The Bend City Council is holding a special meeting on Tuesday. There is no emergency. But Councilor Justin Livingston pushed for the meeting.

Why? A new tax.

The special meeting will mean that new, proposed tax on construction would be rejected or confirmed by this iteration of the Bend City Council, rather than the new one that will take office in January. The first vote on the tax was close, 4-3. Councilors Livingston, Bill Moseley and Chris Piper voted against it. So if for some reason a councilor cannot attend this week’s special meeting to give the tax final approval, the tax could fail. Of course, that doesn’t mean it would necessarily be dead. The new council could revisit it.

The goal for the money raised from the tax is about as good as they come. Councilors have been looking for a way to do a better job of funding services and programs for people who are homeless. The tax would be used to help people who are making up to 30% of area median income. For instance, it could go to pay for staff to help oversee a homeless shelter and pay for counselors to help people find ways to get out of homelessness.

The tax itself is rather small. The controversy it generated is significant. The tax would be 1/3 of 1% of the permit valuation on commercial and industrial improvements. The city already has an existing affordable housing fee on all permits, which has been used to help build or renovate some 600 units of affordable housing in Bend since it was implemented. The new tax is a separate, additional one. It might raise nearly $600,000 a year.

Any new tax is going to have critics. This one does have flaws. Homelessness is a challenge for the entire community of Bend. But this is a tax only on business. Why is that fair? Wouldn’t it be more fair if everyone had to pay? The city could have looked at a more general levy instead of a tax that targets businesses.

Other criticisms include that Bend should not be looking to foot the bill for a regional homeless problem. If the city wasn’t committed to moving so urgently on this issue, perhaps there could be more of a regional funding mechanism and regional solution. And another complaint is that fees for new construction in Bend are already high. This tax would make it more so.

There is also a lack of a public vote. Bend City Councilors can impose this kind of tax without having to ask for approval by voters during an election. Shouldn’t voters get to decide the merits of a new tax?

We’d argue homeless people are already dying on Bend’s streets because of lack of services. If that doesn’t create urgency, something is wrong. If you don’t believe that Bend can and should do more to help the homeless, then of course, you won’t support this tax.

We agree that this tax is in some ways unfair. There could be a fairer tax. If you don’t like this one, come up with your fairer tax. Create a campaign to pass it. If it passes, we would happily support getting rid of this one.

This tax won’t solve homelessness in Bend and the tax is flawed. But we can’t see that the failure of the tax would be better for Bend. It certainly wouldn’t be better for helping the homeless. So when councilors meet Tuesday afternoon, we hope it will pass.