Auditor would help us make informed voting decisions

In the May 12, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Ed Murphy writes in a letter:

We know there will be a continuous rotating roster of essential city services we will be asked to fund by increasing our own taxes. On the May 15 ballot, the city of Eugene wants to make a case for needing $55.25 million more for parks. I thought we were already funding essential services like that with our current taxes and stormwater fees.

The city never lets us vote on the tens of millions of dollars of nonessential services they spend every year, like City Hall, developer subsidies, tax breaks, overpriced consulting contracts, privatized services and attempts at re-zoning entire neighborhoods. The city spend all that money with no voter approval and no oversight except the city “auditing” itself.

Don’t we deserve to know how efficiently, cost-effectively and equitably our money is being spent — before we vote for even more taxes? The city is not suddenly going to tell us the truth. We need an independent elected auditor to give us unbiased, factual financial and performance assessments of how the money is spent. Then we can make informed decisions about new taxes on the ballot. Vote yes for Measure 20-283 for an independent elected auditor who works for us, not the city.

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