AUGUST 2008: AROUND THE STATE
With timber payments gone, counties struggle
STATEWIDE
Josephine County already has lost almost half its county
employees and all its libraries, and county commission chairman
Dave Toler is worried that public safety could be next. Barring
a bailout over the next year, Toler estimates Josephine County
will be able to prosecute less than one-tenth of the criminal
cases it normally pursues, falling from 5,300 a year to just
500.
“What kind of economy are we going to have if we
don’t have a criminal justice system?” he asks.
The loss of the federal forest subsidies that have kept
Oregon’s rural timber counties afloat since 2000 has left
Josephine County teetering. Until July 1, two-thirds of county
services there were funded by the feds. That safety net is gone
and replacing it will not be simple. Dozens of counties are
cutting back.
The counties that were hardest hit, Josephine and Curry,
pay the lowest property taxes in Oregon, about 60 cents per
$1,000, less than a quarter of the state average. Bringing
those rates up to par is easier said than done since it would
require voter approval. Josephine, Curry and Lane counties all
tried to boost taxes in 2007; all attempts were soundly
defeated.
With no new revenues to replace the lost timber subsidies,
counties have moved from selectively harvesting jobs and
programs to clear-cutting them. Lane County chopped 93 public
safety employees and closed its forest work camp. Douglas
County eliminated 59 jobs and cut library hours.
“Anything that’s not mandated, we’ll be
cutting,” says Curry County commissioner Georgia
Nowlin.
Two ideas have surfaced to avoid further erosion. Douglas
County commissioner Doug Robertson has proposed selling off 1.2
million acres of federal forestland in Oregon for an estimated
$5 billion and setting aside 1.2 million acres for
wilderness.
But selling off public land would be a tough sell in Oregon. A
more likely solution calls for new public safety districts,
which would fund basic services into perpetuity. Josephine
County plans to put two such measures on the ballot this fall,
and Toler has already begun stumping for them.
“If we don’t have basic services who’s
going to come here?” he asks. “And who’s
going to
leave?”
BEN JACKLET
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