The Corvallis City Council has decided to delay decision-making on new taxes until the next council is elected. In the meantime, the council is holding town halls to gain community input about the potential new taxes.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, councilors passed a resolution to postpone any decisions about new taxes to fill the budget gap until after the next council is elected in November. The resolution was proposed by Council president Tony Cadena, and was approved on a 5-3 vote.
Cadena said he wants the council to make an informed decision when they are ready.
“So it's best to communicate to the community clarity. And clarity is we're not going to be ready to make a decision by the end of this council term,” said Cadena.
The council also said they will use the additional time to inform the community about the potential taxes before implementation, starting with four town hall meetings.
At the first such meeting on Sept. 23, Corvallis Mayor Charles Maughan and City Manager Mark Shepard discussed what the budget gap is, and why the city wants a new civic campus. The city needs about $4 million for city operations, and about $14.3 million for a new Police and Civic Campus facility.
According to the City of Corvallis, the current City Hall and law enforcement buildings are more than 50 years old, and were not built for long-term use. The buildings have outdated infrastructure, accessibility issues and are too small to serve the current amount of staff.
Cadena said the town hall meetings are a starting point to learn what the community thinks, but he wants the city to engage in more outreach.
“We don't have measures in place to know that we've reached enough of the community yet,” said Cadena. “We should also have a process by which we collect feedback and information from the community.”
The next budget gap town hall meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Corvallis Community Center.
