Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 8

Mec I) Stcksmra, Seism, Jan. 11, 76 in Oncing: Payroll Tax 'Most Likely' for Transit System cost city taxpayers 61 cents per $1,000 of the true cash value of their property. The special one-year transit levy, which costs city taxpayers 31 cents per $1,000, expires automatically July 1. The other two continuing levies, which together cost city taxpayers 30 cents per $1,000, expire as soon as the city is no longer the financier of the transit system. planners say that a payroll tax of about two-tenths of one per cent is needed to operate a Salem area transit system of service levels comparable with the present city-operated system.

For Salem property taxpayers, adoption of a payroll tax would mean a lowering of their property taxes. This would occur through the dropping of two continuing property tax levies and one special levy for transit that now Besides governments, which includes school districts, employers who are exempt from a payroll tax are nonprofit organizations, single-owner one person-operated businesses and partnerships where the partners are the sole proprietors and have no other employes. State law limits the rate of a payroll tax to six tenths of one per cent of gross payroll. Salem transportation grant available to a Salem transit district? The reason is that while the state is Salem's largest employer it is tax-exempt. The grant is in lieu of the tax.

Resistance to the payroll tax concept of financing a transit district surfaced last fall and has shown no signs of subsiding. The resistance of course is from businesses which would wind up paying it By RON BLANKEN8AKER Staff Writer, Th Statesman Tuesday's election on formation of a Marion-Polk counties mass transit district is just that an election on forming the district. But for the past several months any talk about formation of the transit district has seldom been separated from questions about how it would be financed. The answer to the financing question is that a transit system could be financed by just about any taxing program available to any other govern-mentally operated program property taxes, bonds, business licenses, income taxes, sales tax andor a payroll tax. Whatever taxing method is selected, however, requires a second election.

Both Salem City Council and the Marion County Board of Commissioners have gone on record that whatever financing system is proposed would be limited to the transit system's service area. That area is proposed to fall somewhere between the city limits of Salem and the Salem Urban Growth Boundary. The most likely contender among the potential methods of financing a transit district is a payroll tax, mainly because the State of Oregon has set aside $400,000 in a grant to be paid to the district the first two years it is in operation if a payroll tax is used. Why did the state make a $400,000 v. -r nT-7 Tr i 1 1 11 i nfrn "M-Tif hii-i mm mi i.

i i rt, a rtT-'mv-i-" Questions: What Next? would occur March 9. A "fact sheet" distributed by the Salem city manager's office points out that while state law requires that the mass transit district include the entire two county area, "the law also allows the district board of directors to pro Will Run It? System Target Supervisor Al Hampton, there are 3,500 passengers per day; volume is 1,000 to 1,200 on Saturdays. The system cost $891,000 to operate in fiscal year 1974-75 and is estimated to cost $1.3 million for fiscal year 1975-76. It carries about one million passengers a year and travels about one million miles. This compares with the Lane County Transit District bus system which travels about 3.3 million miles a year and carries about 3.2 million passengers at an operating cost of $19 million a year.

Who rides Salem's buses? Generally, if surveys made by Salem transit planners are to be taken at full value, the answer is people who need it. A survey of Salem bus riders a year ago showed that 48 per cent of the riders were more than 45 years old, 34 per cent of the riders did not have a driver's license, 37 per cent did not have an available automobile and 22 per cent ride because of convenience. Also, 13 per cent of the riders reported annual incomes of more than $12,000 and 39 per cent said their annual income was less than $6,000. Current regular fare is 30 cents per ride. What the fare would be if the transit district is formed would be up to the district directors.

"SHU. 34 22-Bus Often a City of Salem has been operating a bus system in the city since Jan. 1, 1967. Before that the bus system here was operated privately. The last private system went bankrupt and the city took over.

Taking over the bus system also has meant taking on a generous portion of criticism yearly, usually from non-riding property taxpayers who complain that they see too many buses going by with too few riders. Complaints also come from riders who say there are too few buses traveling over routes that are too long and therefore take too long to get somewhere. This sort of criticism reached a questionable peak during the 1975 filming of a movie in Salem. Writers for two national publications, sent in to cover the antics and attitudes of the movie stars, apparently couldn't resist sniping at the town, pointing out that Salem was so small that the buses stop running at 7 p.m. Readers may have been left to wonder if the sidewalks didn't roll up about the same time.

Criticism aside, the city now has a 22-bus system, runs 14 routes with 30-minute service at peak hours. The service is 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. During wwkdays.

says City Transit in. -t I III 3 officials. Four must be from the Salem City Council, who must be Marion County Commissioners and one must be a Polk County Commissioner. The remaining two directors would be "citizens at large," one from each county. A guarantee that local elected officials will hold seven of the nine -Y ft What happens next if the formation of a Marion-Polk mass transit district is approved by voters in the two counties? First the governor has 60 days following the election in which to appoint a nine-member board of directors.

Once that board forms, it has the Hani Oram rJ" is: Hi' -Jr-v- 7f -r i 1 immO- Hi, 4 4- -4 V--'. rranfirwtrf m'fcWjWM immediate task of establishing a transit service area, determining what kind of tax should be used to support it and then calling for an election on the tax. Because state law sets specific dates on which special district elections may be held, the financing election probably If Marion and Polk county voters approve formation of a Marion-Polk mass transit district who is going to run it? Appointment of the nine-member board of directors of the district is to be made by the governor, but seven of those directors must be elected local Why Why does it take two elections to create and then set the financial base for a Marion-Polk mass transit district? The answer is that only one election would have been required except that a successful petition drive launched in What's the future of the City of Salem bus system, the Cherriots? If voters in Marion and Polk counties approve formation of a mass transit district in Tuesday's special election the stage will be set for a second election on March 9 on financing of the transit district. If the financing of the district also is 8 3 If you want to vote in Tuesday's Marion-Polk mass transit district election but are not already registered, don't give up. Under a new part of Oregon election law, you can register up to and including the day of the election.

V. V. V. v. OMMoMSBBBBreWOTWlMflgW i ii in -niiirr Who What Two Elections? vide and finance services in only a portion of that area." The Salem City Council and Marion County Board of Commissioners have adopted policy statements that any taxing area would be limited to the actual area to be served by the transit system.

director seats in the proposed Marion-Polk transit district is the most politically distinct difference between it and the two existing transit districts. Both Tri-Met in the Portland area and Lane County Transit District have boards appointed by the governor but neither has any requirement that the appointees be elected officials. have petitioned the state and the governor would have then appointed a board of directors. This board of directors would then define the area to be served by the transit district and recommend a taxing method to finance it which would require a vote of the people in the service area. one-year $296,950 levy expires July 1.

What would remain to finance the system would be two continuing transit levies, totaling $225,000 yearly, and fare box revenues. Salem transit planners estimate that the continuing levies and fare box revenues would be able to operate the Salem bus system at a level of about 40 per cent of present service. register 30 days prior to the election will appear in the poll book. (A list of all precinct polling places in Marion and Polk counties appeared in Wednesday's Polk County made it necessary to have a vote on the formation of the district. If the drive to require the first election had not occurred, the City of Salem by state law could have petitioned Marion County for formation of the district.

The county in turn would of the Buses? mm LajlJK approved by the voters it is most likely, at least for the first couple of years, that the district would use the existing city bus system on a contract basis, an obvious choice because it would be there to use. If formation of the transit district is defeated, however, the city's present 14-route system will most probably be sharply curtailed. This is because a A person otherwise qualified to vote may obtain a certificate from the county clerk's of fie mowing he is registered and it to the polling official, will write the voter's name in the poll book. Only the names of people who Salem City councilmen and Marion County commission ers have promised that the proposed transit system and source of taxes to finance it will be limited to an area within the urban boundary. TrGnSit Area Th unshadd area of this map is tfw 70-odd squart mil area contained within the Salem Ufean Growth Boundary.

Although voters in all of Marion and Polk Counties will be voting on fbrmofiui of a rwo-county-wide transit system Tuesday,.