In the November special election Reedsport voters will decide if they want to continue requiring a double majority for tax or fee increases.
In May of this year Reedsport seemingly passed a medical and recreational tax on marijuana. But only 20% of registered voters cast their ballots and the tax did not go into effect. That’s because the city requires a double majority to raise taxes, meaning at least half of registered voters must vote. A no vote on measure 10-138 will remove the requirement.
Jonathan Wright is the City Manager.
Wright: “What we’ve found is that the people who care about the subject matter that’s being determined will come out to vote. But those who don’t care to participate in the election now they’re still being counted under the double majority rule.”
Voters passed the rule in 2012. Since then two tax increases have been approved by those who sent in ballots, but were not implemented because not enough people voted.
Wright says he is now concerned about the Governor’s plan to register voters through the DMV.
Wright: “We’re going to have a lot more people that are registered that may not want to participate in city matters. It further increases the amount of people out there that we’d have to get to an election.”
Because measure 10-138 is not a tax or fee increase it will not need a double majority to go into effect.
