Linn County voters are being asked to renew a levy to support the county law enforcement budget.
Sheriff David Burright said the county has relied on a levy since 1982. One year levies were approved until 1984, when they were replaced by two year levies and in 1988 by three year levies to add funding stability.
Since 1997, some 76% of the levy has gone toward the county law enforcement, 14 percent to the juvenile department and 10 percent to the operation of the district attorney’s office.
The current law enforcement budget is about $17 million, Sheriff Burright said, with the levy accounting for about 40 percent of that.
“The current levy is fixed but the proposed levy will be rate-based,” Sheriff Burright said. “The proposal is for $2.04 per $1,000 of valuation. The current rate is $1.72-$1.78 based on assessed value.”
State mandates such as housing prisoners for up to one year instead of sending them to the state prison is costing the the county bout $750,000 per year more than it is being reimbursed, Sheriff Burright said. The department also lost about $200,000 due to the state tax compression adjustment.
Total employees number 206, Sheriff Burright said, which now includes the parole and probation department.
“The proposed levy does not add any new programs,” Sheriff Burright said. “It only takes care of budget shortfalls and existing programs.”
The proposed levy is for four years.
Reprinted from the levy website: http://www.vote4levy.homestead.com
History of the Linn County Law Enforcement levy:
Linn County’s fixed tax rate was originally established in 1915. Although it was gradually increased through the years as allowed by law, it has never been updated to reflect the current duties and functions of county government. When measures 47 and 50 were passed in 1996 and 1997, government’s ability to generate revenue was greatly restricted. A new “tax base” is no longer allowed and the only other options are special operating levies or special service districts.
The possibility of a service district has been explored, but it’s not an option at this time.
In March 1997, the County lost a levy renewal election when the final tally showed that at least 50% of the registered voters had not cast their ballot as required by Measure 47. (The levy was actually approved by the majority of the voters, but the election was invalid because of the 50% requirement). The County came back in the May election and eventually won, but not before we were forced to issue layoff notices. We found that if the Sheriff’s Office takes the full brunt of a levy loss, it means the total elimination of the Patrol and Detective divisions, and the jail must be shut down to only one small section. Even though we have contracts for additional law enforcement services to the cities, etc., there isn’t enough money left for us to keep up our matching funds. The effect is much like dominos-once you knock one down, they all go. The problem would probably be even worse now, because the state of Oregon has not maintained the full funding that was promised to pay for state prisoners in the jail and the Parole and Probation staff.
The proposed levy is up slightly from the current amount. This is due primarily to the state mandates that they are not paying for, and several significant maintenance issues at the jail.
It could be argued that if there is a problem with the renewed levy, it would be that it is only a status quo funding solution. It does not provide for new programs. (I.E. the ability to attack the growing number of property crimes) The County is sensitive, however, to the fact that the levy must be increased just to maintain services, and we don’t feel the taxpayers should be asked to shoulder additional burdens.