Budget chair to NLC: ‘Fire fee’ ordinance is still officially on the ballot this November

Presenter: Neighborhood associations discussed the final city budget, based on an 18% jump in the stormwater fee that will raise $4.7 million dollars a year. Speaking Tuesday at the Neighborhood Leaders Council, Budget Committee Chair Tai Pruce-Zimmerman:

Tai Pruce-Zimmerman (Active Bethel Community, Budget Committee): It’s pretty straightforward for anyone who’s been following along with all the prior updates because last night the City Council passed the budget exactly in the form that the Budget Committee sent it to them, no changes. So if you were following along as of the end of the Budget Committee cycle, it is what it was.

[00:00:41] So just in case someone wasn’t (following along), the very brief reminder is that where we had at one point in the cycle been worried about up to $11.5 million in cuts with a whole lot of very important programs, including the neighborhood program, potentially on the chopping block.

[00:01:01] The Council ultimately passed an increase to the stormwater fee that allowed us to prevent the worst of those cuts. So neighborhoods are fully funded. So is the Eugene Public Library, the Sheldon Community Center, the animal services program—everything other than CAHOOTS that got any public attention at all is. There are still $6.8 million in annual cuts in the budget and a whole lot of additional work to do moving forward.

[00:01:33] The stormwater solution is a relative Band-Aid, but it definitely prevented the deepest potential cuts and that’s the budget that the Budget Committee moved forward with and that then council finalized and passed.

[00:01:47] Presenter: A question from Tom Peck, representing Friendly Area Neighbors:

[00:01:51] Tom Peck (Friendly Area Neighbors): You know, the stormwater (fee) was a Band-Aid, as you just said. I’m concerned about the future (Yeah), and the funding of the neighborhood associations… Does your Ouija board say that we have about two more years of funding before things get more critical or is it shorter than that?

[00:02:13] Presenter: From Active Bethel Community, Tai Pruce-Zimmerman:

[00:02:17] Tai Pruce-Zimmerman (Active Bethel Community, Budget Committee): I think two more years are secure right now, the biennial budget is stable as what it is. I would predict that two years from now, if nothing else were changed, the budget next biennium is likely to once again be a cut budget with renewing conversations about all the things that were saved in this cycle.

But I do think we have the full two years, even with no changes at all, and I expect further work to happen, I don’t think we will actually go the no-changes route. I think there will be more that we do between now and the next budget cycle beginning.

[00:02:58] Presenter: Ty was also asked whether he thought the city council would let a $10 million fire services fee go to a vote of the people in November.

[00:03:07] Tai Pruce-Zimmerman (Active Bethel Community, Budget Committee): They still have not taken any action on it yet. If they take no action, it would go to the ballot. But my crystal ball still predicts they’re probably going to pull it before summer break begins. I think the only way it would go to the ballot would be if the fire union decided to advocate for keeping it. And so far they haven’t done so.

[00:03:32] I think Council is going to keep the option on the table until kind of the last meeting before the summer break just to see if a push emerges to keep it. Unless that push emerges, I think it will probably get pulled and probably not go to the ballot, but they haven’t taken the action yet…

[00:03:51] They would have to pull it before their summer break or else the timing would get tricky because there is a deadline to pull it. There may be a meeting in the fall when they come back before the deadline. But I don’t think if they’re going to pull it, they’re going to want to go that close to the deadline. I mean, that’s speculative. I imagine they will at some point take an action. I think they’re going to do it before they go to the summer break.

[00:04:18] Presenter: The chair of the Budget Committee tells the NLC that the so-called fire fee is still officially on the ballot in November.

[00:04:26] To learn more about the revitalization of the NLC, get involved with your neighborhood association—learn more at the city’s website.