Josephine County lives with its decision to vote down law enforcement tax levy
GRANTS PASS -- The language gets rough pretty quick. Ask why voters here beat down a property tax levy that would have funded law enforcement, and Josephine County's grievances, disappointment and anger bubble up.
A man outside Ewing Irrigation, a landscaping supply store downtown, says county employees were overpaid and the politicians weren't doing their jobs. It's a very conservative county, he explains, and then he throws the blame.
"Most of the decisions in the county are made in Eugene and Portland," he spits out. "Taking the dams out, killing logging."
He walks off and won't give his name.
Up on F Street, the proprietor of Fox Firearms is more direct. "I've already told you to leave and you're still here," he says. "What don't you understand about that?"
The levy defeat and subsequent dismantling of the sheriff's office, district attorney's staff and juvenile justice program have put Josephine County in a harsh light. Longtime residents say it exposed an anti-government negativity in a place victimized by economic factors it can't control.
For decades, Josephine and other Oregon timber counties relied on millions in federal timber sales to pay for sheriff's deputies, jails, roads, prosecutors, health clinics and other services.
It seemed a fair deal. Federal land makes up 60 percent of the landbase in some counties, but isn't subject to property taxes. So the feds shared harvest revenue with the counties.
But the near shut-down of logging on federal forests cost the counties dearly. Congress in 2000 approved a payment program to replace the timber money, and extended it twice, but it ended this past year. A proposal to extend the payments once again is stalled in a deadlocked Congress, leaving 33 Oregon counties with combined revenue losses of $215 million annually.
Josephine, Curry, Coos, Klamath, Lane, Douglas and other counties are in dire shape, facing more than
30 percent cuts to operating budgets this year and more than 50 percent reductions in road funds.
But when asked to make up for the loss by increasing taxes, timber county residents rebel. A majority appears convinced government is wasteful and believe they've been cheated out of logging and mill jobs by environmentalists, politicians and faceless corporations.
Joco, as some in Josephine County call it, went down swinging.
An employee at the Grants Pass visitors' center holds up Wednesday's edition of the Grants Pass Daily Courier. "This is the impact right here," she says.
The front page headline says,
"Cash-strapped jail releases 39 inmates.
"People somehow believe there's hidden money somewhere and (the county is) using this as a scare tactic," Lomas says.
County residents see themselves as rugged individualists who can protect themselves, he says.
"Well, a lot of people are armed," Lomas says. "Just about everybody in the county is armed, including myself."
Roy Pondelick, owner of Blue Stone Bakery, says it was a matter of economics. The levy would have increased most tax bills by $300 to $500 a year, and many people can't spare it. "The tap has run dry," he says.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/reactionary_josephine_county_l.html
