Lane County Commissioners are taking their concerns over the secure rural schools act to Washington, D.C. They're trying to get back the $40 million that they would have to cut from their budgets.

Meanwhile, angry taxpayers are speaking out about the income tax the commissioners passed to fill the hole.

Protestors Friday night are taking their message to the masses. They've lined the Harlow Road overpass, over Interstate Five, waving signs to the traffic below. It's all part of a concerted effort to stop the new tax before it starts.

"I just found something that really steamed me, you know?" explains Ben Pooler of Eugene. "And the irritation factor of what they did, behind our backs, basically."

Ben Pooler says he's had enough. He and a half dozen co-workers are organizing a fight against the county income tax passed by Lane County Commissioners on Wednesday.

But that's not the only way that people are getting involved. Plenty of citizens are calling Lane County Elections, interested in taking their anger out through a vote -- both to see the tax overturned, and the commissioners who voted for it sent packing.

"We're giving them some basic information," explains Lane County Elections Supervisor Roxann Marshall. "We're asking that they either come in and pick up the manual that addresses that, or they can obtain that manual through the Secretary of State's web site."

"There was still plenty of time to do this; the new tax isn't supposed to go into effect until July 1st," explains rally co-organizer Bob Hooker. "There was no reason this couldn't have gone on the ballot in a special election in May, let the people vote on it."

County Intergovernmental Relations Manager Tony Bieda disagrees. He says that, to cut costs, the county would have to give pink slips to employees as early as mid-April, leaving workers to twist in the wind while they waited for a May election.

"When you have employees in turmoil, on the edge of their seat, worried about where their next paycheck's going to come from," Bieda says, "they're not really focused on being productive members of an organization."

But these folks say it's not so much the tax, but the principle behind it, that's got them all fired up.

"I've never been a protestor, I've never organized a protest, any kind of rally or anything like that. But it's time we stood up."

The folks at Lane County Elections say that no petitions have been filed yet. But Ben Pooler says his group has already started circulating such a petition. Organizers would need 5577 signatures to get their referendum on a ballot.