Action ‘right now’ urged for funding
New taxes, fees among proposals
Commissioner Dwight Ellis receives a copy of the hefty report. (Photo by Illinois Valley News)
From our weekly issue dated April 30, 2008
Final recommendations have been presented to county commissioners after seven weeks of work by Josephine County’s Taskforce on Long-term Funding for Public Safety.
Grants Pass resident Terry Soeteber, who was chairman of the taskforce, delivered to each commissioner a hefty, bound report Wednesday, April 23 in Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
The taskforce attached copies of reports from a 2002 Criminal Justice taskforce, a hired consulting firm, and a blue ribbon committee dating to 1991, to illustrate that the concerns facing the county were not unanticipated.
Click here to learn more about how you can tell us what you think
“We wanted (the commissioners) and the public to know that this has been a long-term problem and there have been many efforts to seek solutions, but we haven’t enacted many of them,” stated Soeteber.
One point that all taskforce members agreed upon, Soebeter said, is that the burden of funding Josephine County should not rely on a single avenue.
“We didn’t think it would be appropriate,” he said. “Diversity was our bell-weather word.”
The taskforce agreed on a two-tiered taxing district plan to fund public safety, but it recommends that as revenues are derived from other sources, the property tax would be offset.
“The property tax would function as a safety net,” Soeteber explained.
Advertisement:
The compendium of recommendations would require voter action on new taxes, as well as recommending administrative actions which if taken, Soeterber said, could generate 37 percent of what the county needs to remain operational.
Recommendations include:
*Creation of a consumption tax of 2 percent on purchases up to $5,000 excluding food and medicine.
*Two-tiered tax districts for public safety funding.
*Collection of fees ($10,000 new dwelling asset buy-in, a $10 per vehicle county registration fee, a $1 per ton fee on aggregate, and a county bed tax).
The taskforce also recommended that the county hire a professional manager, and establish a five-member board of county commissioners drawing a nominal stipend. The board’s current administrative budget would pay for the county manager and staff, Soeteber said.
“The recommendation in front of you is pretty serious,” Soeteber stressed. “The action can’t take place two years from now. It has to take place right now. Right now.
“I ask you sincerely to consider our recommendations and to take action quickly and assertively,” he urged commissioners.
Taskforce member Roy Lindsey, who chaired the 2006 Citizen Financial Review of the sheriff’s office, indicated that citizens need to be educated about why creating revenue now is so critical.
“It’s a huge educational process, because people don’t know -- they don’t really comprehend -- that next year, the sheriff will be losing 23 people,” Lindsey emphasized.
“On July 1, 2009,” he said, “the sheriff’s office will have three people. That’s all that’s left. There is no money.
Recognizing the hard work of the taskforce, county board Chairman Dave Toler said that it was “a pretty unique phenomenon” that a governmental entity would lose two-thirds of its general fund.
“The dollars are just going away all of a sudden,” said Toler.
He underscored that part of the educational challenge ahead of the county is making sure the citizens understand that this is not a typical situation where that large a proportion of the budget is lost “overnight.”
“I wouldn’t characterize the money as ‘just going away.’ Or magically going poof -- disappeared,” countered Commissioner Jim Raffenburg. “It’s going away because of the political decisions of a portion of our community that has decided that our natural resources are no longer valuable to the people of this county or anywhere else.”
“If you look at it,” said Raffenburg, “quite literally, money grows on trees. When you cut the trees to make lumber, you make money.
“We have a political action agenda that has taken place in this country, afflicted this county … that has caused the money to ‘go away.’ Now everybody has to pay whether you agree with that political agenda or not.
“Toughen up, tighten your belt and pay higher taxes. The real issue here is the political agenda that has done this to us.
“I see this as a capitulation,” Raffenburg continued. “We will give up on the idea that timber should be cut ever again. Once you replace this money on a permanent basis for government you are essentially giving up, and saying to the folks who have done this to us that you give up.
“I’m not willing to stop fighting,” he concluded.
