Group to Gather Petitions for Vote on Utility Tax

A residents group said it will gather voters’ signatures to put an initiative on the March ballot on whether to continue the city’s utility tax, which expires next year.

Leaders of the Save Our Services Committee said they plan to gather more than 2,100 signatures required to allow voters to decide whether the tax should continue beyond its November 1999 expiration date.

The five-member City Council has been unable to muster the four votes required by state law to place the issue before voters. Councilmen Chris Cristensen and John Wilcox have refused to support such a move.

But Councilman Thomas O’Leary, a member of the committee, said, “All we are trying to do is allow voters to decide whether the tax should continue or be discontinued.”

The city’s utility tax is 5.5%. Revenues from the tax pay for services such as police protection and the local library.

The residents group plans to begin gathering signatures this week on the initiative which, if approved by voters, would remove the “sunset clause,” or expiration deadline, from the tax.