Newberg's fight over charges and fees

There is a dirty little secret within government. A revenue stream exists which is completely hidden to most people.

It is the ability to collect revenue by simply calling it a charge or a fee.

It is the use of charges and fees which government has found as an easy source of revenue leaving citizens helpless in the effort to fight back.

There is a larger question that needs to be answered by the citizens of Newberg Do they want to be able to have control over whether charges and fees can be created or increased?

Charges and fees can be simply created or increased in order to pay for services that should be driven by the tax base It is this philosophy which has spurred the opposition into action in an attempt to regain control over how much of their wallets the government can take.

All the discussion about Measure 36-149 possibly costing the city thousands of dollars, if passed, is nothing more than a scare tactic by those who will lose the power to arbitrarily levy such charges and fees.

Most people believe that a charge or fee is something that is directly assessed for a service or commodity that an individual wants. A simple example would be a hunting license; the person desiring the license pays the fee directly in order to be able to hunt.

When government charges everyone equally the same fee, or assesses the same charge, for a service or commodity that is not directly consumed by everyone, it is in effect forcing a citizen to pay for the service or commodity they may not want or need. This is essentially taxing citizens and not allowing them to vote on it.

Measure 36-149 was created in response to a Public Safety Fee that was created to help fund an increase in the number of police officers. This fee has prompted many questions that need to be answered.

The ecomony doesn't matter to city hall

Normally, public safety dollars are collected as part of property taxes. Was the tax assessed on citizens not enough to pay for such services? Why not ask for an increase in the tax? Is there a need for an increase in the number of officers? Has the decline in the economy and value of real property caused a shortfall in collected taxes?

I respectfully submit that given the current state of the economy, a vote to raise taxes to support the increase in the number of officers would have failed.

Instead of taking the case to the voters for a possible increase, the city decided to create the Public Safety Fee and tack it onto the water bill for collection. As a result, the fee now has to be paid and the need to have citizens vote for such an increase has been circumvented.

How important is this vote to some in government? How about $2,000 from Newberg/Dundee Public Safety Association? And another $1,000 from Newberg Volunteer Fire Department? The Professional Firefighters PAC #3219 has even given $2,350.

Everybody wants to live in a safe community, but that is not the issue. It’s the abuse of using charges and fees to hide what should be a tax.

More citizens are onto the fact that the city is using charges and fees in this manner. This measure would allow the citizens to regain the right afford to them by the State Constiution with respect to all taxes, even those being called "charges" or "fees".