Sales Tax V. Property Tax Levy

So far, only one person has contacted me about being on a Town Hall panel to discuss funding our county when federal payments run out next year, and that was Dale Matthews, who wanted to discuss alternatives other than taxes on sales or a property tax levy. Apparently, we still need convincing that we need to fund our own county, and not be dependent on the good will of other governments.

Therefore, if no one wants to be on this panel in support of funding our own public safety, then we may have a debate between Mr. Matthews and me regarding the need for taxing ourselves a bit more, and for changing our tax system.

Last week, Chairwoman Cassanelli told us about a proposal for a $1 per thousand temporary property tax levy that would barely fill the hole left by the end of federal safety net funding. This will only maintain our present low level of service from the Sheriff, leaving us still in our chronic jail “overcrowding,” (actually understaffing ) emergency, that leaves half the jail empty while allowing pot-possession convicts to thumb their noses at probation as I did.

Property tax levies are not well-suited to paying salaries and keeping up with rises in population or tourism. More people does not mean more revenue, especially since changes in land use that would raise assessed value are mostly forbidden outside the Urban Growth Boundary. With the drop in housing values, we cannot even depend on the allowed 3% per year rise in valuations; some assessments are even being lowered.

Sales tax brings in more revenue the more people there are spending money, whether residents or tourists. Since the feds and state of Oregon have turned our resource-based economy into a tourism economy, we need to tax our tourists. We cannot fund our government totally on the backs of either property owners or tourists; we need to tax everyone.

There are a lot of fans in this county of Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio. I got a forwarded e-mail praising his move to take over Animal Control and run it with jail inmates. The only reason he can do that is Arizona has sales tax, which allows him to hire deputies as necessary to guard those prisoners as they work.

Meanwhile, our sheriff can barely half-fill a big, new efficient jail, and must release convicts who are not dangerous enough to justify holding them, because he can’t hire enough deputies. We can do better. We can do sales tax.


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