Impending loss of federal O&C funding would affect county employment and services -- including law enforcement, libraries and road maintenance -- in areas statewide such as Josephine County.

To put into perspective what the loss would mean to average citizens in Josephine County, state Rep. Dennis Richardson (R-Central Point) provides the following. He obtained the data from a member of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners.

“The commissioner said Josephine County is preparing for the initial loss of the federal funds,” Richardson related. “In recent years it has created a contingency fund of about $5 million.

“If the O&C replacement funds end in June this year, cuts will begin -- and continue during the last half of the year.

“Assuming the federal payments will not be extended, Josephine County voters will determine whether or not the cuts in county services will be required. The commissioners have placed a levy on the May ballot that would quadruple the county’s portion of the real property tax from 58-cents per thousand to nearly $2.50 per thousand dollars of assessed value.

“If the May levy fails, a second levy will be attempted in September. If both levy attempts fail, by the end of 2007 the commissioner expects the following list of cuts” may be needed:

*Seventy-five county employees may need to be layed off. If September’s second attempt for a levy increase fails, an additional 25 employees are likely to be cut.

*Josephine County and city of Grants Pass share the county jail. Currently there are 150 beds for inmates at the county jail. After the cuts there likely will be only 10 to 20 beds available for Josephine County and Grants Pass inmates. (The fishing term “Catch and Release” will take on a completely new meaning.)

*The county sheriff’s budget is expected to fund only one patrol car for the entire county, and it will be on duty only 20 hours per day.

*The district attorney’s office currently has eight attorneys and nine support staff. It prosecutes offenders for Josephine County and Grants Pass city. After the cuts the county expects to budget only the D.A. and two assistant attorneys, plus two to three support staff members.

At such reduced staffing levels, prosecutions would then be limited to violent crimes. Drug offenders could neither be arrested due to the lack of jail beds, nor prosecuted due to the lack of D.A. capabilities. Such low staffing levels also would preclude prosecution of non-violent property crimes, like burglaries.

*Road maintenance and repair could lose $2 million and cut up to 17 public works department workers.

*Josephine County’s library system would be expected to close its doors, with only a single library opening a reading room for a few hours each week.

*All nonmandated public health services may be affected; they comprise a third of county public health services.

*The Juvenile Detention Center, which services the county and city, likely would be closed, with the resulting loss of at least 14 beds. Juvenile offenders could then only be cited and released.

Richardson added, “The loss of federal timber replacement revenue (commonly referred to as O&C funds), to 33 Oregon counties is imminent and catastrophic. It is not being melodramatic to say more than one Oregon county faces shutting off their lights, closing their doors, and ceasing to exist by year's end, unless O&C funding issues are resolved.

“Sixth-eight percent of Josephine County’s General Fund revenues depend on federal timber replacement money; for Douglas County 69 percent and for Curry County 63 percent of its General Fund revenues come from federal payments.

“The federal timber money replacement payments are scheduled to end by July 1, and the O & C counties are in jeopardy.”

According to the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC), the O&C counties will lose approximately $460 million needed to fund essential county services during the 2007-09 biennium.

“The root of the problem,” Richardson explained, “stems from the federal government’s control of 57 percent of Oregon land -- of which 2,651,771 acres are O&C lands. How the feds obtained such large tracts of Oregon’s land mass is not important.

“What is important is the recognition that rural Oregon’s prosperity has always depended on effective and productive management of our natural resources. Timber was to rural Oregon communities what corn is to Iowa.

“For more than a century O&C counties relied on timber-related jobs for their economy, supplemented for decades by federal timber payments. Now both are gone.

“It appears the federal government is not able to effectively, efficiently and economically manage Oregon's forests in a sustainable manner. If the federal government is incapable of managing Oregon’s forests and unable to generate a reasonable amount of O&C funding revenues, maybe it is time for the federal government to relinquish control over Oregon's forest lands,” said Richardson.