Give Eugene Springfield Fire its own taxing district

by Barbie Walker

At this time there should be absolutely no new taxes for the Eugene City Council to facilitate for any reason.

Especially those we do not get to vote on.

When dissecting the biannual budget, to put it plainly, the taxpaying citizens should not trust many policies that are in place for how their tax dollars are being allocated. 

The mismanagement of our hard-earned money is heading this city towards going broke.

What our hard-working firefighters deserve is to become their own district in which they manage their tax dollars that are already designated to them from us. 

Only then can those funds be managed properly. The firefighters deserve this and we can trust that we will truly see that our tax dollars are going to exactly what we voted for, the firefighters. 

The only reason Council does not like the idea of our firefighters having their own district, is that would take the power of allocating our tax dollars out of Council’s hands.

With that said, this lack of funding for firefighters is coming to a head, because for far too long Council has had our firefighters as their poster people for new taxes. Then it is no mystery that once new money comes in, that at some date it could be budgeted however council wants. 

The fiscally smart vote for firefighters is to cut City Council out of budgeting the firefighter tax money and our tax dollars go directly to the firefighters to manage themselves. Their own district will work.

Barbie Walker is owner of the Pint Pot Public House.