Petitioners submit more than 10k signatures in effort to send payroll tax to Salem voters
The petitioner working to refer a payroll tax passed by Salem City Council to voters submitted 10,262 signatures to the city Tuesday — more than double the number needed to get the issue on the November ballot.
This comes a little over two weeks after Oregon Business & Industry, a statewide chamber of commerce and trade association, launched an effort to refer the Safe Salem employee-paid payroll tax to voters.
“The Salem community has stepped up in a big way to make their voices heard and to ensure that residents have an opportunity to vote on this tax,” said Angela Wilhelms, president and CEO of Oregon Business & Industry. “With more than 10,000 signatures submitted today, we are well on our way to qualifying this referendum for the ballot.”
The group had until Aug. 9 to get the 3,986 valid signatures needed to qualify the referendum.
The Salem City Council voted July 10 in a 5-4 split to adopt a .814% Safe Salem employee-paid payroll tax for all work performed within city limits.
The payroll tax was set to be imposed on wages for individuals working in Salem, regardless of where they live, as early as July 2024. The tax would not be imposed on those earning minimum wage.
A payroll tax calculator is available at egov.cityofsalem.net/PayrollTaxCalculator/. A person earning the average hourly rate of $29.90, which equates to $62,192 a year, would be taxed $42.19 a month — $506.24 a year.
The funds generated could only be used for community safety, which includes police services, fire, emergency medical services, 911 call services, code enforcement and unsheltered services.
Critics of the tax say it is burdensome and unclear. Proponents said it is needed to keep the city safe and would be used to hire more police to decrease crime, hire more firefighters to reduce response times and maintain and expand existing homelessness services to keep people from living on the streets in unmanaged camps.
City officials have said the funding is needed to maintain current services in light of a projected budget shortfall and warned that without it, cuts to services would have to be made.
Wilhelms said people may see a higher-than-average number of invalid signatures during the counting process due to confusion over who is eligible to sign the petition.
“There is understandably a lot of confusion about who can sign the petition due in large part to the complexities of the tax itself,” Wilhelms said. “For example, a lot of voters have a Salem address but do not live within the technical city limits. So, even if those folks work within the city and are subject to the tax, their signature would be invalid.”
The campaign plans to pursue additional signatures until the Aug. 9 deadline to ensure that the referendum meets the qualification threshold.
The city will review the submitted petitions for compliance with city codes and state election laws. The petitions are then turned over to the county clerk, who is tasked with validating them.
For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com, call 503-910-6616 or follow on Twitter at @wmwoodworth
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem payroll tax to be on November ballot after petition
