Josephine County Measure 17.49

QUESTION: Shall Josephine County impose $ 1.48 per $1, 000 assessed value for criminal justice and public safety for three years beginning 2013?

The county voters didn't pass a levy last year, the sherrif cut his staff from 98 to 37 and closed most of the 262 bed jail. Deputies are only on patrol between 8am and 4pm on weekdays. The Oregon State Police shifted four troopers from Jackson to Josephine County and respond to weekend and nighttime calls, but usually only if someone's life is in imminent danger. The district attorney, also short-staffed, no longer charges most misdemeanors.

The city of Grants Pass says the lack of jail space has had a marked impact. In 2012, assault reports were up 28 percent, burglar calls climbed 68 percent and reports of robberies went up 14 percent.

Lane County Measure 20-213

QUESTION: Shall County restore jail beds and critical youth treatment levying $0.55 per $1,000 assessed valuation for five years commending 2013/14?

Lane County's current rate is $1.28, the seventh lowest.

The number of patrol deputies in the state's fourth-most populous county dropped from 99 to 20, he said. And Lane County voters have defeated eight straight measures to fund public safety, stretching back to 1998.

Bold Listings are Countys Salem is Watching
County	Property Tax Rates
Josephine * Failure	.5867 *
Curry * Failure	.5996*
Coos	1.0799
Douglas	1.1124
Linn	1.2736
Deschutes	1.2783
Lane * Passed	1.2793 (1.8293)
Columbia	1.3956
Hood River	1.4171
Tillamook	1.4986
Clatsop	1.5338
Polk	1.7160
Klamath	1.7326
Jackson	2.0099
Median	2.557
High	8.7141
Source: Oregon County Property Tax Rate by County 2012 * Voting on a tax levy 5/21/13

May 31, 2007

Jackson: County library levy fails handily The levy would have reopened all 15 library branches. Mail Tribune 5/22/13

Josephine: Public safety levy fails Grants Pass Daily Courier

Curry: County tax levy soundly defeated Curry Pilot

Coos: Vote was 68 percent against Oregon Live

Lane: Tax measure fails by wide margin

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Josephine, Curry county voters hand their problems to the Legislature
After two decades of wishful thinking by too many residents and benign neglect by too many policymakers, at least two of Oregon's timber counties have reached the fiscal cliff -- literally.

Curry County faces the most immediate threat of fiscal oblivion. If the county continues with its current minimal public safety staffing, it will run out of money in July 2014, said David Brock Smith, chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

The county asked residents to create a new revenue stream by approving a public safety levy with rates ranging from $1.84 to $1.97 per $1,000 assessed value depending on location. It would have raised about $4.5 million next year. By a resounding 56 percent to 44 percent margin, Curry County voters said "no." A similar levy, seeking $1.48 per $1,000 assessed value, failed in Josephine County by a much tighter 51 percent to 49 percent vote. (Lane County passed a public safety levy.)

The counties now face unprecedented choices. They can further cut jail capacity and law enforcement patrols -- to levels that would be inadequate in Mayberry. Or they can turn responsibility over to the state. It's really not a choice. The state has an obligation to ensure a rational level of public safety in these counties. Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, co-chairman of the legislative O&C counties task force, said he expects the Legislature to move forward on House Bill 3453, which establishes a mechanism for declaring a public safety fiscal emergency in troubled counties.

Details still must be worked out. But, in general, the bill would allow the governor to declare an emergency if he had unanimous agreement of the president and minority leader of the Senate and speaker and minority leader of the House. The governor then could direct local officials to consolidate services. Imposition of an income tax to pay for services would require approval of county governing bodies, but not voters.

Forcing taxes down citizens' throats would be a drastic move, one sure to draw national attention. But it's necessary. Hanna is both one of the state's leading conservatives and a strong advocate for rural Oregon. Yet he thinks it's time to at least put a framework in place. "The risk of something bad happening gets so high that as an elected official you just don't want to be the one responsible for that," he said.

Hanna emphasizes, and we agree, that the final decision on taxes should be made by local officials. As county commissioners consider their options, they should set the rates as low as possible. But they must take action.

It's easy to point fingers and scold Curry and Josephine residents for putting themselves in this position. The counties have the lowest property tax rates in Oregon. But they also each have 10.8 percent unemployment, trailing only and Crook and Douglas counties. It's hard to vote for a tax increase when you don't have a job.

So while the Legislature must take steps to avoid short-term disaster, it's equally important that members of the Oregon congressional delegation succeed in efforts to craft and pass federal legislation that would enable increased logging on federal Oregon & California railroad lands. Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, and Republican Rep. Greg Walden have proposed one plan to achieve that goal. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is expected to outline his plans for legislation today.

Reconciling the differences in the proposals and forging legislation that can pass both chambers of Congress will take as much effort as cutting logs with old-fashioned cross saws. But although logging alone cannot save these counties, it's impossible to envision a viable path toward economic improvement without an increase in forest-related jobs.

Time is running out, and not just because of the looming fiscal crises. In his economic forecast to legislators last week, state economist Mark McMullen drew attention to the plight of rural counties. Not only do these counties continue to recover from the recession at a slower pace than the Portland area, but they also face demographic challenges. Death rates exceed birth rates and people aren't moving into the counties. Why would they? If the trends continue, the counties won't have jobs or a labor force.

"The time is now before the damage gets irreversible," McMullen said.

Hopefully, it's not too late.
Source: Oregonian, www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/05/josephine_curry_county_voters.html

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Better policy for O&C lands can aid Oregon forests, rural counties: Guest opinion
Oregon needs a permanent solution to the decadeslong fight over managing the Oregon & California Railroad lands that run like a crazed checkerboard across the state.

That solution must increase timber harvests and economic activity on some lands while permanently conserving others. It must guarantee funding for schools, law enforcement and roads. And it must lay the foundation so rural communities can strengthen their private economies and rely less on the federal government.

In the 1980s, years of unsustainable timber harvests collided with renewed public concern over clean air and water and endangered species. This collision left our state with a broken system that produced the worst of two worlds: an inadequate timber harvest and inadequate protection for public lands. Timber communities lost jobs, while conservation was more often handled by lawyers and judges than foresters and biologists.

Since I was elected to the Senate I have been building bipartisan coalitions to break these bureaucratic logjams. In 2000 I authored the Secure Rural Schools bill, which has brought $2.8 billion for roads, schools and law enforcement to rural Oregon. In 2003 I crossed party lines to write and steer to passage the Healthy Forests Restoration Act designed to streamline timber management. In 2009 I brought together environmentalists and timber companies to agree on a strategy to increase harvests, make forests healthier and reduce litigation in eastern Oregon.

Today we have an opportunity to do far more. This year I became chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over forestry, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., joined the subcommittee that funds public land management. Gov. John Kitzhaber brought together a number of stakeholders to identify the challenges of managing the O&C lands, and Oregon's congressional representatives are working on ideas to navigate the Republican House majority.

Gov. Kitzhaber's report concluded that it is not possible to cut enough trees to produce historic levels of funding in rural counties without violating long-standing environmental laws. Shortcuts like selling off federal lands or ignoring environmental laws cannot be expected to pass the Senate or be signed by the president. Similar ideas have failed for more than 20 years. To create a realistic solution, the O&C lands require the kind of broad coalition with buy-in from all sides that has been shown to work in the past.

As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, here is what I intend to do: First, Oregon must be able to cut more timber. Increased harvests will create jobs and save the mills our state needs to treat and restore overstocked forests. Done right, it will make our forests healthier and more resistant to wildfire.

While it may not be possible to achieve historic harvest levels, it is certainly possible to cut substantially more timber and create other timber-related jobs while protecting old-growth stands, clean water and essential habitats. We will reach these goals by reforming and streamlining the bureaucracy around forest management, promoting tourism and recreation, and increasing biomass energy development.

However, none of those efforts will produce enough jobs tomorrow, or even next year, to offset the harm caused by years of mismanagement. Cash-strapped counties face deadlines this spring to decide about maintaining basic services and keeping schools open. They need a lifeline now. That's why I secured a pledge from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, to fund the Secure Rural Schools program at least one more year.

For the long term, all rural counties with federal lands and waters deserve to be able to staff the schools, fund law enforcement and maintain the roads required by the use or preservation of those lands. My policy to end the perpetual roller coaster from revenue sharing includes new initiatives to create private sector jobs, protect the environment and, most of all, make sure rural America doesn't become a ghost town.

At the same time, communities and states have a responsibility to do their part to generate sustainable revenues through tax levies, economic development and other solutions. Communities like Lane, Josephine and Curry counties that are seeking their own sources of revenue comparable to other states and regions are taking exactly the right approach. This will give people in those communities greater control over their own futures and more independence from the federal government.

My committee will hold a hearing on payments for timber counties this week, with a focus on the importance of extending the program in the short term and finding a long-term solution. This will be followed by hearings on the past and current failures of federal forest management to produce sustainable private sector jobs, with a particular focus on O&C lands.

By the end of this process, with cooperation from stakeholders on all sides, we will have a solution that works for all of Oregon. Every day, until we pass a bill through Congress, my committee will be working to find a bipartisan, bicameral solution to these problems.
Source: Oregonian www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/03/better_policy_for_oc_lands_can.html

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