The City of Eugene is considering a payroll taxto help fund public
safety. The proposal aims to raise more than $23 million dollars to bolster the city police’s
ability to prevent and respond to crime.
The payroll tax-if approved- would cost about $10 a month
for an employee making $14 an hour. Eugene Police Chief
Chris Skinner says his department lacks the funds to adequately
respond to public safety needs.
Skinner: “We’re at a tipping point in this community that if we do
nothing, it’s not a status quo environment where we just live in
the space that we’re in now. This will continue to degrade. It will
continue to trend downward into a place where we will be able to
answer less and less and less calls for service and that is a
dangerous place for a community to be.”
Skinner says if the city acts now the situation can be turned
around. The public safety payroll tax would fund police, fire and
emergency medical services, municipal court, homeless and
prevention services.
A public hearing on the payroll tax proposal is
May 28 th at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Hall in Eugene.
