Keep the Fee
With new threats to democracy emerging daily on the national level, it’s easy to lose sight of the ongoing need to protect our communities at the local level. Eugene’s City Council recently approved the fire service fee to make our fire and emergency medical services more robust by charging an average of $10 a month to homeowners and $38 to businesses. All of the $10 million generated annually will be used to fund fire and EMS. The fund includes monies for low-income assistance with the fees.
The L.A. fires were a wake-up call. Regardless of your insurance, if local fire systems are inadequate, your home may burn during a major fire event. I think most people agree that boosting fire services is a good plan.
However, not everyone agrees on how to fund the plan. Small-government conservatives want to send the fire service fee to voters and balance the budget by cutting $11.5 million from city services across the board. City councilors who don’t support funding cuts are being threatened with recall.
Remember Claire Syrett’s recall? She was removed from her council seat by a small, vocal minority who know that voter turnout is often lower in recall elections. A similar group is trying these tactics again over the fire fee. As federal government funding is gutted, keeping local services strong is more important than ever. We owe it to ourselves to stay vigilant and vote in all city elections. Let’s not allow the tail to wag the dog again.
Lily Pearl Johnson
Eugene
Don’t Sign the Petition
As a former member of the board of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, I was dismayed to see that the Chamber has spent $27,000 to hire out-of-town signature gatherers to put the fire service fee on the ballot.
Volunteer members of the community have spent over a year studying ways to balance the city budget, studying over two dozen alternatives before settling on the fire service fee. After presenting their recommendations to the City Council, our elected representatives voted in favor of the fee.
Now uninformed signature gatherers are using tax-scare tactics to try to erase this hard work. At a time when dedicated public servants are being eliminated from their jobs across the nation, causing disruptions to families and communities, it’s shocking that some in our business community are trying to do the same here in Eugene. Though no one likes paying more taxes, we need to bear in mind that those taxes pay for the things that we enjoy in Eugene. Things like community gardens, animal welfare services, clean and safe parks and efficient delivery of vital services. To learn more go to EugeneSOS.com. I urge people to not sign the Chamber petition.
David Funk
Eugene
The Downside of Capped Taxes
When we moved to Eugene 17 years ago we were delighted to learn that because of Oregon legislation, property taxes were capped at 3 percent increase each year. Our previous abode in Texas had no such protection so we had to appeal the valuation every year if we thought the value exceeded property sales in the area.
After living here a few years we saw the downside to that legislation with degraded roads in Eugene but also with the (now) 17 different property taxes. They have other names, but they are still taxes. When I looked at the tax bill on our previous house in Texas, there are still only three taxing entities. And yes, the taxes are higher, but the services are better and more consistent along with excellent road repair.
I understand from convos with legislators here that Oregon has tried several times to install a sales tax but that it has failed. I think if the general population could be assured that 14 percent of the property taxes would go away, the population might be amenable to looking at that sales tax again. I understand that residents feel a sales tax is regressive, but from all the letters and articles about “yet another fee,” might a sales tax be worth another look?
Kim Kelly
Eugene
Don’t Give Up
The topic of homelessness is a constant issue in this area. What they fail to mention is that one must either have an income or a voucher to get housing. The process of government assistance for disability often takes many years to receive. It’s like they want you to give up. You are just a burden to society. You have no value as a human being. It’s all your fault that your life ends up like this.
It’s really no wonder that people give up to a life of addiction, or worse — death. I see these people every day when I take my walk in downtown Eugene. I have also never felt threatened or intimidated by anyone downtown. I listen to their stories and often share some laughs. I will often smoke a cigarette with them and tell them that I hope their life gets better.
Patricia Cunningham
Springfield
Showcase the Nonprofits
For years, KLCC organized the well-attended BrewFest to lighten the dark winter days. Like many others, I volunteered for several years and greatly enjoyed seeing so many in our community come together under one roof to clink glasses and try wonderful Oregon beer. I understand from KLCC staff that they can’t sustain this event anymore and that drinking culture is on the decrease, but how about a new winter event with a nonprofit twist?
The southern Willamette Valley has a cornucopia of incredible nonprofits that need our support, and sometimes our volunteer efforts. I’m sure many folks (including myself) remain unaware of the variety of local nonprofits, and a fair to highlight these efforts and showcase potential volunteer opportunities would certainly help better our community.
There could be a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, food, entertainment and more to really make this event shine. In this political climate, I’m finding that channeling my emotions towards useful community support brings the most peace possible given the circumstances. Let’s make it happen, Eugene!
Sara Meyer
Eugene
Editor’s Note: If folks want to help set it up, Eugene Weekly is in — a nonprofit event would be great with our annual Giving Guide!
Protect Our Most Vulnerable
So we have more bad news for the children of our country. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves earlier this year vacated the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX rules to include protection for LGBTQ+ students.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the proposed rule change as a “relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology.” This description of an effort to protect our most vulnerable children is outrageous and untrue.
LGBTQ+ children are the most prone to depression and most likely to suicide. Skrmetti’s comments, along with those supposedly concerned with transgender boys’ participation in girls’ sports, are at best ignorant and at worst an effort to inflame negative emotions toward this group of children. Fear and hatred are often borne out of ignorance. These children are not a threat to your children or anyone else. They want only what all children want: to receive a good education, to participate in school activities and, most importantly, to feel safe at school.
LGBTQ+ children deserve our care and protection as much as other vulnerable children.
Jeri Graham
Sutherlin
A Shadow of a Plague
It’s like the most vicious virus ever that is infecting our society. Slowly and imperceptibly, it is crushing our free speech, our freedom of the press. Freedom of thought may be in its last stages. COVID was vicious, too, but our scientists came up with an antidote that stopped its spread. This new virus is different and can’t be stopped with a scientific antidote.
This new virus is a shadow, a fog, a wind that has infected our minds. No matter how hard we flail, it’s creeping over and smothering us. If the will to stand up against lies and deceit is not exerted, then the freedom of the press will be crushed forever. We must engage our defenses now or this monstrous plague will defeat us.
Joe Blakely
Eugene
Connect the Paths
Way back in the late 1960s my friends and I rode bicycles from our downtown neighborhood at 16th Avenue, north on Monroe Street to the Owen Memorial Rose Garden. When we reached the Willamette River we turned upstream on a dirt path that cut through blackberry brambles then pedaled on to Skinner Butte Park.
This was a nice adventure for a band of 10-year-old boys. When we were teenagers in the 1970s we rode on unconnected, mired paths on the west side of the Willamette between the river and River Road. By the 1980s many of these paths had been paved, and by the 1990s they were all both paved and connected, as the Greenway paths are found today.
Be it for transportation, recreation, meditation or physical fitness, the Greenway paths along the Willamette River have become exceedingly popular over the past five years. Now is the time to complete the last section of the Greenway project. The Knickerbocker bridge to the Frohnmayer bridge on the south side of the Willamette River calls for an additional bike path.
Mike Ryan
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
A Side Place to Be
Recently, we were treated to news footage of our current president and vice president humiliating and lecturing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in their oval office meeting. It was truly an appalling spectacle to behold.
This was only the latest in a long history of this president taking Vladimir Putin’s side when, inexplicably, there was no strategic reason to do so. This president had past business dealings in Russia, has expressed his admiration for Putin multiple times, displayed extreme hostility to the Robert Mueller probe on numerous occasions, and infamously delayed aid to Ukraine during his first term, among other things. Now he wants to end current aid to Ukraine, relinquish leadership of the free world, and normalize relations with Russia.
And for what? What benefit can there possibly be for the United States in all this?
It is time for us all to ask, where do this president’s loyalties lie? Apparently not with the country he has sworn to serve. More precisely, it is time to ask whether our president is a Russian asset, a Russian dupe or some combination thereof.
There needs to be a nationwide conversation about this, to hold this administration to account, to demand explanations from the president and his allies in Congress. We must also insist that the Democrats raise this issue for as long as it takes. If we work at it, we can seriously fracture the entire GOP cadre of enablers. Otherwise, we are headed for a very sad place indeed.
Larry Thorpe
Eugene
Our Work is Cut Out for Us
As if it wasn’t bad enough that a failed businessman and convicted felon is running our country, he’s chosen Elon Musk, a South African Broederbond believer, as the architect of the country’s destruction. The Broederbond Party was responsible for the Apartheid rule in South Africa for decades. They believed God put them in South Africa to enslave all non-white peoples. The salute that Elon Musk does often at rallies is the African National Party or Broederbond salute. In the late 1930’s this same party was closely linked to the German National Socialist or Nazi party.
It would seem that we who believe in our stated values of freedom for all and equal rights for all, have our work cut out for us if we want our country back.
Hal Huestis
Eugene
We are a ‘Non-Democracy’
Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of class, but we have to face the grim reality that we are now fully engaged in a class war. The ultra-wealthy have all the money, but since they have no concept of having “enough,” now they are coming for our freedoms. Elon Musk and DOGE are just the tip of the spear. The anti-democracy billionaires want to privatize everything — health care, Social Security, education, the post office and on and on — just to suck out even more money from the middle and working classes.
Extreme wealth and democracy can never coexist. There are an estimated 2,775 billionaires with a combined worth of just over $13 trillion. Even if every billionaire kept $1 billion, there would be something like $10 trillion left over. Imagine how much good could be done if that were put to work building a free, just and fully democratic world.
Right now, they are winning. According to the Polity Project, an organization that ranks and categorizes governments worldwide, the U.S. government is classified as a “non-democracy” as of February 2025. If we don’t want to end up as the peasant class to the oligarch overlords, it’s time to stand up and speak out. Find the local groups that are organizing, bring all your friends, and join the fight to save democracy.