OPINION

Transit district shouldn’t be allowed more tax dollars

As a small business owner and former county elected official, I am appalled by the Cherriots proposal to impose new taxes on selected businesses to prop up and expand an under-used public transit system.

Cherriots’ refusal to utilize non-tax revenue sources like advertising sales before attempting to enforce selective taxation shows particularly poor understanding of the interactive nature of our economy.

The weak attempts by the transit district to identify any valid benefit for those being taxed does not stand up to any simple research of facts. The “value” of services to be added with passage of this tax relate to evenings, weekends, holidays and students, but does not alleviate parking issues or roadway congestion during the current operating times of the buses. This reality also proves the absence of “value” related to air quality.

Especially galling is the apparent belief that this system should be allowed to take more tax dollars to support a failing system, which the October 2013 Salem-Keizer Transit Long-Range Regional Transit Plan documents as experiencing a steady decline in ridership since 2008 while the operating expenses per passenger mile continues to climb.

Taxation without benefit is a bad idea and Measure 24-388 should be defeated.

Barbara Whisenhunt

Salem