Measure 14-87: Prepared food, beverage tax on Cascade Locks Nov. 3 ballot would fund EMS

Cascade Locks, as an incorporated city, is required to provide firefighting services for its residents, but EMS services are not required to be funded.

In fact, the community didn’t always have EMS services. In 2006, the city began construction on a new fire station, paying for it using grants, property sales, and a $500,000 loan from the electric utility which was paid off over a seven year period, according to Interim City Administrator Gordon Zimmerman. They added a fire department fee of $1 to monthly utility bills starting in June 2005, and, to support EMS services, a $6 monthly fee in 2015.

In June 2024, voters approved an increase in the EMS fee to $9 a month, which is what it is now.

The city is not required to provide EMS services, but Mayor Brenda Wood knows better than most how important it is for her community.

In 2009, her husband faced a medical emergency while alone at home.

“We had lived here for two weeks,” she said. “We had no EMS. I didn’t check to see if we had EMS before we moved here.”

She shared that a Skamania County ambulance took 20 minutes to arrive. “He came very close to dying.” Her husband was okay, but shaving EMS services “is very personal to me,” she said.

The current need

Local Fire Chief John Logan can easily outline the need for both gear and staff. One look at the city’s aging fleet confirms his concerns. The department’s ambulance was purchased, used, in 2017, and is 25 years old. The city’s current wildland firefighting truck is 36 years old and its primary fire truck is 29 years old. They rely on sporadic state grant funds to hire part-time staff in the summer, but demand suggests that a full-time, year-round position should be filled. They have a great need for gear for the crew staff plus the 21 volunteers — namely rain gear, chainsaws, axes, and personal gear. Logan continues to apply for grants and is deeply grateful for donations the department has received, particularly the support from the community volunteer association.

Still, he sees the costs of the ongoing maintenance for the aging fleet as unsustainable. Also, he said, “There are a lot of new safety features that aren’t in the older vehicles;” he newer vehicles are “designed better, safer, and to be more reliable, especially in serious weather.”

Logan sees staffing as one of the greatest needs for the department. With a full staff, they can respond more quickly and efficiently and attend to ongoing projects and maintenance.

How we got to 5%

Currently, emergency services in Cascade Locks put a heavy load on the city’s general fund, around $500,000. The PF&B tax is estimated to raise $260,000. The fire department and EMS services in Cascade Locks are funded with local property taxes, a small fee added on to utility bills, and revenue from the city’s thinly stretched general fund — despite 65% of calls coming from outside the city.

Chief Logan worked with other city leaders to research funding options. The committee researched a bond, a levy, and a Prepared Food and Beverage tax. Bonds can only be used for capital construction, and would fall squarely on the property-owning residents of Cascade Locks. A levy can be used for operating dollars (including staff), but must be renewed periodically and would also place 100% of the tax burden on the locals.

The committee’s research indicated that a tax borne mostly by visitors would be best for the community, and most appropriate, since non-residents use a majority of the services. They checked out how similar taxes had worked in other, similar-sized cities. They researched the potential revenue amounts. They were looking for, according to Logan, a funding that created “the least amount of impact to residents.” Eventually, they floated the idea to the council and city leadership started conducting outreach.

Initially, Mayor Wood was hoping for a one-time request of a 10% tax hoping to avoid asking for more funding anytime soon. But some councilors and local businesses pushed back on that. When a 7% tax was discussed, the council became concerned it might not pass. They are cautiously hopeful that the 5% ask will get voters’ approval, especially if folks understand two things: how it works, and what’s at stake.

How it would work

Generally, a prepared food and beverage tax only applies to food and non-alcoholic beverages that will be consumed immediately, either on-site or to go. It does not apply to groceries, nor does it apply to alcoholic beverages.

Non-residents purchase 90% of prepared food and drinks sold in Cascade Locks. This type of tax puts the burden on tourists and visitors, who are also the majority users of fire and EMS services.

It’s also a tax that can be easily avoided: if you don’t want to pay, don’t dine out.

Local businesses would have to collect the 5% tax for each meal sold, and pay it to the city. They would get to keep 5% of the funds collected annually as an administrative fee. The city estimates that the tax would bring in $260,000 per year initially, and every dollar of it will go to fund Emergency Services in Cascade Locks. However, other cities, such as Yachats, slightly smaller than Cascade Locks, saw their PF&B taxes actually bring in $550,000 in one year.

Implications

Cascade Locks residents understand the need for emergency services. The town is in a unique geographic position. Though part of Hood River County, they are an independent municipality dependent on a relatively small tax base. They are also somewhat isolated: without EMS services, an ambulance to Hood River would be 20 miles one way, and if I-84 should close down, as it occasionally does, the community is cut off from EMS services. Chief Logan pointed out that with no medical clinic or hospital in town, many folks rely on the fire and EMS crews for their immediate healthcare.

Mayor Wood and the council are naturally concerned about any impacts to local businesses, though their outreach has shown a fairly consistent majority of support. Concerns that tips might be less suggest that diners would realize their bill includes a 5% local tax and therefore they would choose to use the tip money to pay the tax. The bill will still show a total, though the business may have a table tent explaining what the tax is for, at least initially.

Prices can be expected to be minimally higher. As an example, a family of four dining out might pay $80 for four meals now, $84 if the tax passes. Ultimately, most customers don’t notice that 5% of their bill is an added-on local tax. Typically, people dining out don’t know or care about how each dollar of their bill will be spent.

If the tax does not pass, Wood said they must go back to the people and ask them what they want: a bond, a levy, or no EMS services. Though it’s not imminent, she fears a choice between increased taxes and EMS services. She favors the Prepared Food and Non-alcoholic Beverage tax because “our citizens are already currently paying enough. I think it’s time to get support from those who are using the services.”

County mulls its own tax

Whether or not this tax could be stacked with a potential county Prepared Food and Beverage tax is unclear.

Zimmerman was initially told by the city attorney that any potential similar county tax would not apply in Cascade Locks because, he said, “This is a home rule council.”

The League of Oregon Cities defines this as, “Cities have local control except where expressly or impliedly preempted by the state or federal government.” However, Zimmerman clarified, “Until we actually see the resolution or ordinance from the county and its wording, we cannot say definitively whether they would or would not stack.”

At an Oct. 5 work session to discuss that potential county-wide PF&B tax, County Commissioner Chad Muenzer asked if the county tax would apply in Cascade Locks; Commissioner Arthur Babitz said, “Lisa told us that we could,” citing county attorney Lisa Davies.

Babitz dismissed the idea of adjusting any potential tax measure to exclude Cascade Locks, saying, “How much would you change the design of something that affects 5% of the population?”

If the taxes were stacked, food establishments in the community would be forced to charge and collect both taxes. Zimmerman pushed back against this, saying, “We may have the opportunity to sue the county.”

The county has not committed to a Prepared Food and Beverage tax, or assigned the potential funds to any specific projects.