Mayor Tonya Graham is “disappointed” in the defeat of the Parks measure and claims it may have happened because voters were “confused.” Now that’s an insult from a sore loser.  I certainly wasn’t confused, and voted “No” because I don’t trust a City Council-Parks coalition to make sound financial decisions, and it looked for all the world like a ploy to set the groundwork for a special Parks District to levy its own taxes in the future.

The City Council refuses to balance its budget. I don’t trust the council because it uses smoke and mirrors to supposedly “balance” the budget. Consider the 2023-25 budget currently up for approval. It shows an admitted shortfall of $7.1 million between revenue and expenses in the General Fund. The city manager tried to explain this away by saying that there was a “surplus” from the prior budget because we didn’t spend all the money it projected for city employees. But why do we have to spend every last penny that is in our account?  Wouldn’t it be better to save the money for a rainy day?

In fact, that “rainy day” is here — Ashland is in serious financial trouble. Our City Council and Parks would have us believe we can afford a $10 million pool and a new $70 million water plant. But the main drivers of our local economy are dying: Oregon Shakespeare Festival is hanging by a thread, and Southern Oregon University’s enrollment is down from 6,200 students in 2014 to 4,200 today. And we’re going to spend money like there’s no tomorrow? Let’s fix the potholes and call it a day.

Where does Parks fit into this?  Currently, Parks’ operational budget is approximately $8 million per year, which is funded by nearly 50% of our property taxes. Some clever city staff thought that if they could divert 100% of the meals tax to Parks, the general fund would have enough money to hire additional staffers for administration and the police and fire departments.

But how, then, would Parks survive? Here’s the really clever part: Parks would cry poverty and be “forced” to ask voters to establish a separate Parks District that could levy its own taxes! We Ashlanders love our parks, so it might well pass. Parks would win, City Hall would win, only the tax-paying citizenry would be the losers.

If anyone was “confused” it was those who were taken in by the crowd controlling City Hall.

Dennis Kendig

Ashland