HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/17/1994 NEWS ARTICLELOCAL
The Mail Tribune, Friday, Feb. 4, 1994
3A
Measure 5's author calls Ashland plan illegal
By RUSSELL WORKING
of the Mail Tribune
The author of Measure 5 says Ashland
schools can't legally slip the net of the
1990 tax limitation by financing activities
through a city levy.
Don McIntire, the owner of a Gresham
fitness club and co-author of the Measure
5 property tax limit, said Ashland's pro-
posed $970,000 "youth activities levy"
violates the law. And it is likely to face a
constitutional challenge, he said.
"If this measure flies, they're flaunting
the intent of the will of the people (of
Oregon)," McIntire said. "And second,
they're going to get some extra work for
their city attorney."
But Ashland City Attorney Paul Nolte
said the levy request is perfectly legal
and would stand up in court.
"These are not funds raised exclusively
for school purposes," Nolte said.
The proposed levy, to be voted on May
17, would raise 98 cents per $1,000 in
assessed property valuation. By 1995-96,
Measure 5 would cut total school taxes to
$5 per $1,000, but local government taxes
to $10 per $1,000 assessed value.
Because of the higher ceiling, the Ash-
land City Council has more flexibility to
tax, and has agreed to finance school
sports and extra-curricular activities
through the levy.
A similar city activities levy failed in
June 1993, but sponsors say the political
climate has changed.
McIntire said the levy won't work con-
stitutionally.
"Ashland, of course, is really out of
touch," McIntire said. "It seems to me the
city council didn't read the constitution.
... I think any man on the street would tell
you that what they are doing is skirting
the intent of Measure 5."
Medford resident Carl Bartlett, Jack-
son County coordinator for the 1990
Measure 5 campaign, echoed McIntire's
comments.
Bartlett said thq~sports, debate teams,
and other programs that would be fi-
nanced by the levy request are all educa-
tional.
Bartlett is impatient with comments by
parents and others who have backed the
levy, saying Ashland shouldn't have to
suffer just because the rest of the state
passed Measure 5. Ashland precincts sup-
ported a November attempt to pass a
state sales tax that would have funded
schools.
"I just feel like why does Ashland have
to pick themselves out among all the
school districts there are and say, 'we're
special,' you know what I mean? ... I think
they should sit down and go by the law of
the state."
But Nolte said the state Legislature
and Attorney General's office have ruled
actions like Ashland's to be legal.
"The drafters of Ballot Measure 5
didn't define what they meant, and the
Legislature has," Nolte said. "That's
what we've gone by, is what the Legisla-
ture said."
The levy will include non-school activ-
ities as well, he said.
But Bartlett said, "They'll try to tell
you it's for the football team and this and
that, but it's all education, you know what
! mean?"
McIntire said that because some areas
of the Ashland School District lie outside
city limits, the tax would be unfair.
"Well, how are they going to deal with
that?" McIntire said. "Now they've got a
uniformity issue. Is it possible some peo-
ple will be receiving services for which
they are not taxed if this passes?"
Nolte said such an objection is spe-
cious.
"Cities forever have constructed facili-
ties that non-city people use and pay no
fees for: libraries, swimming pools, tennis
courts," Nolte said. "People outside cities
use city streets. I don't see that as any
argument at all unless we want to rein~
vent our system of government."
MeIntire said people are spending all
their efforts trying to skirt Measure 5.
"Ever since the passage of Measure 5,
every spare moment has been spent on
ways to keep bringing in more revenue,
rather than ways to give us adequate gov-
ernment and sufficient government with
the amount of money that's available," he
said.