The Corvallis City Council is considering new taxes to fill an $18.4 million budget gap. At Monday’s meeting, the council decided it would need more public input before considering new taxes or potential service cuts.
The council has been discussing ways to address the budget gap since September, and began looking into potential payroll and personal income taxes in early May. The city needs $14.3 million for a new Police and Civic Campus facility, and about $4 million for city operations.
Corvallis Mayor Charles Maughan said during Monday’s meeting that the council would determine whether the city would begin planning for a revenue model, not to pass a new tax.
“We are not enacting a tax today. We have not yet enacted a tax, and there's been no decision to do so,” said Maughan. “We are looking into how that would look and how we would build up an infrastructure to do so, and that's all this resolution says.”
At Monday’s meeting, the councilors voted to add service cuts as an additional option and to get more input from Corvallis residents before making a final funding decision.
Ward 7 Councilor Paul Shaffer said the council should have been considering the community's opinion earlier.
“I think we have been remiss, to put it mildly, in not making a concerted effort to involve the public prior to this,” said Shaffer.
For now, it means that a potential new tax and service cuts both remain on the table. The adjusted resolution also states that once a more complete funding strategy is in place, the Council will decide whether or not to place the decision on the ballot. This revenue source would be for the city’s next biennial budget, which would begin July 1, 2027.
