The Stayton City Council recently opted to split a proposed five-year local option tax levy to be placed on the May 18 election ballot.
“The idea of a recreation levy separate from the library levy made a lot of sense,” Mayor Hank Porter said. “It was something we hoped people could get behind to maintain these features that make Stayton special.”
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, and with new funding available, Porter said area residents can be “out and about and enjoy these public places again.”
If passed, the two levies will partially support the Stayton Public Library as well as the Stayton Family Memorial Pool, and Stayton parks to maintain service, operations, and to assist with capital improvements.
According to a city memorandum, local option tax levies have been issued continuously since 1999 at a rate of $.60 per $1,000 of assessed value. The need for these levies results from the statewide tax limitation Measures 47 and 50, passed in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Last year’s levies, proposed in the May 19 and Nov. 3 elections, were narrowly defeated by 47.09 percent to 52.91 percent and 49.61 percent to 50.39 percent, respectively.
In a memorandum to city council, a staff report July 20 cited that failure to pass the Nov. 3 levy “could lead to battle fatigue in the spring of 2021 from voters who will no longer continue to support a levy vote after consecutive failures.
“The short- and long-term uncertainty of the financial impacts of COVID-19 causes an additional challenge as voters may be unwilling to support a levy during fiscal downturn or during an uncertain financial future.”
Many of the same challenges for the levy in 2020 will likely still be present in 2021, the report stated.
At its Feb. 22 meeting, city officials split the proposed levy into a library levy of $.40 per $1,000 of assessed value and a recreation levy of $.50 of $1,000 of assessed value. Council members decided against a single levy for library, parks and pool for $.65 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The proposed rate for the split levy will raise approximately $1.35 million over the next five years for the public library and $1.6 million for the pool and local parks. The levies may cause property taxes to increase more than 3 percent, according to city officials.
The current four-year levy voted in on 2016 will expire on June 30.
According to city officials, lack of funding from a local option levy will have a “devastating impact on the operations of the city’s quality of life amenities.
“The pool will remain closed indefinitely, but we hope to open it when we safely can,” Porter said. “Although the library remains operational, it is not yet open for browsing.”
Porter said the operations, services and programs of the library will remain significantly reduced, and additional library services may have to be eliminated.
Since there will be no reserve funds for park amenities or upgrades, the ongoing care and upkeep in the parks will be limited to general fund dollars available.
“It’s all about reopening the pool and library safely,” Porter said. “We need funding to do that.”
