Jerry’s Campaign Announcement:

https://corvallisadvocate.com/jerry-ingersoll-and-danielle-chambers-will-vie-to-replace-ward-7-councilor-shaffer/

League of Women Voters Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvLs2xFOyZo&list=PLEIxpNRkGWXI&index=16

Corvallis Advocate and City Club of Corvallis Ward 7 Debate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqelFHe57NE

Corvallis Gazette-Times Profile

https://gazettetimes.com/news/local/elections/article_f1df9fd9-25f6-4403-9510-cc5fd0f5ed4e.html

Jerry’s 9/8/26 Testimony to City Council on Taxes and the Budget Gap.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council.  My name is Jerry Ingersoll.  I live at 1515 NW Woodland Drive in Corvallis (Ward 7), where we have lived since 2010.

I have been following Council’s discussion of the Budget Gap, and my comments today are on that question.  I strongly believe that Council should not enact new payroll and/or income taxes without first referring the question to the voters.  The Corvallis community has historically been extremely supportive of City services and needs, by passing multiple levies.  We must never take that support for granted.  Enacting significant new taxes without the direct support of voters runs the risk of jeopardizing the bond between the voters and the government who works for and serves them.

I also believe that the structural Budget Gap and the need for investments in City infrastructure – the proposed Civic Campus – are different questions, of different magnitude, different urgency, and on different time scales.  City infrastructure investment can be approved through traditional levies.  And while the infrastructure needs are real and important, they are not on the same time scale as the gap in projected costs and revenues for the next biennium.  I think that combining the structural budget gap with the proposed infrastructure investments in a single proposal risks the downfall of both.

All this is said with the greatest respect for the challenges presented to City management and the Council.  There is no perfect or even easy solution.  Acting together, as a community, will require hard conversations and difficult choices which belong to all of us.  I applaud Staff and Council for bringing these questions to the table and for engaging with the public in work sessions and at the Farmers’ Market.

Thank You.

Jerry Ingersoll