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Few residents respond to Central Point survey By BUFFY POLLOCK CENTRAL POINT - Survey says: People don't like filling out surveys. Of more than 4,000 surveys sent out by the city last month asking residents to help determine the best ways to provide long-term funding for city services, only about 10 percent had been returned as of earlier this week, said City Administrator Jim Bennett. "We were hoping to get the results back in time to use for the budget process," Bennett said. The two-question poll was originally due back by April 9. Bennett said the questions were designed to determine which services were of high priority to residents in order to guide the budget committee in creating the 2001-2002 budget, which will go into effect July 1. Surveys were distributed with water bills March 23. The first question asked residents to rank 10 services by order of importance: building permits, code enforcement, municipal court, parks, planning and zoning, police department, recreation programs, streets, utility billing and the water system. A second question asked residents to rank types of potential tax or fee increases they were more likely to support in order to keep city services at current levels. Bennett said that state cutbacks on gas, liquor and cigarette taxes as well as the passage of Measure 50, which rolled back property taxes and capped any increase at 3 percent, had prompted the city to begin looking for other sources to fund city services. In addition, franchise taxes used to increase capacity of the city's water, storm-drain, street and park systems are being threatened by a proposed bill that would eliminate them and partially replace them with an increase in personal income tax. The survey also told recipients that a water rate increase was likely because of rate increases by the Medford Water Commission, from which Central Point gets its water. Bennett said while low response to the survey did not delay the budget process, which began April 11, the city was still hoping for more surveys to aid the budget committee. "They're still coming in. We're going to collect as many as we can and summarize all that as soon as we can. In addition, the council has asked us to go out with another survey to try and solicit other opinions from citizens," he said. Bennett said the second survey will give residents a chance to voice opinions about controversial proposals such as a diesel fuel tax, street development fees, storm drain fees and the Jackson County amphitheater. The second survey will be formatted differently because council members felt the first survey was difficult to answer, Bennett said. "We're going to try a different format to make it easier to respond. Some of the more important items we would really like to get feedback on." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.