Every year the folks from Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) take a penny poll to see where taypayers would actually put their hard-earned federal taxes. In past years, the Eugene results have shown that Eugene taxpayers want to fund the environment and human services and not-so-much on the military.

For the poll, which takes place at the Old Federal Building, people are handed 10 pennies, which they put in jars representing a six-category breakdown of the federal budget.

Last year, in 2018: “The highest number of pennies went to environmental services at 39 percent. Twenty-one percent of the funds went to human services, 19 percent to veteran services, 11 percent to general government and 6 percent to the national debt. The military got the least amount of pennies at 3 percent.”

This year there will be a Tax Day Rally and March starting with the penny poll 3:30 at the Old Federal Building, 7th and Pearl. There will be a rally with speakers and music, the press release from CALC says, and “Speakers will be calling on Congress to redirect war dollars to fight climate change, fund education, job creation, universal health care, environmental protection, and other vital services.”

Finally, event organizers will drop off a letter at the Internal Revenue Service office “calling for this redirection of tax dollars and later will be giving the same letter to congressional staff” at the Federal Courthouse, 405 E. 8th Avenue.

The march and rally are sponsored by Community Alliance of Lane County, 350 Eugene, Extinction Rebellion (XR), Taxes for Peace Not War, WAND, Indivisible Eugene, ESSN and Beyond War.

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