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Hey, everybody. Welcome back.

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I'm Dave Moss. By day, Executive Director
of the Eugene Symphony,

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community member here in Eugene, taxpayer and budget
curious about our city's budget.

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And we have, a great guest with us
today

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the Executive Director of Emerald KidSports,
Bev Smith, to dig into the budget.

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What excites you about the city budget?

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What excites me about the city budget?

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Well, I think the city budget is important
because for a community person who,

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like you, pays taxes,
we often want to make sure

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that we understand
what we're getting for that value.

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How do you think about the city taxes compared to say,

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registration fees at your business?

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Yeah I think that's a fair comparison.

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Many times our parents, you know, ask me,
“Bev, what do we get for that registration fee?”

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And like the city, there's certain
essential things that you see that we do.

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You see the uniform, you see the gym,
you see the official,

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you see, you know, the score clock.

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You see those tangible things
that help the game or the practice to go.

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You see the equipment.

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But underneath all of that, there's people
that are working on a practice schedule

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and our sports managers do all of that
behind the scenes.

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And without that schedule,
the essential games don't happen.

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So, you know,
if you can kind of make that correlation

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and comparison with things that you see
for your registration fee

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and things that you don't, and things
that you see when you pay your taxes

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and things that you don't, you can see
that underneath there's a lot of things

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that are happening unseen to us all that
make the big and important things happen.

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And when it's working well,
it's completely invisible to most of us.

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It is completely invisible.

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Or it feels good, it flows.

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What are some city services

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that people rarely think of until suddenly
they're gone?

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Safe streets.

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Cross walks and sidewalks

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that get kids to and from school
and to and from parks.

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Well-marked bike lanes.

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Pools in the summer for kids to, you know,
cool off and also learn water safety.

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A library where kids can go

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and explore different worlds
and learn about different worlds for free.

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We have a recreation department that helps us,

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not just kids, but adults,
have an active, healthy lifestyle.

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The emergency response units
that show up for families in need.

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Budget pressures usually
they don't just all show up at once.

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We kind of see them appear, 
not as one dramatic cut, but as pullbacks.

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So how is that reflected?

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A lot of our essential
services are funded by the general fund.

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Police, fire, emergency response units
when that general fund shrinks

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and we don't have enough revenue
we see that the pool, the library

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closes, hours closes time, closes,
personnel and helping to deliver

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those programs, and we have to dedicate
more to public safety.

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The question for me has always been,
what kind of city do I want my kids

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growing up in?

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And I think we've answered so much of that
here, in the conversation today.

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These aren't abstract
lined items in a budget.

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They show up in response times
for our EMS.

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They show up in the hours
that our buildings are open.

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The programs we have for kids, maintain
trails, and safe community spaces.

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So budget decisions affect
what a city actually feels like.

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Thanks Bev so much for your insight
on all of this,

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and thanks for all
you do in our community.

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Thank you, Dave.

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In the basketball season, 130 games

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per weekend in 11 different sites,

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no one sees that,
they see the result of that schedule.

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And without that schedule,
the essential games don't happen.