Councilors oppose Iraq action, support tax increase on ballot

by Gazette-Times staff

For the record, the Corvallis City Council approved a resolution Tuesday urging voters to pass a three-year income tax hike during Tuesday's special election.

The action came minutes before councilors were to decide whether to support a resolution opposing a pre-emptive war against Iraq by the United States. That resolution passed 6-3.

"As long as we have you here, we wanted to bring it up," Mayor Helen Berg quipped to about 50 people awaiting the council vote on the anti-war resolution.

The Benton County Board of Commissioners has passed a similar resolution in support of Measure 28.

State lawmakers sent the budgetary measure to the ballot as part of a compromise package to close one in a series of projected budget shortfalls last year. If passed, the measure will raise $313 million during the current budget year and generate another $411 million in revenue for the two-year financial period that begins July 1.

If the measure fails, $310 million in cuts are slated to take effect. The Corvallis School District would lose $1.2 million, or operating funds for seven school days. The Benton County Courthouse would close Fridays from March 1 to June 30, and its judges and prosecutors would stop processing small-claims, minor theft and vandalism cases.

It's estimated the measure will boost state income taxes for the average wage-earner by $114.

The state's operating budget for the two-year budget period ending July 1 will be $11.4 billion if the measure passes; $11.1 billion if it fails. Oregon's 1999-2001 operating budget was $10.6 billion.

More than 40 percent of registered voters in Benton County have returned their ballots. The deadline is 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Jill Van Buren, the county's elections supervisor, said if voters haven't mailed off their completed ballots by Thursday, they should drop them off in an official drop box to ensure they're counted.

- Gazette Times