Baker City holds first town hall on revenue ideas, second one scheduled for tonight
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY – Amid sometimes heated and passionate debate, the Baker City community convened for a pivotal town hall meeting focused on the pressing issue of revenue.
The city currently faces nearly a million dollar shortfall heading into next year, so city leaders organized two town halls to hear from residents on ways to begin filling up the town’s coffers.
The first meeting was held on Tuesday, December 5th at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center.
Around a dozen community members, as well as representatives from the police and fire departments, spoke with three city councilors and Interim City Manager Jon France on new ideas to raise revenue.
Some of the ideas brought up included lifting the city’s ban on marijuana dispensaries and collecting tax revenue from sales, which caused some strong opinions from the crowd.
“We don’t want the kind of people who hang out at dispensaries in our town,” said one resident.
Other ideas floated included a new gas tax (which Mayor Randy Daughtery responded would only support street repair, not the general fund), more events from venues such as the golf course to draw crowds, combining the city police and sheriff’s office (“That would be a heavy lift,” said Chief Ty Duby), raising the lodging tax, the sale of city properties (which would have to be approved by voters), and even a round-up option as local grocery stores, where residents could decide to round up to the nearest dollar at checkout stands, such as grocery chains do for charities.
“That idea is interesting, as it would seem easy to implement and donations to the city are tax-deductible,” said Councilor Helen Loennig.
Much of the conversation revolved around the public safety fee, which was approved in August, went into effect in October and was promptly suspended by the new city council in November.
It calls for a monthly fee of $15 for residential water/sewer accounts and $50 for commercial accounts.
Some residents said they’re willing to pay the fee versus having less fire protection (and some voiced concern that less fire protection would raise insurance premiums). Others said they’re concerned that if the fee is reinstated and continues for the five-year’s it’s scheduled for, that the city would just renew it.
Mayor Daugherty said there are plenty of issues and rules that need to be applied to the fee before the suspension is lifted.
“Part of the fee is based on water meters, but look at the Baker Tower. It has eight residents and 12 businesses, but only one meter. So that’s only $50,” said Daugherty. “So we need to work the kinks out on this thing.”
Some residents voiced their distrust in the city itself, stating that these financial issues have been around for a while but nothing has been done.
“The city has kicked the can down the road for 20 years and destroyed this town,” said one resident. “The council has never listened to the people.”
“We are not politically driven and not driven by ego, we’re here to get things done,” said Daugherty, who was one of the new councilors appointed by the County in October after the previous council all resigned.
The second town hall on revenue is slated for December 6th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Community Connections, located at 2810 Cedar Street.
