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By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff
writer
The proposal for a 3 percent per gallon gas
tax countywide was soundly defeated by
Hood
River
County
voters on Tuesday.
The tax proposal failed by a 3,306 to 1,950
margin, or 62.9 percent to 37.1 percent. About 48 percent of the
electorate returned the single-issue ballots.
Russ Gray, the owner of Windmaster Market who
spearheaded the opposition movement, was out of town this week
and unable to be reached for comment.
Let
Hood
River
Vote, led by Gray, referred the county’s fuel fee to the voters
after it was approved by the Hood River County Commission in
July.
Ron Rivers, chair of the county board, said
he understood why voters would defeat a tax during an economic
recession.
“This is a heck of a time to be asking people
to put out more money,” he said, “but we did what we had to do
and now we’re going to have to evaluate how to pay for our road
maintenance programs.”
He said the fuel fee would have generated
about $230,000 per year for transportation-related projects.
Without that funding, he said a study will have to be done of
the existing road system to determine where cutbacks in the
county’s workload could be made.
“We’ll just have to make do with the money
that we have,” said Rivers.
Kim Kean, county elections supervisor, said
voters within the City of Hood River, which recently passed a
gas tax for the same amount, weighed in largely in favor of the
county fuel fee.
However, she said the southern sector of the
county marked ballots against the proposal by a 70-80 percent
margin. The community of Cascade Locks offered the greatest
objection, with 85 percent of voters opposed to the fee.
She said it is now important for the 30
people who were notified of “challenge ballots” to make sure the
situation with their signatures is rectified. These ballots were
set aside because signatures did not match the individual’s
voter registration card. The cards have been deactivated until
verification takes place.
“If people want to vote in the January
election (a referendum on new state corporate and personal
income taxes) they need to make sure that we have a valid
signature on record,” said Kean.
In September, city voters were evenly split
on the tax and the 21 challenge ballots decided the issue, which
was approved by 812 to 809. A mandatory recount was triggered by
the three-point differential and upheld the final results of the
election.
Let
Hood
River
Vote failed in its attempt to overturn the city council’s May
approval of a tax. That added fee on fuel at nine stations
within the municipality’s jurisdiction will be implemented on
Jan. 1, 2010.
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