Eugene Budget Committee Meeting - Wednesday, May 3

EUGENE, Ore. -- Appropriating tens of millions of dollars in Comcast revenue was the main topic of focus Wednesday evening as the Eugene Budget Committee deliberated during a meeting in which tensions rose between members.

The city of Eugene recently won a suit against Comcast, which had spanned over the course of a decade, and received $18.75 million in September 2016 as a result. Currently, the Budget Committee has to decide what to do with the remaining $16.5 million.

Finance Director Sue Cutsogeorge explained that the city has put $9.5 million of Comcast revenues into the Reserve for Revenue Shortfall, which serves as the city’s emergency fund in case of unforeseen economic events.

Cutsogeorge posed two questions to the committee. The first being whether or not the city should keep the $9.5 million in the RRS in order to maintain the city’s goal of 5% of the budget going towards that specific fund. The second question posed was what the city should do with the remaining Comcast money during the upcoming fiscal years.

The general consensus among committee members was that yes, the city should keep the current funds in the RRS. However, passions flared when the discussion turned towards the remaining $7.5 million.

Primarily, general doubts were expressed in regard to spending millions of dollars towards the construction of a new city hall. It was suggested that the city could spend a smaller amount towards rejuvenating existing buildings. Currently Eugene does not have a city hall, although there is growing public concern about the cost of building a new city hall, a project which has been continuously delayed and adjusted.

Council member Emily Semple, among others, expressed a strong motion of spending remaining funds towards one-time expenditures, including creating homeless facilities and new ambulances for the city. She argued that putting money towards one-time expenditures would be a safe measure which would prevent the draining of resources in the future.

Eugene currently only has three functional ambulances, which received roughly 5,500 calls in 2016. They consistently need assistance from neighboring Springfield ambulances in order to respond to calls in a timely manner.

In response to members’ one-time expenditure proposals, council member Chris Pryor expressed concern about payments that are supposed to be one-time expenditures turning into recurring costs. “We need to make sure that we are actually spending the money only one time,” said Pryor.

Public comment held prior to committee discussions brought up many of the same issues that were later discussed by committee members. Eugene’s Fire Department Chairman testified to the need for more ambulances to adequately handle the number of calls they receive.

The committee will continue to her public comment and deliberate on the city’s budget for the 2018 fiscal year next Wednesday. Action on the proposed budget will occur on May 24.