Scott Swanson
Sweet Home residents are being asked to vote to continue, for another five years, levies for the Police Department and the library in ballots that began arriving in the mail last week.
Ballots must be mailed or are due in drop boxes in Sweet Home or received at the Linn County Courthouse by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Ballot drop sites are located at the Police Department and City Hall.
The Police Services Levy would tax citizens at a rate of $7.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, raising an estimated total of $17,580,437.41 over the five-year life of the levy, through 2020. That is a $1.45 increase per $1,000 valuation over the expiring levy, the first requested property tax rate hike for police since 2007. The estimated revenue for 2016 would be about $3.3 million, increasing $100,000 each year through 2020.
The library levy would tax citizens at a rate of $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value, raising an estimated total of $2,620,269.02 through 2020. That is a 35 cent increase over the current levy. Yearly revenue is estimated at about $493,500 in 2016, increasing roughly $15,000 each year through 2020.
City staff members are prohibited by law from advocating for or against the levies, but council members have been campaigning for the measures. Councilor Jeff Goodwin said he was asked by at least one other council member to write a letter to the newspaper in support of the levies.
“This is the Police Department and the library,” Goodwin said. “The question is, should we have a Police Department? Should we have a library? Without the police levy, the Police Department would be shutting down. We’d have a couple of officers. It’s that much of a deal.”
Goodwin said the reason for the rate increases in the levies is that Sweet Home has taken a hit due to increased rates for the levy that supports the Sheriff’s Office.
“Because of compression, we’re getting less money,” he said. “We’re trying to maintain the proportion we had before.”
Compression is the result of the interaction between property tax limitations passed statewide by voters in 1990 and 1997.
Goodwin said the temporary local option tax levies requirement puts the city at a disadvantage.
“This has been on our mind for months,” he said of the council. “This is not one little item of business. We’re in a bad situation. Most towns don’t pay for their police like this.
“We have to work on temporary budgets for vital services. It’s a very tough thing.”
He urged local voters to weigh in with a ballot.
“They need to vote. There’s nothing else on the ballot. Just those two things. People who don’t vote, their voice is silent.”
He acknowledged that some voters say no to any tax, but he called this one a “gut check.”
“People will have to evaluate whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. This isn’t some idea we have to spend more money.
“It’s our biggest expense and it’s an absolutely vital one that doesn’t pay for itself, like water and sewer – we charge for that.
“We don’t charge you for police to respond when someone’s breaking into your house in the middle of the night. It’s absolutely vital.”
Amy Wingo, a member of a citizens committee sponsoring the levies, said both the police and library are “clearly integral” to the health of the community.
“My daughters and my son, the whole time they were growing up, were part of the summer reading program.” she said. “I think that really helped their love for reading, for learning things.”
She noted that the library also offers books for people who can’t afford their own, as well as access to computers.
Wingo, whose husband is a police officer, said she’s “surprised” that Sweet Home residents have to fund their law enforcement with a levy.
“It’s mandatory,” she said. “A necessary part of running a community successfully is a police force.”