration.
An income tax can be tailored to exempt people who make less than a certain amount, and to have people with the highest incomes pay a higher percentage than those with lower incomes.
Property taxes aren't levied on an ability to pay, but on the value of the property. So someone with a high income who lives in an inexpensive house gets off easy, while someone with a low income who lives in an expensive house has to pay more.
Sure, a city income tax would be a new tax in Salem and need some explaining. A benefit of choosing this option would be the side-stepping of whether the police and fire departments are a higher funding priority than the library, parks, and 50+ center. Receipts from an income tax could simply go into the general fund, where they would be used to pay for any services in the city budget.
This would make the "Yes on ___" campaign message simpler.
The pitch would be that if the city income tax proposal passes, all of the services currently provided by the City of Salem would be protected from cuts. Otherwise the campaign will have to explain why this service is more deserving than that service, if a property tax dedicated for certain programs is put before voters.
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