For Gresham, to tax or not to tax?

GRESHAM -- Gresham City Hall has a long-term fiscal problem, and a list of more than a dozen possible ways to fix it -- none particularly inviting to people who don't like the idea of new fees or taxes.

There's a restaurant tax. But the mayor -- a restaurant owner -- already has made it clear he doesn't favor that plan.

There's a local sales tax. But that idea bombed when it was promoted in Wood Village two years ago.

There's a street-maintenance fee, similar to one proposed in Portland last year that bogged down in fractious politicking.

In other words, the choices aren't easy.

But doing nothing to close a growing gap between projected expenses and revenues could mean deepening service cutbacks over the next several years, financial analysts say.

It's why a newly appointed tax-and-fee task force made up of Gresham civic and business leaders will begin sizing up the best of the options this month, with a charge to recommend a handful to the City Council this fall.

"It's scary," said City Councilor Paul Warr-King, one of two councilors working with the newly formed Service Restoration Strategies Task Force. "If the public wants services," he added, "it's going to have to pay for them."

Even if voters approve a five-year, $6 million levy for enhanced police service in November, city officials say, still more money will be needed within the next several years to fill other financial potholes.

Measure 50, the property tax limit passed by Oregon voters in 1997, is a major cause of the squeeze, city officials say. While it has prevented large run-ups in property tax bills -- to the delight of many homeowners -- it also capped annual growth in city property tax collections to 3 percent on existing properties -- at a time when many municipal government costs have far exceeded that rate of increase. Gresham is particularly vulnerable, officials say, because of its high residential growth rate combined with one of the lowest property tax rates in the state.

At the same time, gas-tax and certain franchise-fee revenues used for road maintenance and other basics have dropped....